The Interview (2014)

The Interview (2014)

Directed by: Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen

Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Randall Park

Plot: Dave Skylark is the host of the extremely popular talk show, Skylark Tonight, which has him interview various celebrities about their dirty secrets.  After celebrating their 1000th episode, Aaron Rapoport (the show's producer and Dave's best friend) feels unfulfilled with his job, and wants to focus on serious news stories.  Luckily, it turns out that the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, is a big fan of the show, so they decide to ask for a televised interview with the dictator.  He agrees, but only if it's done in North Korea.  Soon afterwards, the CIA tasks Dave and Aaron with assassinating the "supreme leader", and they reluctantly agree.  Can they fulfill their mission while also making television history at the same time? 

Good: The most important element that a buddy-comedy must have is good chemistry between its leads.  Thankfully, both James Franco and Seth Rogen are a great comedy duo.  Their friendship is very believable, with their personalities complementing each other very well.  Franco is very funny as the slightly idiotic yet well meaning Dave Skylark.  His antics, while ridiculous, are still pretty entertaining to watch,  This includes when he keeps comparing himself to Lord of the Rings characters when discussing his friendships.  However, the majority of his jokes work best when he's interacting with Rogen as Aaron Rapopor, who makes a great straight man.  While his character isn't that far off from his previous roles, he plays it well enough that it doesn't matter.  His reactions to the insanity around him are hilarious to watch.  Another good performance comes from Lizzy Caplan as Agent Lacy.  Like Rogen, she also makes a great straight man to Franco's antics, and adds funny commentary to many of the situations.  Diana Bang is great as well, playing Kim Jong-un's propagandist, Sook Yung Park, who pulls off her devotion to the dictator very well.  The best performance, however, comes from Randall Park as Kim Jong-un.  He manages to do the near impossible, and make a real-life dictator sympathetic, which was very surprising.  He still does things that are questionable at best, but he's not portrayed as a monster, rather a human being, trying desperately to live up to the legacy of his father and grandfather.  Many of the jokes are well written, focusing more on the interactions between the characters rather than gross-out humor.  Some of the funnier moments come from the satirical way North Koreans look at their leader and Americans.  The Production values are also great, with North Korea looking very convincing, recreating many of Pyongyang's landmarks.  The action set pieces are exciting and brutal, while also managing to be hilarious with the sheer ludicrousness those scenes goes to. 

Bad: Due to the satirical nature of the film, many people might see the portrayal of North Koreans offensive, since they're shown as completely devoted to the dictator.  It would've been interesting to see the some scenes of the leads interacting with the citizens and therefore flesh them out a bit more.  There's also a scene during the first act that feels important to the plot, but then turns out to be ultimately pointless.  I won't give away what it is, but my main issue with it is that it feels like padding for the sake of padding.  Also, some of the special effects aren't that great, especially during the final action scenes.  A lot of the blood looks fake, and the bullets and missiles are obviously CGI.  Finally, while most of the jokes are well written, there are a few that don't quite hit their marks, focusing on crude humor, which can turn off many viewers.  Since humor is one of the most subjective forms of art, this is a small issue, and might not be important to some people.

Trivia:

• Like in the movie, the real Kim Jong-un speaks conversationally in English, having been schooled in Switzerland as a teen.
• The final battle scene was shot in only one day.
• The film was partially inspired by Dennis Rodman's friendship with Kim Jong-un.
• In late 2014, Sony was hacked by a hactivist group who were protesting the film's release.  They posted confidential emails from executives and actors about a variety of topics, including possible movies in production and how much actors were being paid.  They threatened to attack any theater that showed the film, leaving Sony to postpone its release.  However, after massive public support and media coverage, the film was released online and eventually in select theaters.

Final Verdict: Despite the controversy surrounding it, The Interview is nothing more than a pretty funny buddy-comedy.  While the subject matter of attempting to kill a still living world leader may be a taboo subject to some, it's done in a fantastical and satirical way, so the audience doesn't take it too seriously.  On the whole, it's probably not worth all the attention it ended up getting.  I would recommend it of your fan of Seth Rogen and James Franco comedies.  If not, you probably won't get a whole lot out of it.

Next week, I'll take a look at one of the most respected movies of all time, The Godfather.

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