The Interview (2014)

This is what we almost got nuked for?

Dave Skylark (James Franco) is the idiotic, but very energetic host of the incredibly popular talk-show Skylark Tonight. On it, Skylark gets famous people to reveal troubling secrets about themselves that they may have never been able to get out before. However, Skylark wouldn’t be where he is today if it weren’t for his talented producer/best buddy in the whole wide world, Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen). But eventually, Rapoport gets tired of doing the same old stupid, meandering things with the talk show and instead, wants to be taken more seriously. That’s why when he finds out that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) is a huge fan of the show, both he and Skylark decide that it’s time to set an interview up and watch as the media surrounds them with love, respect, and adoration. Once the interview is set up, though, the CIA decides to get involved and set up a plan where both Skylark and Rapoport will assassinate Un, as a way to ensure that North Korea won’t attack the U.S. with their nukes. It’s a plan that may work, but with two bone-heads like Rapoport and Skylark at the helm, it probably won’t.

If every CIA agent looked like Lizzy Caplan, I’d be looking for applications automatically.

So yeah, there’s been a lot of talk about this movie in the past few weeks. Clearly I don’t need to dive into it too much, seeing as how the rest of the world has been keeping their own tabs on what’s been shaking and baking with the Interview, it’s release-date, and how. But, what I find the most interesting aspect of this whole debate as to whether or not Sony should have cancelled the movie in the first place, is that the movie’s quality itself is hardly ever brought up. Surely a movie that’s threatening to have the U.S. under terrorist attacks, be something of a modern-masterpiece, right?

Well, not really. But then again, it didn’t need to be, either.

All in all, what the Interview actually is, is another Seth Rogen movie; one where dudes act sort of/kind of/maybe gay with one another, marijuana is smoked, and there’s plenty of dick jokes to go around for every man, woman, and child. It’s a formula that most of us can identify as coming a mile away now, and it’s one that I don’t necessarily have a problem with. So much so as that it’s constantly funny and always able to keep me entertained. Once it stops being that, then it’s time for the formula to change altogether, or maybe spice things up a bit.

And from the forefront, this movie seemed to be exactly that. Not only is the premise an ambitious one for such a fellow like Seth Rogen (as well as his co-director Evan Goldberg) to tackle, but one that could even have something smart or thought-provoking about the current state of U.S. affairs, North Korea, Nuclear war, and even the idea of what modern-day journalism actually is. While most of these ideas are brought up, they aren’t fully touched on and only feel like a slight taste of what could have been, had Rogen and Goldberg been more concerned with actually making a point with their comedy, rather than just telling a bunch of sex and butt jokes.

However, when those sex and butt jokes are funny, sometimes, it doesn’t always matter. Sure, it’s definitely lovely to have a comedy that’s not only funny, but smart, interesting, and even important to see and listen to, but that is not the Interview. It’s just another one of Seth Rogen’s many raunch-fests where he makes dirty jokes – some land, some don’t. But all in all, they’re funny and you have to give credit to somebody who seems so ordinary as Rogen to actually go out of his way and create something like this.

Even despite all of the hullabaloo surrounding it.

That’s why, to be honest, it doesn’t matter if the Interview is a great movie to begin with. It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less. Generally speaking, there is a part of me that wished Rogen and Goldberg went a bit deeper into what it was that they were trying to say, on any of the broad topics presented. For instance, the movie brings up the fact that Un is starving his people, while also bringing up points about U.S.’s hypocritical ways when it comes to nuclear weapons and when they seem pertinent to use, and when not to. It’s an interesting idea that the movie shows itself of having, but it doesn’t go anywhere further with it. In Rogen and Goldberg’s minds, it seems like simply bringing it up is enough; doing any more leg-work wouldn’t seem ideal. Though they have many ways to go before they’re the premier comedy writers and directors of our time, I’m still interested in seeing what they’ve got on their plates next.

I just hope that they add a bit more substance to their flicks and develop it further than just surface-material. That’s all.

#NotaBoss

And speaking of Rogen, here as Aaron Rapoport, he’s very much in his comfort-zone. He’s nerdy, goofy, and the voice of reason at times, and it’s all so very charming. Once again, it’s the kind of formula that I could never see myself getting bored with, no matter how many times he decides to use it. Same goes for James Franco who, here as Dave Skylark, seems like all he did between scenes was snort a lot of coke. While it can sometimes make it seem like his character isn’t anything more than a caricature, it’s still pleasing to see Franco not only try in a movie, but still get me laughing.

But the one who really walks away with this movie and I sure hope to god doesn’t get type-casted for ever and ever because of this genius casting-choice is Randall Park as the notoriously infamous North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. Most of the reasons as to why North Korea were pissed off at this movie make sense, but other times, it doesn’t. Because not only does the movie portray Un in a sometimes charming-light, but even in a sympathetic one, too. Not fully, but when the movie does focus on Un, it’s mostly to show us that he’s a lonely guy, who not only wants to please his daddy, but even be looked at in a different way from the rest of the world.

Of course this facade eventually runs its course and we see a darker, more-known side to who Un may be, but Park is the one who keeps him away from being a snarky caricature of someone we think we know right from the first moment we meet him. But Park, as well as the rest of the movie, shows us that there may be more to Un than we initially expect there to be. He’s not a great guy and sure as hell is not a saint, but he’s still a person and a sometimes fun one at that. However though, the movie steers clear of making him out to be a totally sympathetic character, because, as we all know full well, he’s not. But as is the case with most bad human beings, we hope that there’s something more. Even if it isn’t there.

Sort of like the Interview.

Consensus: Controversy aside, the Interview is still a funny, sometimes smart comedy, although it does occasionally flirt with being about bigger, bright ideas, and then not going anywhere with them.

7 / 10 = Rental!!

The future faces of America, everybody.

Photo’s Credit to: IMDB, AceShowbiz