After threats by the North Korean affiliated organisation the Guardians of Peace and the cancelling of the New York première, followed by the decisions of major cinema chains in the US not to screen the movie, it was looking unlikely that The Interview would ever be released. The international situation has been discussed by people as varied as President Obama, who criticised the decision by Sony Pictures to cancel the release of the film (In typical fashion, Fox News incorrectly reported that Obama had banned the movie in the US), to Dr Evil, who made a welcome return on SNL. Finally, on midnight of Christmas Eve, the movie was finally released online in the United States, and it was rolled out to cinemas later that day.
Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Dan Sterling, The Interview follows Dave Skylark (James Franco), host of the talk show Skylark Tonight, and Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen), the producer of the show. The talk show is vapid and focuses on celebrity gossip, much like if the gossip column of the Daily Mail took the form of a show. The movie begins with Dave interviewing Eminem, who is defending his controversial new lyrics about hating old people. It’s all strong satire and really funny, because this is what Rogen and Franco do best – This Is The End was just an entire movie of celebrities portraying themselves and lampooning American pop culture (but mostly themselves). Despite the popularity of the show, Aaron has high ambitions to do “real journalism” and make the show more serious, which can’t be achieved by reporting that Matthew McConaughey has just had sex with a goat or featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt stroking a group of cats (I must protest that an hour of watching him stroke cats is an excellent idea for a programme).
It is here that we find out that Kim Jong-un is a big fan of American TV, specifically the Big Bang Theory and Skylark Tonight. Well, there’s no accounting for taste. However this fortunate piece of news about Kim’s poor viewing habits leads Aaron to an idea – perhaps they can make the programme more reputable by conducing a serious interview with the elusive supreme leader of North Korea. Dave is interested: maybe Ron Howard will make a movie about them in the future, a reference to Frost/Nixon, an excellent film on the landmark interviews of 1977. The initial premise of The Interview can certainly be compared to Frost/Nixon: lightweight talk show host plans to conduct a serious political interview with an elusive leader (or ex-leader). However, this is not a Ron Howard movie. After some obligatory slow-mo frat party dancing to celebrate, a scene which is in every single Rogen and Franco film, they are contacted by the CIA. Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) asks them to use this interview opportunity to “take out” Kim Jong-un. Cue extended scene of Aaron and Dave misunderstanding “take out”. Oh, to a party? Nearly every joke in this movie, no matter how funny, overstays its welcome. This is one of them.
Aaron and Dave fly to North Korea to meet Kim Jong-un (Randall Park). Dave and Kim get on famously, bonding over their love of margaritas and Katy Perry. Randall Park is great and a highlight of the movie. Whereas the rest of the film was filled with the usual hit-and-miss innuendos, dick jokes, and bad accents common to Rogen/Franco films (after their collaborations on Pineapple Express, This Is The End and the homoerotic Bound 2 parody I feel compelled to refer to them as a single entity), the depiction of the pop-loving crazy Kim Jong-un is actually pretty funny.
It’s a shame that there has been so much media attention on what is essentially a mediocre comedy. It never reaches the comedic heights of the Rogen and Goldberg scripted Superbad. There are some great characters, such as Sook (Diana Bang), a North Korean head of propaganda, and Kim Jong-un himself, but unfortunately the main characters, especially Franco’s smug Dave Skylark, are generally unlikable. There is also reliance on repeating the same juvenile jokes throughout the film, most of which fall flat. Let’s not pretend that this film was making a political statement. It’s not. It chose Kim Jong-un to lampoon, but none of the parody or comedy is political in nature. There is a very naive assessment of the political situation, just used as a foundation for Rogen/Franco to lay all their Lord of the Rings references and penis jokes on. Perhaps the best aspect of the film was the fascinating and embarrassing emails leaked from studio executives at Sony Pictures, as a result of cyberhacking in response to the film. However, putting all the degradation of international relations and the emails about Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio aside, and reviewing it as just an ordinary film, it is simply a mediocre comedy. It is what I’ve come to expect from Rogen and Franco in recent years, which is a shame, since they’ve done some great things in the past. I expected casual misogyny, extensive innuendos, jokes that go on for too long, bad accents and celebrity cameos. Sadly, I got exactly what I expected.
