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The Interview is a film that needs no introduction, really, because it’s led the news headlines on many occasions recently, but just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock throughout December, it centres around entertainment hack Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen), who are in charge of the No.1 gossip show, Skylark Tonight, being invited to interview North Korean despot and owner of a shit haircut, Kim Jong-un (Randall Park). However, the government actually want them to kill him while they’re in town.
There’s a rather lame opening with a schoolgirl singing about death to America, in front of a large crowd all waiting for a rocket to take off behind her, as part of a nuclear weapon test to make sure it could go the distance to wipe America off the map. However, then it leads into a spoof interview with Eminem where he’s castigated for apparently wanting to kill an elderly woman in her 80s, yet in real life he was also rabbiting on about trying to have his wicked way with pop star Iggy Azalea and not wanting her to “blow that rape whistle“, so truth is stranger than fiction, yet there’s another twist in the interview I’ll leave you to discover which leads to a humourous outcome.
While I think the perfect length for most films is 105 minutes, I believe a comedy film’s length should be around 90 minutes, so I don’t know why some directors and producers (Seth Rogen co-working in both roles in this case) think a comedy should run to nearly two hours, like this one, or even beyond that like the appalling A Million Ways To Die In The West. However, there’s a lot of rude and gross-out comedy in The Interview which Seth Rogen and James Franco can manage, whereas Seth McFarlane just doesn’t cut the mustard when he’s taking the lead.
The Interview has made more of an impact off-screen than it has on-screen, generally down to the fact that it’s never been ON-screen before now due to the apparent kicking off from Kim Jong-un.
Since the film depicts two American men going to bump him off, Sony have asserted that North Korea hacked into their emails and also leaked the film online, although it’s clear that it was never leaked online because it could never be found… or so a man told me down the pub.
Along the way, a number of high-profile cinema chains refused to show it in the US because of threats of violence, from the hacker morons, if they did, leading to Sony pulling the film.
Even Barack Obama waded into the debate saying that Sony should release it. You’d think that the leader of the free world – and the man who gave a lot of hope with his administration, only to show he’s as crap as the rest of the Presidents by saying he’d shut Guantanamo Bay within a year, and then completely failed to do so – would have better things to do, but then, he’ll soon be out on his ear so he doesn’t give a toss.
History may be kind and overlook his faults, and simply state the fact that he’s America’s second black President, since we all know that the first was David Palmer in 24.
In the end, Sony gave the go ahead for its release on the intended date (Christmas Day in the US), but by then only around 300 independent cinemas were showing it, and Sony also released it online – a version that, while in 1080p HD, is only in Dolby ProLogic rather than the usual Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1.
Click on the poster for the full-size image, and go to page 2 for more thoughts on the film.
There had been such bad word of mouth for The Interview, in terms of whether it was actually any good, which led me to start watching it expecting one of the worst movie experiences of the year. However, even early moments like Rogen laughing at the word “dong” in Dandong had me giggling. This occured as he heads over to the location for an initial meeting with Kim Jong-un’s representative, Sook-yin Park (Diana Bang), the trip leading to a few interesting shots of China that make you feel like you’d like to go, even though it’s unlikely they actually filmed there. Oh, and Diana Bang’s character’s name clearly contained another double entendre, but The Interview, thankfully, didn’t end up like the intentionally OTT Wayne’s World scene where they’re reading from a Chinese menu, asking “I’ll have the Cream of Sum Yung Gai”.
In discussing interviewing Kim Jong-Un, and likening him to Hitler and Bin Laden, Franco says how the first rule of journalism is giving the public what they want, and Rogen correcting him with, “No, that’s for circuses and demolition derbies”. Franco also adds, “This is the biggest interview since ‘Frosty Nixon'” and “In ten years, Ron Howard will be making a movie out of this!”
Adding in the statement how “The Supreme Leader doesn’t need to pee or poo”, and yes it’s all a bit on the daft side, but it did work for me. However, there are scenes where Franco gets all buddy-buddy with Kim Jong-un, which come off as a little too ridiculous and take away from the comedy, and there are also other times when it starts to drag a little as it goes into “show off” mode with unnecessary slomo pieces, but it picks itself back up from these before too long. And, yes, I’m referred to the leads as the surnames of the actors, but unless you’re watching them in a drama, you’re unlikely to be referring to them in any other way.
With additional cameos from Rob Lowe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Interview is not a film I’d want to watch a second time any time soon, but it’s better than I expected.
If you want to see The Interview in a UK cinema, it was originally due for release on January 30th 2015, but following all the hoo-hah, it’s not yet got a date and may just end up coming out on Blu-ray, DVD and online instead.
The Interview – Official Trailer
Cert: 
Running time: 112 minutes
Year: 2014
Released: TBA
Format: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
Rating: 7/10
Directors: Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen
Producers: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen and James Weaver
Screenplay: Dan Sterling (based on a story by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Dan Sterling)
Music: Henry Jackman
Cast :
Dave Skylark: James Franco
Aaron Rapaport: Seth Rogen
Agent Lacey: Lizzy Caplan
Kim Jong-un: Randall Park
Sook-yin Park: Diana Bang
Malcolm: Timothy Simons
Agent Botwin: Reese Alexander
Officer Koh: James Yi
Officer Yu: Paul Bae
Cole: Geoff Gustafson
Jackie: Dominique Lalonde
Janet: Anesha Bailey
Jake: Anders Holm
General Jong: Charles Rahi Chun
Himself: Eminem (uncredited)
Himself: Rob Lowe (uncredited)
Himself: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
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