Really Surprised!

Absolutely Brilliant!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

'The Interview' - film commentaryJust why a reputable company like SONY chose to produce this film is beyond me. Nor can I see why Canadian film development authorities had any part in its production for it is one of the most vulgar films in recent memory. If anything, "The Interview" speaks more about the moral depravity of its producers and the decadent society that would defend such a piece of propagandist vulgarity than it does about its subject, Kim Jong Un, ruler of North Korea. You have to ask yourself what the intent of the producers was. Was it to show the world the moral vacuity that exists in Hollywood? Was it to hasten the ethical decline of a society that is already perceived world-wide as having no moral authority left? If so, it succeeds. Not only is the film filled with references to homosexuality, bestiality, sexual exploitation, it shows just how far American English has deteriorated, especially among the media who ought to be upholding standards in communication, not degrading them. The film is filled with language for which we used to get our mouths washed out. But then this is contemporary America, and you hear vulgarity in TV programs like "Breaking Bad" - degenerate language, illustrative of degenerated minds, symptomatic of a society gone rotten. And members of this society feel themselves superior to those of North Korea? I realize what defenders of this film are likely to argue. They will say they are working within a tradition of satire, the kind practiced by Francois Rabelais; they will claim that the grotesque, the crude, and the bawdy are all part of the fun, part of a clever artistic tradition. Perhaps. But the world at large doesn't understand this. Instead, it will see this film, and other products of American culture, as an expression of the American soul, or what's left of it. And the resulting impression isn't very uplifting or respectable. Defenders of the movie will say Charlie Chaplin did something like it in the satirical film, "The Great Dictator." But I don't buy it. To me "The Interview" is deliberately vulgar and shocking to generate controversy and cash flow. It's all about making money. It's not art. The film's defenders will say they are upholding freedom of speech. What speech? If this is how America has to do to defend its values, there cannot be much left worth defending. For a long time now, American popular entertainment has not been reflective of its cultural best. On the contrary. Hollywood had led the moral decline of a nation that was once emulated. Today the global image of America (spread by Hollywood) is one of unprecedented violence, vulgarity, anti-intelligence, and bad taste, an impression of a mindless, shameless society undergoing economic and moral decline. Perhaps "The Interview" will be remembered for contributing to such impressions. I had expected better of SONY, but perhaps the company has succumbed to the diseased atmosphere of Hollywood.

Stuck with it to see how it would turn out, for no other reason. Ultimately it doesn't make sense.

Bad jokes and the plot looked liked it was thought of by a bunch of drunk writers at a bar

'The Interview' was never destined to be a mainstream success. This happens to some films because they're released before their time, have the wrong star, or try and be too clever for their own good. However, in the minority of these cases, the reason the film doesn't succeed is because of pressure from an entire country that doesn't like the way it's being portrayed on screen. At the time of release, the company that made 'The Interview' was under cyber hacking attack by North Korea, forcing them to seriously rethink whether or not to release this film in the cinema. In fact... will I get in trouble from people on the other side of the world just for writing that I enjoyed it?!It's about a mainstream TV chat-show host (James Franco) who finds out that his US low-brow entertainment show is - believe it or not - actually quite liked by the leader of communist state North Korea. He's then offered the once-in-a-lifetime chance to fly to North Korea and do what no journalist has done before, interview its 'glorious' leader, Kim Jong-un. This, he readily accepts because he thinks that once he's interviewed President Kim it will cement his name in journalistic history. However, when the CIA hear of this, they decide that it would be far more beneficial for the rest of the world if James Franco (and his producer, played by Seth Rogen) simply assassinate the 'madman' instead.Now, if you're not too familiar with the Franco/Rogen combo then you might not know that they've starred in numerous films together and are generally pretty good buds in real life. Therefore, once again, they allow their natural chemistry to carry out the dialogue of this movie. However, said 'dialogue' is pretty 'adult' in nature, so expect much of their interactions to be s3x-based or peppered with drug references. The two of them may be good (if you're generally into their particular brand of humour), but I thought that it was Randall Park who stole every scene he was in. For he had the unenviable task of portraying the Leader himself and, in my opinion, did a great job (I'm not saying that Kim Jong-un would act like this in real life, but, for the purposes of a comedy film, I think it's fair to say that this was a good way of showing the man who - currently - could be the biggest threat to the West on the planet).As I said, the humour is adult and quite 'bawdy' at times, but if you can forgive that (and are generally a fan of the two leads and their recent collaborations) then you should enjoy this. They even put in a couple of quite fun action set-pieces in the final act and, although the CGI is a little ropey here and there, I think for a comedy that isn't really an 'action blockbuster' you can forgive this. I definitely think that 'The Interview' could well be the funniest film that uses North Korea as the bad-guys (oh, apart from 'Team America' - in which case 'The Interview' is the funniest 'live action' film about North Korea - and it has a cute puppy. What more could you want?).