The Interview (2014)

December 24, 2014 8:45 PM

Dave Skylark and producer Aaron Rapoport run the celebrity tabloid show "Skylark Tonight." When they land an interview with a surprise fan, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, they are recruited by the CIA to turn their trip to Pyongyang into an assassination mission.
posted by Jacqueline (16 comments total)

They released it online for $5.99 at https://www.seetheinterview.com/
posted by Jacqueline at 8:45 PM on December 24, 2014

To my great surprise, I actually really enjoyed it (except for the finger-biting part). It was really tightly put together with great callbacks (like the Katy Perry song) and I laughed quite a bit.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:35 PM on December 24, 2014

I also really hope that this $6 to legally watch a movie on opening day from home thing catches on. While I love going to the theater (and wished I could have watched this one in the theater because of the special effects), sometimes we just want to watch a new movie but not actually deal with going into the city.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:45 PM on December 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

I also really hope that this $6 to legally watch a movie on opening day from home thing catches on.

This precedent might turn out to be the one good thing to come out of this whole mess.
posted by homunculus at 10:05 PM on December 24, 2014 [3 favorites]

I really wish that this would become standard for limited release movies, at least. I want to watch Selma today but nowhere near me is playing it. :(
posted by Jacqueline at 10:10 PM on December 24, 2014

Yeah, that was not that bad. It was stupid and funny and a lot like the Pineapple Express-style action comedies they've done, but I kind of liked it overall. I cracked up at the string of goofy Tolkien references.

The way the Google Play window would tell you who was on screen and what songs were being played any time you hit pause was super impressive.

And I know I'm not going to be able to stop saying "They hate us 'cause they ain't us." in conversations for the next several weeks.
posted by mathowie at 10:47 PM on December 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

The jokes were mostly a miss, or just gone on a little too long.

And, I wasn't sure what was comical about the scene when everyone was loudly wailing in Korean. Was it funny, because it was in Korean?

Also, not sure how I feel about Asian accented English. Either uttered by Asian-American actors portraying North Koreans or (and particularly) when Seth Rogen's character accidentally apologized for using a mock Asian accent by actually saying "Me so sorry." I'm still turning my brain if it's ironically racist or trying to find humor with ironic racism?
posted by FJT at 12:47 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I still consider Superbad to be the zenith of the Apatow/Rogen comedies (as well as one of the best teen comedies ever, and, if you start to analyze it, a really tight script with a lot of believable, emotional drama), and I'm not quite as enamored with more recent stuff like Pineapple Express (though This Is The End was amusing for its sheer balls-out taking the premise to its logical extreme), but I'll be checking this out. The trailer looked funny, and hey, if it pisses of North Korea, I'll take it.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:36 AM on December 25, 2014

I think Rogen has comedic timing, but Franco doesn't, but perhaps thinks he does? When I think about what jokes work and which fall flat in this movie, that's what keeps coming up. Yeah, I laughed at a few times, but over all it was just as all the reviewers said before the controversy, mediocre.
posted by Catblack at 3:04 AM on December 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

I think Rogen has comedic timing, but Franco doesn't,

You need to hear Franco say "he has got to go" in This Is The End to know how wrong you are.
posted by maxsparber at 1:20 PM on December 25, 2014

I really like it, more than I thought I would. Honestly hadn't planned on seeing it in the theater but was able to find one near me so caught it this afternoon. Almost completely full house, the crowd was really into it. Kinda glad the whole mess went down because I probably would have passed on this (I was not a fan of the last outing This Is the End).

I loved the fingerbiting.
posted by dogwalker at 8:31 PM on December 25, 2014

This was much much better than I expected it to be. And I'm a goofy comedy fan. I think they did a solid B on this one.
posted by bq at 11:01 PM on December 25, 2014

I thought it was pretty stupid, though it had a few genuinely hilarious moments. I'm admittedly not a huge fan of the whole Rogen-Franco bro comedy thing, and think this movie would have been pretty unremarkable if not for the remarkable circumstances surrounding it. But I didn't regret the time I spent watching it I guess? Also, that puppy at the end was super cute.

The finger biting thing was ridiculous, and I swear there was a continuity error later on when Rogen's character got back to the US and you could see both his hands with all their fingers.
posted by yasaman at 6:12 PM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

I loved that the finger biting was a callback to all the Lord of the Rings references.

I am also fascinated by Rogen and Franco playing (essentially) successively weirder versions of themselves.
posted by bq at 8:37 AM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Anyone else think that Franco's character is basically Sterling Archer?
posted by radioamy at 9:56 PM on December 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

I liked it better than I thought I would. But that's probably just because of the Katy Perry.
posted by kat518 at 10:41 AM on January 3, 2015