Title: The Interview
Directors: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Cast: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Randall Park, Lizzy Caplan, Diana Bang
Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s ‘The Interview’ has been gaining continual popularity ever since the project began due to the obvious controversy, but Sony never dissuaded the filmmakers from creating their satire comedy. There’s been a number of movies in the same vein that have been in theaters before, but nobody ever imagined the impending release of ‘The Interview’ would turn into a potentially dangerous situation. After some of the craziness subsided, Sony found an alternate route in order to show the movie off to the public. Lots of movie-goers are happy to see that ‘The Interview’ finally made it’s way out to limited theaters and VOD, but let me run why this movie is worth your time.
‘The Interview’ focuses on the dense talk show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer friend Aaron (Seth Rogen). After an encounter with an old colleague (Anders Holm), Aaron begins rethinking his career decisions and begins a desperate search to revitalize what he can do to better it. Skylark comes with a out-of-left-field solution; bag an interview with the most secluded dictator in history, Kim Jong-un (Randall Park). Once the CIA finds out that Skylark bagged the biggest interview of the century, they recruit the two to assassinate the dictator. When they land in North Korea, their plans quickly begin to flip around, causing all sorts of chaos for these two oddballs.
There’s some who consider the kind of humor in the Seth Rogen/James Franco films to lean a bit on the immature side, but at least in ‘The Interview’ it never hits the point where it’s unbearably uncomfortable to sit through. The honeypot situation and a couple other gags sprinkled throughout the film work great, including a butt joke that’s difficult to get out of your mind. But a lot of the humor that one would hope would be in James Franco’s performance falls a bit flat. Franco comes off as borderline obnoxious, and after a certain point you just feel bad for anybody associated with this character.
Randall Park struts his stuff as this strange but hilarious interpretation of the powerful dictator. Diana Bang is hilarious as the stern Sook whose ulterior motives aren’t apparent to to our two odd heroes. It’s sucks that Lizzy Caplan didn’t have that much screen time, considering the fact that they keep using her in the promo images. She is the CIA agent who recruits the two to take part in this dangerous mission, but she’s only in the movie for around 10 minutes.. Then again, a large part of the movie takes place in North Korea – more like Hollywood’s interpretation of North Korea – and she’s definitely not a main character.
Some of the jokes, and the story, break down after some time of wear and tear. The duration of time ultimately leaves a couple jokes dead, but that doesn’t happen throughout the entire film. The biggest problem is James Franco and his portrayal as the talk show host, but some of that has to do with the script and the other half pertaining to his delivery. But when the third act comes rolling in, the movie hits it’s high point both action and humor-wise. Hopefully you’re not one of those who was keeping their eyes glued onto everything pertaining to the Sony hacks, because if that’s the case then you know what happens towards the end. Regardless, seeing how that conclusion comes to light is funny to see unfold.
Randall Park is hands down the funniest part of ‘The Interview,’ and that’s because he brings such a hilarious take on the ruler. It’s difficult not to think of his Randall’s performance when looking at the real Kim Jong-un after watching this film. Park did such a good job creating his own unique, funny persona and reflecting it off of this supposedly terrifying dictator. And in some ways, it is understandable as to why North Korea would be threatened by this movie’s mere existence. The script and Park’s performance not only dehumanizes Kim Jong-Un, but it gives people more of a reason to laugh at him.
The production design is decent, and the sets feel blocky, like they’ve obviously been shot on a sound stage. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it gives them an excuse to blow things up even more when the movie creeps into the third act.
There’s a couple aspects of ‘The Interview’ that don’t entirely work, but compared to their previous films, this is the best of the Seth Rogen/James Franco movies so far. It is extremely unfortunate that this movie has been riddled with so much controversy – which honestly isn’t that too surprising to hear – but it’s still a blast to watch, whether that be in the comfort of your own home or at a movie theater.
Technical: B
Acting: B-
Story: B
Overall: B
