Mark Kermode reviews The Interview

Mark Kermode reviews The Interview. Dave Skylark and his producer Aaron Rapoport run the popular celebrity tabloid TV show "Skylark Tonight." When they discover that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is a fan of the show, they land an interview with him in an attempt to legitimise themselves as journalists. As Dave and Aaron prepare to travel to Pyongyang, their plans change when the CIA recruits them, perhaps the two least-qualified men imaginable, to assassinate Kim Jong-un.

[@ROFLCOPTER195]

To be honest nothing will beat Team America for satire, Trey & Matt (South Park writers) are so clever, they fully understand the material and warp it into such hilarious and original content constantly without being stupid but highly intelligent. I wish they would make some new film since its been so long.

[@bennoclassico]

This film was just as crude as Team America but no way as witty when it got to those places. I agree that Parker & Stone know how to do satire, and that's because it's their day job...they did have to do other stuff before South Park and Team America that wasn't hugely satirical. So in all, The Interview was made too soon...or at least made too soon by the guys that made it.

[@mathieuleader8601]

velocirapta remember cannibal

[@eustacequinlank7418]

"To be honest nothing will beat Team America for satire" Nothing? You mean against the Monty Python films or Peter Cook's sketches. Cook's routines were borderline illegal for their content when they were made for how they defamed and mocked politicians at the time, he essentially formed the modern form of the genre. "Trey & Matt", while great, are still pretenders to the throne. They even accept themselves that Python is where they derived their inspiration from.

[@ti-fiter]

Trey and Matt are so unfunny and annoying

[@gun1987gunn]

Didn't know Kermode rated Team America so highly. He certainly knows what good comedy writing is then. I don't even like comedy movies but Team America is hilarious.

[@karlscott1850]

james franco is class and makes this film hillarious.

[@Peroy1]

This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

[@Rob_-dv6ei]

I'm a real film buff and this movie is my guilty pleasure. I know it's forgettable, borderline dated Hollywood spew but my inner 12 year old finds something great in the very crass humour.

[@johnPaul-qn3dg]

Stupid stoner film which would have died a death if "yer man" hadn't given it such publicity. Team America it is not which I too believe is a classic.

[@bennoclassico]

I don't really think it's a 'stoner film' really, seems to be aiming towards more of an MTV/reality TV-obsessed market. I didn't even get half of the references.

[@chanceie12]

Yer man? Hint of racism in your post

[@johnPaul-qn3dg]

How??? I take it you do know who I am referring too.

[@Dave062YT]

Was much better than I thought it would be .7/10

[@RoScFan]

It's "that" film, but it does "that" well. It's one of the good "that"s.

[@Beanoz4]

Besides from the first 20 minutes and a few terrible scenes scattered throughout, it was a pretty decent movie.

[@tianapitesr8553]

Had me laughing☺

[@EdPlays1997]

To me, I find the supposed hacking quite suspect. I don't think North Korea are behind it as they never have done this in the past to studios who have released films which are equally as critical of North Korea (I.e. Team America or the Red Dawn remake) and I don't think they'd be that stupid to potentially start a war against America over a film. Also the film is distributed by Sony, a company infamous for publicity stunts to sell products, like making up critics to give their films positive reviews or putting their products in their films to get them more recognition.

[@Rhubba]

Oooh, too much mugging the scene, Franco! Dial it down!

[@notmyname9261]

Honestly I thought the film was better once Un turned up. I also enjoyed the Eminem skit at the start.

[@its_only_martin6888]

I think I'm the only person that actually laughed a bit through this film. Not as good as some other Rogen/Franco films, but it was kind of funny. I don't see the fuss where everybody says it is completely un-funny (if that's a word). There is some immature part of me that finds Kim Jong Un being portrayed as a cool guy when he was trying to 'honeydick' Franco that found it hilarious, for some reason. It wasn't as good as team america though, but still funny.

[@its_only_martin6888]

Forgot to add that I think it got way overhyped because of the controversy, if there wasn't any controversy to get people anticipated to actually watch it, it wouldn't have been so much of a dis-appointment to people

[@Hoopla10]

I don't think you can really compare this to Team America. I understand why it'd be done, but really the only similarity is North Korea. My stomach sank at the first scene of a young North Korean girl singing and I thought they'd tried to go the satire route and tried to emulate Trey and Parker. And I knew Seth Rogen just isn't clever enough for that. But then the entire film seems to do a 180. It's like they knew it'd be compared to Team America so put that scene in at the beginning. The rest is everything you'd expect from this kind of comedy. It has a problem finding traction going into the the third act. Most of the gags are stacked in the first two thirds. And I think a lot of those gags were funny. There's the inevitable conflict just entering the third act which is resolved by the end. All pretty formulaic. But this isn't trying to do anything than make it's demographic laugh, which it did. This was IMO way way better than This is the End because it feels like a film designed to make the audience laugh and not some indulgent millionaire comedy actors only interested in making themselves laugh. And I think James Franco plays a brilliant idiot.

[@MattCipolla]

Well, even if this movie isn't particularly memorable, the fuss that it caused sure is. I always wanted to see this considering that I loved This Is the End, I like Seth Rogen, and I like James Franco (and the random stuff that he's been doing lately). The two of them work wonders together, and even if The Interview isn't as steadily funny as This Is the End, it's still gleefully dumb in a fun, self-aware way. This obviously wasn't going to ever be brilliant or anything like a Dr. Strangelove of the twenty-first century, so it glad that it knows what it is, and goes for it. The main question is if it's funny or not, and it is. Even if the movie itself isn't smart, it does have some clever parts. There are some jabs at the media and what people consider to be news, a recurring gag regarding Katy Perry's "Firework", and some in-jokes about celebrities. James Franco goes all out here and chews the scenery almost every moment, but he isn't annoying. If he is annoying, it's both intentional and kind of weirdly endearing. Seth Rogen acts as a nice kind of foil as he plays more of a straight man than usual, but the two new standouts are Randall Park and Diana Bang as Kim Jong-un and a North Korean official, respectively. Both are likable and entertaining to watch. Park plays his part rather sheepishly which is rather funny, and Bang is good at being both cute and badass. Lizzy Caplan does good work here, but is only used in the first half, which is kind of unfortunate. Another thing that I enjoyed is how the slight political satire is actually somewhat rooted in reality. What they say about Kim Jong-un and North Korea is true, and Pyongyang's inviting facade is actually pretty accurate. This eventually bleeds into a bonkers finale with gleefully dumb comic violence and threats of nuclear warfare. Was this movie worth all of the controversy? No. (But at the same time, we're talking about North Korea.) I don't think that I'd see this again or buy it on Blu-Ray, but I still laughed a lot and had fun, and that's what matters. It's a good movie in its own right. I also recommend that you see this in a theater if you can, not only to support the movie, but because seeing movies in theaters does really help. It's how they were meant to be seen, and they do play better. 7.7/10, good, one thumb up, above average, etc.

[@Onmysheet]

The only thing that attracted me to this film was Lizzy Caplan. I know i probably said this before when James King reviewed it but whatever.

[@davidfgranger]

The 'six laugh test' needs evaluating, I probably laughed six times at The Master of Disguise.

[@CS-mo7xp]

how about the 'seven laugh' test?

[@davidfgranger]

maniq minah Is it seven? So if I'd laughed one more time during The Master of Disguise it would be a great comedy film?

[@bennoclassico]

I laughed all the way through GoldenEye recently, doesn't mean it was a good film ;)

[@fredsmith-kingofthelunatic7810]

The best reviews are when Mark hates himself for laughing at the movie.

[@tomwright4969]

Roger ebert would ruin this

[@molesticles]

I was disappointed in this one. Not as disappointed as Hitler when the Great Dictator came out though I imagine. He loved him some Chaplin. Must have been heart-breaking for him.

[@hanshotfirst1138]

I was sure that Mark would say that this was "rubbish" and full of "laddie humor." At the very least, it's probably the first time that anyone ever used the expression "authoritarian dictator" in a review of a stoner comedy ;).

[@nicksully6663]

I thought The Interview was hilarious. Totally disagree with most critics about it.

[@reelschannel7782]

The problem I have with it is the jokes feel so dated. Firework by Katy Perry? Really? Maybe funny in 2010, but I didn't find it funny now.

[@Onmysheet]

That was because the script had been written around that time, before they changed parts of it.

[@PauLtus_B]

Shouldn't he return to Birdman and Nightcrawler instead of this?

[@bertfromseasamestreet]

woo

[@cjjb]

James Franco isn't funny.

[@bennoclassico]

Fairly true, though I still love Pineapple Express and he was quite funny in that.

[@katiemiaana]

I know someone really needs to tell him

[@bennoclassico]

Unfortunately that's the direction Franco seems to be going...fading into obscurity. When he's not directing one of his favourite American novels on a low budget starring all his new friends (guaranteed either Danny McBride and Tim Blake Nelson will be in every one of his films) or starring in theatre or a strange art piece, he seems to be going downhill with his high-profile performances. I thought he was good fun in Pineapple Express, and well-cast in Milk and 127 Hours but hasn't really had a solid role since. They're either just flat and forgettable (The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Oz the Great and Powerful) or just weird (Spring Breakers, The Interview). I did like Gia Coppola's film Palo Alto which was based on the novel he wrote himself, and he was in it too as a minor character, but funnily enough I found the film to be way better than his novel. I hope his upcoming films with some of the world's best directors means we'll see something noteworthy in the coming years...after all, we are talking about Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. Other than that, it seems more of his own films are coming out. There's a film with him opposite Jonah Hill that looks interesting though.

[@larssonk22]

You spelt Seth Rogen wrong

[@Redem10]

I thought it was funny

[@miiiikku]

Beginning of the movie was so awful that if North Korea had been behind the threats, trying to save the world from seeing this, I think we should all rethink our position on communism and elect Pyongyang as worlds cultural capital. Eventually movie is just average and dull, but better than lot of recent Seth Rogen films. I don't buy Seth Rogen as person of self awareness of how meaningless his movies are, if he was that, he should had been funny at one point, and he hasn't been. Superbad is good movie, its not his ticket to anywhere, Pineapple Express is nothing worth mentioning.

[@bennoclassico]

***** Pineapple Express and Superbad are two of my favourite comedies of the last 10 years. It's all subjective of course. We live in a world where most people think The Hangover and Family Guy is funny. Seth Rogen's best film is Observe & Report though, which works as a brilliantly dark satire and doesn't fall flat like this film did.

[@bennoclassico]

Superbad was written by Rogen himself, along with his writing partner Evan Goldberg...he's not really in it though so I wouldn't really call it 'his film'. Same goes for The 40 Year Old Virgin, which is pretty good incidentally. Knocked Up is Apatow's best film to date, and yeah likely Rogen's most popular film too. He's had more 'okay' films than Superbad though: Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Funny People, 50/50, Neighbours. He was weirdly serious in Sarah Polley's debut Take This Waltz...and seems to be doing something similar in the new Danny Boyle film (about Steve Jobs).

[@hanshotfirst1138]

I thought Kermode might have a stroke when he reviewed Superbad.

[@heatrayzvideo3007]

This film was inane and puerile. I mostly watched it because it almost started a war.

[@swiftymagee]

I loved Pineapple Express and This Is The End, but I hated The Interview. I just didn't find it funny. Guess it's just a mix of bad writing, dumb premise, and terrible James Franco acting.

[@Megatron-xs2qe]

This guy really doesn't get comedy.

[@manakerito]

The film sounded great until I saw the trailer and that clip. Not remotely witty just loud shouting and desperate pop culture references. Why are US comedies like this now?

[@0ooTheMAXXoo0]

You did not see the film. It was great!

[@DavidRandallCurtis]

There is nothing funnier than film reviewers over analyzing comedy.

[@andyscoot43]

a) That's their job, to REVIEW it b) You assume that comedies are stupid and therefore can't be looked at like drama can.

[@drxela123]

I'm sorry, is this movie a comedy? Someone should have told the writers.

[@DavidRandallCurtis]

Docter Xela Well played Doctor. Well played... :P

[@silobandnj3967]

I felt this movie was a very basic attempt of the subject matter, and just bland humor. By the time it went to DPRK the movie was so dull and just run of the mill. Plus just the same old CIA propaganda talking points. There was no serious nuance or big risks like as you said in Team America.

[@tatumtate]

I have not seen this.. but its rubbish..

[@chrishiggins7166]

The film’s well characterised, well acted, stylish & intriguing, however the film’s not funny, unfocused, poorly written & poorly directed. (55%) (3/5 stars) (mixed)

[@mikkosupermario]

Movie was okay. It wasn't that bad. It was kinda funny. What I don't get is how you can enjoy any comedy movie if you're so pedantic that you gotta count how many times you're laughing. You're prob not gonna enjoy any movie anyway if u that. But Kermode and Mayo are extremely pompous, like most of their listeners. Great rants occasionally. In between the blather....

[@lexx2847]

Way too kind. Smarmy, intellectually bankrupt fratboy crap. Waste of a good premise by writers who maybe saw five minutes of a doco on North Korea, and glanced at the NK Wikipedia page for a few seconds. Embarrassing that such a worthless film caused so much fuss.

[@tomwright4969]

I'm not watching this, it looks deeply insulting and ignoramus towards the situation