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Comments on Franco/Rogen's "The Interview"

12/25/2014

2 Comments

 
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"The Interview" VOD...a Christmas miracle!
After celebrating Christmas Eve last night with the folks, I've locked the doors, closed the drapes, and turned off every light but the tree.  Having enduring my 12th consecutive bookstore holiday season, today - for me - is no less than absolutely perfect: Christmas alone...in my fortress of solitude.  Sure, that might sound tragic for most normal people, but for a guy with social anxiety (who had been swatting at holiday shoppers like mosquitos), a day to myself is the best Christmas gift ever.   Just me, coffee, my cat, and computer.  And a rib roast in the oven. And both roommates gone, in jail & rehab respectively.  And best of all, Sony's The Interview is finally available to watch.   It I wasn't an agnostic, I'd feel like a goddamn character within a Karen Carpenter Christmas song.  "Merry Christmas, darling.  Happy New Year toooooooooooooo ... "
PictureGiving Kim Jong-Un the Finger
After six months of following the film's growing controversy, I was pleased to get up this morning and watch The Interview VOD on my computer.  Sure, I would have preferred to attend a theater on opening day, but that wasn't an option in the far western burbs - and again, I'm being a hermit today.  But I mention a crowd because I suspect that The Interview is a film best enjoyed with one.  The movie's filthy humor - stank dicks, ass-missles, sharting on live TV - is clearly geared towards an audience that will laugh at any/all jokes involving a humid orafice.  Having read early reviews of the film, I'd suspected jabs about "quality" were just reviewers' ass-covering, in case the GOP was eyeing their emails as well. But post-premiere reviews were right.  The Interview has the same chance of winning an Oscar as Madea Visits Ferguson or a pro-Sarah Palin bioepic.  As an avid Franco/Rogen follower myself, I liked this movie in the same way I enjoyed Eyes Wide Shut as a Kubrik fan.  But despite his impressive body of work, Kubrik's last film was a "C+" at best - because of sloppy storytelling.  And as much as it pains me to say this, The Interview just hits the C+ mark as well, missing its chance to be a very strong comedy.  And that's really a shame because the crisis in North Korea is anything but...and a strong film would have stood its own, hackers or not.

From my very first blog after reading Escape From Camp 14, I've supported ALL projects that call American's attention to North Korea's humanitarian crisis.  The death camps.  The sickening, nation-wide brainwashing. The rapes, forced abortions.  Torture far worse than post 9/11 waterboarding.  And all happening now, in a volatile, nuclear-armed country that will collapse - and will intentionally take out many other countries with it.  That's why I've anticipated The Interview so much.  I had hoped that Franco/Rogen's fan base would become our country's hip DPRK critics, calling for UN action with the fervor of MTV's "Rock the Vote."  But in order for that to happen, The Interview needed to use its stars more maturely than in previous films.  It needed to grow up.  It needed to show intelligence.  But that didn't happen.  And by the time Rogen shoved a missile-tip up his ass, it was clear that it wasn't going to even come close. 

That being said, I'm not going to be Roger Ebert here and analyze point-by-point where and why the movie failed.  But I will offer some bullet points on the things that bugged me:


PictureKim's part of my Christmas tree!
  • Franco's character was such a douchebag, when he needed to be serious, nothing he said was believable.
  • Just like A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Interview had waaaaaay too many shit, dick, and sex jokes.  Not only did this cheapen the subject matter, it came across as bad writing - which distracted the viewer from the story.  The whole script needed a better editing job.
  • Pyongyang - the regime's showplace capitol - wasn't effectively shown.  The city's chilling Orwellian appearance - Soviet architecture, impersonal boulevards, paranoid citizens - shows how North Korea's angry/militarized culture remains trapped 60 years in the past...and has become a danger to the present.
  • Speaking of the military, only a "hint" of the country's massive army was shown.  The DPRK has a "military first" culture...and by not exploring that fact, The Interview's jokes about starvation & empty grocery stores completely missed the mark.
  • North Korea's power never went out...which was probably the single most unrealistic thing about the movie.

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But I wasn't unhappy with all of it.  Parts of the film were really funny (in a Rogen/Franco way).  The one place where The Interview totally succeeded was it's presentation of Kim Jong-Un as an insecure despot. The movie's trailers covered this a little - North Koreans think of Kim as a God who doesn't even poop - but Randall Park's portrayal of Un was pretty damn close to perfect, and I suspect that Park is the real reason Pyongyang feared The Interview's release.  

Park presented the dictator in a way that managed to survive all the lowbrow humor  - portraying Kim Jong-Un as just another guy...or, anything BUT a God.  Seeing Kim Jong-Un "gushing" over Franco was hysterical.  Watching his boobs bounce while playing basketball made a strong statement about his country's hunger.  And witnessing Kim drive an antique tank (like a child playing a game at Chuck E. Cheese) effectively showed him to be out of touch - both in his own country and the modern world.  Sure, humanizing such an evil man might be seen as a mistake, but THAT'S the image North Koreans need to see to counter his personal propaganda:  Kim, the man-child.  Kim, the overfed.  Kim, the tyrant.   Kim, the cartoon figure.  And most importantly, Kim the ridiculous figurehead of a ridiculous dynasty.  Forget Seoul balloons that parody Kim as a pig.  What North Koreans really need to see is Kim behind the scenes, indecisive at times, and surrounded by corruption.

To my knowledge, The Interview is the first film ever to call North Korea out on it's government's silliness...and it's ass-backwards way of fighting the encroaching modern world.  God-inspired kings who killed their people at will started becoming extinct over two centuries ago, and the Kim dictatorship is the last surviving genuinely "evil" country on this planet.  With the exception of tiny pockets like North Korea, almost every country in the world is "catching up" to each other.  New energies, technologies, and interconnected computer systems are all working together to equalize our standards of living - and that includes improving human rights and personal freedom for all.  


This all ties in with my thoughts on Earth eventually joining a larger "galactic community," and how it's only just a matter of time before our planet becomes united - and real space exploration can begin.  But humanity won't get to that point until we irradiate  a few  bumps of our planet's skin cancer - and I think that as long as the Kims are in power, North Korea is a tumor that's about to metastasize.  And if The Interview helps call the world's attention to a very touch decision that must be made, well, I guess stranger things have happened.  Just like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, sometimes a lousy movie can carry a message for years to come -

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Sweet transvestite, indeed.

2 Comments
essay writing company link
10/15/2015 11:07:59 pm

Interview is the very interesting movie which has different concept and people are excited to watch it. There are some more details are given about this great movie which is interesting and we should see and read more about it here in the blog. I liked this blog because i love movies.

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bestessays.com.au review link
10/22/2015 10:17:20 am

Interview sure is a very good movie and full of humor. It will make your lone time and interesting especially with the way that they address some damned serious issues of world as humor. It relays message without depressing you which is a feat in itself.

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