Remember the last low-brow comedy to centre on the attempted assassination of a world leader? I’m of course talking about Zoolander, where Ben Stiller’s empty-headed male model was brainwashed to murder the prime minister of Malaysia. Roger Ebert took issue with the subplot – “Didn’t it strike anybody connected with this movie that it was in bad taste to name a real country with a real prime minister?” – but I found it impossible to take seriously. Zoolander’s writing is as silly as its jokes, and it seems beside the point to treat it as cogent political commentary of any kind.
The same cannot be said of Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy The Interview, which exists in an awkward valley between political satire and dumb bro-comedy. It has enough investment in politics to provide a springboard for satire – whether of North Korea or America’s habit of overthrowing foreign leaders, take your pick – but instead bellyflops into ‘ironic’ racist/sexist jokes. Its only real success is a brief sequence riffing on the idea of ‘what if Kim Jong Un was a bro?’ It’s a wonderfully dumb concept, but dumb doesn’t preclude funny – and sadly, for the most part, funny is exactly what The Interview isn’t.
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Yeah, not a good movie at all. I did really like Randall Park’s performance, however. One bright spot in a movie that goes downhill after the opening scenes.
Yeah, Park was great. If I’d gone with a > 200 word review I would’ve singled him out; his scenes (particularly his introduction) were the few in the film that put a smile on my face.
You were too kind. I HATED this execrable movie.
Look, it got a couple giggles out of me, which is enough to keep it at 2 stars. 🙂 Well below the standard I’d hoped for, though.
Not hilarious, but still a funny movie nonetheless. Which is all that I needed for it to be. Good review.
I would’ve forgiven its flaws if it had been funnier. I laughed a lot at both This is the End and Bad Neighbours, so I was disappointed that I found this unfunny for the most part. Of course, that’s always subjective!
Seth Rogen, he has potential – but from everything I read, “The Interview” seems to be a step backward for him, or simply a dud. I think his best thus far is 50/50.
I liked him a lot in that, too. I don’t think he’s ever quite achieved that perfect mix of too-cool-brusqueness and vulnerability that he mastered in his first role in Freaks and Geeks in his subsequent work, sadly.
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