Review of The Interview (2014) by Dana F — 24 Oct 2015

This movie was exactly what I expected it to be: funny, but nothing to write home about.  It's unfortunate that a movie so hyped for its politics doesn't have more (or any) political satire.  Though it's not a particularly smart movie, I'll admit that it's not dumb either, despite the plethora of dick and poop jokes.

  Franco and Rogen are inherently funny people and they obviously have great chemistry, so they are able to make the film work even when it shouldn't.  The first half of the movie is actually pretty funny and made me laugh out loud several times.

.. it just becomes less and less funny as it goes along.  The problem is that  the film becomes very dark as it progresses.  Much of the film's humor is lost by becoming graphically (and unnecessarily) violent, to the degree that some of the scenes feel like they should be in a Tarantino movie, not a slapstick farce like this.

  It's unsettling and wipes any remnants of a smile you might have had right off your face.  I'm sure the intention was to be darkly comic, but because the beginning is so light and silly, the tone shift just doesn't work.

  The movie also suffers from lack of focus... it's not clear what point it was trying to make.  It pokes fun at Kim Jong Un and North Korea in general, but doesn't really have anything meaningful to say about them.

  The movie would have had a much greater impact if it had a message other than "totalitarian dictatorship is bad".  Thanks for the heads up, Rogen & Co, I never would have known.  If taken as a straight-up comedy, it's not bad, but it could have been so much more.

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