Remember the whole ish about Sony being hacked late last year and North Korea being behind the hack attack? Well, if you didn't know, the whole fracas was kickstarted by one tiny (well, considering it grossed $1.8 million on its opening weekend it can hardly be called tiny) movie: The Interview.

Release Month/Year: December 2014

Production Company: Point Grey Picture

Distributed By: Columbia Pictures

Producer(s): Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver

Director(s): Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg

Main Cast: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park,

Run Time: 1hr 52 mins

US Box Office Grossing On Opening Weekend: $1.8 million



Synopsis:

The Interview is a political satire movie starring James Franco as Dave Skylark, a TV show host (Think a male Wendy Williams) and his producer/friend Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) who are sent into North Korea to interview, then assasinate, then eventually decide to interview the country's supreme leader, Kim Jong Un. Before assasinating him. The movie starts off with Skylark in an interview with "Eminem" in which Eminem reveals he is gay (that's a laugh!) and gains the TV show even more popularity than before. Aaron isn't satisfied however with interviewing celebrities after running into a old friend of his (Anders Holm) who says what he is doing isn't real journalism. The pair then decide to try interviewing North Korea's Kim Jung Un and surprisingly find out that the North Korean leader is a fan of their show. They manage to get in contact with him and are granted a chance to interview him. What follows is a hilarious caper that sees Seth Rogen fall in love (and have hilarious getting-ready-for-action sex) with Kim Jung Un's head of operations who eventually joins their mission. Did I say the CIA asked the duo to assassinate Kim Jung Un? Of course they wouldn't have just gone into North Korea to execute a hit on it's leader just for kicks. They eventually succeed in toppling (and killing him to the tune of a Katy Perry song) Kim Jung Un and a democracy is established in North Korea.



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The Cast

I've always known Seth Rogen and James Franco as two actors that can pull off comic to a C. Their acting was amazingly funny and I don't think anyone else wou;d have been better for their roles as Dave Skylark, an over-expressive TV show host with a taste for good things and Aaron Rapoport, a nerdy TV show producer who has to stick a drone capsule up his butt to hide it from the North Korean soldiers.

If the point of casting Randall Park as Kim Jong Un was to make him look as ridiculous as possible, that plan worked to perfection. Of course, he is not an exact replica of the N.K leader but the likeness was pretty uncanny. Diana Bang (haha, bang!) as Sook was also perfection. Her role as Seth Rogen's supporting character only made the movie better. Lizzy Caplan as Agent Lace was also a stroke of genius I think her funniest scene was where she was trying to convince Seth Rogen to push an arm sized capsule up his butt.

The movie also featured a cameo of Eminem (the actual Eminem, not a look-alike) for the scene of his interview on Skylark. There were shorter cameos for Iggy Azalea, Nicki Minaj, Zac Effron, Bill Maher, Emma Stone and Seth Myers.



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The Reaction:

Of course, North Korea were furious! And the that resulted in the hack attack that shut down Sony for a day after North Korea demanded that Sony studios do not release the movie. Then a retaliatory hack attack that pretty much put N.K offline (I heard this from someone o. For more on the reaction to the movie, visit it's Wikipedia page). The hack attacks and the hackers' further threats meant the studio and production crew had to modify the movie and it's release schedules. So much reaction for a movie.

The movie has seen mixed reception amongst viewers though, getting a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes which generally means it's not horrible, neither is it excellent. Some reviewers have found it "silly", "stupid and in bad taste" (probably a North Korean there), "sloppy" and "mostly pointless". Other have found it hilarious and even thought provoking. I personally find this funny if you want to watch a comic movie without reading too much meaning into it. It's not too long which makes it even better and you really don't want to miss James Franco and Seth Rogen on this one.



My rating:

I rate this a 7 out of 10. Look, i'm not expecting more out of this than just a funny movie satirizing an actual government. Those that are looking for a stronger message from the movie would find it silly. I wasn't and I found it hilarious. Anything else is story for the gods.



Recommendation

If you like laugh out loud comedy, watch this. Totally worth the nearly two hours.



Viewing

So far, no cinemas in Nigeria are screening the movie (considering a lot of other Cinemas worldwide aren't, it's only natural). I only got to watch this movie from a friend's flash so your only option might be to watch it online. Sony have released it online though so you can watch it on Google Play Movies (which isn't available in Nigeria either), Youtube, XBox or Itunes. Gotta cough up the cash for it though. Get your ATM/Credit card ready. Happy viewing!

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