I was fully prepare to be disappointed with this movie. It's garnered a lot of hype recently and for all that to be about nothing would be a big shame. Thing is though, it's a Rogan/Franco comedy. If you've seen the likes of Pineapple Express and This is the End, you know exactly what to expect. The Interview is no different really. The plot is simple yet outrageous; an interview show is invited to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-Un, but the CIA butts in and asks them to assassinate him. Franco and Rogan then blunder around failing to assassinate him and get themselves in ridiculous situations.
The single most important element to The Interview is whether or not it's funny. It is. Well, I found it funny any way. The humour is very crude for the most part. There's lots of sexual jokes, lots of gay jokes. I'm not usually a fan of crude humour as I feel it's lazy, but Rogan always manages to write imaginative crude jokes that are genuinely funny. There's also a little bit of slapstick, and a lot of over-the-top B-Movie type humour, especially once the action scenes come in and you're left laughing at the gore. Most of The Interview is, of course, poking fun at Kim Jong-Un though. They paint him up as a closet homosexual with daddy issues, and escalate all the humour around that (Kim's helicopter blowing up in slow motion to the soundtrack of Katy Perry's acoustic version of Firework is priceless, because of all the build-up behind it).
With comedies, there isn't really much else to mention. The actors performances all revolve around being funny and delivering the jokes unwaveringly, which The Interview achieves. There usually isn't much else to these movies. However, The Interview does have a bit of visual flair to talk about. It's choice of locations are perfect, making you feel like they're in North Korea. The slow-motion at the end is not only hilarious, but beautiful to watch on a technical level. The production design and costuming is also top-notch, recreating famous scenes from the area, such as the neutral no-man's-land between the borders and the blue huts that sit there. The Interview is a well-shot, well-made movie that makes sure it sticks out from the rest.
The biggest problem I had with the movie, however, is Randall Park as Kim Jong-Un. He's a funny guy who brings a much needed gravitas to the role. Thing is, he doesn't remotely look like Kim Jong-Un. I'm pretty certain they could've picked an actor with a better resemblance. The other problem is his accent. He sounds like an American. It almost undermines all the mocking of the character.
So there we have it. I have seen The Interview and I wasn't particularly disappointed. It won't rock your socks off, that's guaranteed. It's not even the best Rogan/Franco team-up, but it is pretty funny and a perfectly enjoyable way to waste a couple of hours (if you can get hold of it). I give The Interview a good 7/10.
The single most important element to The Interview is whether or not it's funny. It is. Well, I found it funny any way. The humour is very crude for the most part. There's lots of sexual jokes, lots of gay jokes. I'm not usually a fan of crude humour as I feel it's lazy, but Rogan always manages to write imaginative crude jokes that are genuinely funny. There's also a little bit of slapstick, and a lot of over-the-top B-Movie type humour, especially once the action scenes come in and you're left laughing at the gore. Most of The Interview is, of course, poking fun at Kim Jong-Un though. They paint him up as a closet homosexual with daddy issues, and escalate all the humour around that (Kim's helicopter blowing up in slow motion to the soundtrack of Katy Perry's acoustic version of Firework is priceless, because of all the build-up behind it).
With comedies, there isn't really much else to mention. The actors performances all revolve around being funny and delivering the jokes unwaveringly, which The Interview achieves. There usually isn't much else to these movies. However, The Interview does have a bit of visual flair to talk about. It's choice of locations are perfect, making you feel like they're in North Korea. The slow-motion at the end is not only hilarious, but beautiful to watch on a technical level. The production design and costuming is also top-notch, recreating famous scenes from the area, such as the neutral no-man's-land between the borders and the blue huts that sit there. The Interview is a well-shot, well-made movie that makes sure it sticks out from the rest.
The biggest problem I had with the movie, however, is Randall Park as Kim Jong-Un. He's a funny guy who brings a much needed gravitas to the role. Thing is, he doesn't remotely look like Kim Jong-Un. I'm pretty certain they could've picked an actor with a better resemblance. The other problem is his accent. He sounds like an American. It almost undermines all the mocking of the character.
So there we have it. I have seen The Interview and I wasn't particularly disappointed. It won't rock your socks off, that's guaranteed. It's not even the best Rogan/Franco team-up, but it is pretty funny and a perfectly enjoyable way to waste a couple of hours (if you can get hold of it). I give The Interview a good 7/10.