imperfection is perfection
Sporadic film reviews by a wanna-be filmmaker
THE INTERVIEW [2014]
written by jordan dodd
The opening minutes of The Interview are some of the worst attempts at satire I have ever witnessed, the ‘Dave Skylark show’ a grossly unfunny and inept attempt at media satire. After watching stuff like Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell on Australian telly, hell even Bill Maher’s usual routine, they make this look even worse. Not to mention films of last year like Gone Girl and Nightcrawler.
Apart from your standard poo, sex and/or penis jokes, this film offers up about five or so genuinely funny moments. I wouldn’t need more than two hands to count them on. From the opening scene we are assaulted by potty humour and general modern US-humour. I wanted to give this a go, I really did. I liked Pineapple Express, damnit! The story is somewhat interesting and if handled well could have made for a smart and funny film while also commenting on the politics of the issue. This achieves none of these things.
The movie’s final act did make the banging of my head against the back of a seat worth it, as while the dialogue is barely thought out and the acting is serviceable – which is being extremely generous, especially to Franco, who is perhaps the most irritating on-screen actor I have ever witnessed – the final act is a fun ride and there are a few jokes that land. The depiction of the supreme leader is somewhat comical, but as the film wears on his character becomes increasingly… Bad. Bad as in cringe-worthy. Bad as in beating a dead horse for the entirety of the film.
Many scenes had me almost walk out for the first time in my life, the dialogue sounds like it was written by a fifteen-year-old on Ritalin. However, there is no denying that those set-pieces near the end were a bit of fun, which really makes me wonder why the rest of the movie was wasted on the set up to The Interview. A much more interesting, funny and relevant story could have been made of this. But we are talking about Seth Rogan and James Franco here, so such a thing can’t be expected. What we do expect from these two they deliver – crude, brainless humour that for the most part falls flat on its face, breaking its jaw and knocking itself unconscious.
This is the ultimate brain-dead movie then, tune out, maybe get some work done while its playing. Everyone has touch-phone-tablets things these days, you could easily use one throughout much of this movie and miss very, very little. This is also another American movie that is unnecessarily long – over two hours for a boring build up to The Interview is not needed. This trend for longer movies that do not need the additional runtime is getting a little out of hand. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate American film at all. But Hollywood? I guess that is a different story.
1.5/5 – It gets half a point for the last act. The rest of the film had me seriously considering the option of shoving a straw into the side of my neck to end it all.
10 Comments on “THE INTERVIEW [2014]”
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imperfection is perfection 
Hahahah! This is a great rant man. Great! I have yet to see The Interview. I like James Franco. Actually quite a lot. I ran an entire segment on the blog about him, so I expect we will butt heads about him there but everything I’ve read and heard about The Interview and his performance in it is causing me to keep the distance.
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Haha! Thanks for reading Tom, I needed to get it out…. it occured to me that I am probably too nice, as I take this ‘critic’ thing more seriously, I realised that I probably have max four negative review on here hahaha. And I had a voucher so I went to see this for free and…. yeah, I’ve never walked out on a movie but I came really fucking close.
I remember the Franco Files dude! ;P and to be honest I had never seen him before watching this. Yes, my pop culture exposure is sporadic at the best of times. 😉
I want to watch Palo Alto soon which I understand he is in so hopefully I’ll see another side of him. But his media satire attempt in this is just super clunky, IMHO
peace man
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Now that was one amazing rant.
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Hehe thanks for reading mate! Much appeciated 🙂
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I didn’t mind it, but had low expectations that were generally met. It had its moments but there’s no consistency. Clearly they had a few good jokes and tried to make a movie around them. Bad idea.
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Yeah I totally agree. One of those flicks where the funniest parts are in the trailer and the rest is kinda ‘eh’. Heh, I did go in with low expectations too, yet I still can’t believe how much I disliked it!!
Thanks for reading and commenting mate, much appreciated! 🙂
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Can’t say I agree all that much, but funny to read:)
…I don’t think “silly” comedy is for ya dude (except for the odd time). I personally had fun with this and 22 Jump Street lol. I actually guessed that you’d hate this before opening this!
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Haha! You know me too well already! 😛
Yeah, thse sorta comedies aren’t really up my street, I try occasionally, but my stuff is more darker, twisted stuff. Wolf Creek 2 was a comedy for me if you get my drift haha. But I had vouchers, and they = free movie 😀 I was more surprised at how much worse this was than Pineapple Express, IMO, which I really liked and had great character arcs and everything.
I’m glad I could put a file on your face even if you disagreed duder 🙂
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I really liked 22 Jump Street, but this film I can tell is one I will never like and after every review I read, it is one I know I will never watch. Great stuff!! lol
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I actually never saw 22 Jump Street, I might go rent it out. A lot of my friends were raving about it, but Wolf of Wall Street and the Coens work is more my sorta humour. Still wanna give 22 a shot though, as people who I thought would dislike it actually really rated it. But this, yeh, it has almost no redeeming qualities.
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