THE INTERVIEW [2014]

The-Interview-Poster

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.

Category : Film
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