Seth Rogan and James Franco once again team up for another comedy outing in The Interview. Less than a week ago Sony made waves by stating that The Interview would not be shown due to fears over terrorist threats made against moviegoers. Sony did have a change of heart and some 300 or so theaters are now showing the film. More interestingly is the fact that Sony has made the film available online via streaming services including YouTube, Google Play, and Xbox Video, the latter of which isn’t an option at the moment as hackers have taken it offline.
The film stars Franco as the suave Dave Skylark, a television personality that peddles entertainment news in the guise of a serious news anchor. It’s a fun take on the plethora of TV news personalities that can be found on any of the major news and cable networks. While the character is played for laughs, he isn’t so over the top that he becomes a tired joke, which is good because you will be seeing quite a lot of him.
Rogan on the other hand plays more the straight man as Skylark’s producer that finds himself at a crossroads in his career. After 1000 episodes over 10 years, Rappaport (Rogan) is confronted with the fact that he isn’t taken seriously among his producer peers in the legitimate news outlets. This leads the pair to undergo a transformation in search of more serious news, while still giving the people what they want. It’s doesn’t make for a story that stands out, but the twist comes in the form of Kim Jon Un.
It just so happens that The Supreme Leader is a fan of Skylark Tonight and this piece of news leads to the team snagging an interview deep inside the mysterious country. At this point the film breaks into two separate sub-plots with Skylark and Un becoming friends and goofing around and Rappaport trying to make him realize that he is being “honydicked” while building a connection with the North Korean minister of propaganda.
There are a number of gags throughout, the longest involving a tiger and a butthole. If you haven’t guessed by the duos past efforts, you are going to get a great deal of childish humor. Much of it works well, but more often than not you’ll get the feeling that bits either seem forced or just plain last far longer than necessary.
For a comedy film of this nature you are going to find long periods of scenes that are slow and lifeless. I think the biggest problem is that Franco and Rogan don’t get enough time together onscreen to really play off each other. When the duo are together though, they manage to turn in the laughs, but with the way the story is written they aren’t working side-by-side enough.
Sadly the best jokes of the film are quickly tempered as they just get dragged out far too long. The butthole bit (I can’t believe I wrote that in a serious nature) goes on long enough to kill its comedic impact and the Katy Perry duet likewise just lasts too long. It’s rare that I find myself laughing hysterically and finding something not funny before a bit has even finished. The Interview isn’t a film i’d recommend going to theaters to see, but there are enough laughs to warrant the $5 to see it streaming online.
Whatever the case my be with the hacking incident, Sony made the right move releasing the film online to public. I think the future of films really is in streaming and The Interview opening both in theaters and online is a step forward in how we consume entertainment. I would never have willingly gone to see this film in theaters, but for less than the cost of a single ticket I did enjoy it at home among family and friends.
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