What a terrible, terrible movie. James Franco and Seth Rogen are one of the lousiest comedy duos of all time and “The Interview” is a resolutely unfunny “On The Road” for people too young to remember Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. The story of an entertainment talk show host Dave Skylark (Franco) and his producer’ s Aaron Rapoport (Rogen) search for credibility for their show “Skylark Today”has caused controversy with Sony being hacked and personal information being dissipated. The decision to pull the movie after terrorist threats were overruled and the movie became available on PPV and indie movie houses.
Tired of exclusives like Eminem is gay and Rob Lowe is bald, the news that North Korea’s supreme leader is a big fan of talk show “Skylark Tonight” leads to a request to interview Kim Jong-un, a visit from the CIA and the duo are off to assassinate Jong-un on a trip to Pyongyang, Hilarity ensues. Or rather, hilarity doesn’t ensue.
The problem isn’t the story being inherently unamusing, the subject matter is as black as black can be but that didn’t stop “Dr. Strangelove”, it is that Seth Rogen is intermittently amusing and James Franco goes well past being an irritant and right to the place where you can imagine a disgruntled Sony employee revenging itself on the movie company for releasing it.
I don’t understand Franco’s riff, what is he meant to be exactly? He doesn’t act like any human being I’ve ever met, he’s a sort of half baked (get it) simpleton, a man with a sort of curdled milkiness about him. His facial expressions, his voice, his riffing with Rogen, his refusal to say a line straight. Franco is so bad he has you rooting for Kim Jong-un, Randall Park’s Korean leader seems to have wandered in from a different movie where people actually, you know, act. Park might not be as great as he appears to be, he actually gives Kim shading and character, but compared to everybody else he is giving a masterclass. Something the outrageously terrible Rogen and Franco don’t come close to with their characters. Every five minutes the duo are screaming about something or the other right in each others face and in our ears and none of it is funny. They are such unappealing actors. Seth looks like a bear on a diet and Franco a handsome rat. The two have chemistry? I can’t see it. Years ago “Superbad” -the first Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen (they co-write and co-direct) 2007 movie, was an “American Graffitti” for the modern age, last year “This Is The end” was saved from self serving improv by a huge ensemble cast but nothing saves “The Interview”. Bereft on a sea of stupidity, Seth and Evan had a great idea and smothered it to death with a pillow. A crib death would have been preferred.
Grade: D
