Review: The Interview(2014)

Review: The Interview(2014)
*Mild Spoilers Alert
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Official 'The Interview(2014)' Poster.

      The movie responsible of one of the most high-profile hacks in modern history ultimately comes as an innocent fun comedy movie.

"James Franco" and "Seth Rogen".

"Randall Park".

      'Aaron Rapoport'(Seth Rogen) is a veteran successful producer of the hit entertainment talk show 'Skylark Tonight’, which is hosted by ‘Dave Skylark’(James Franco). Seeing the silly job that is concentrated mainly on pop culture-related news, 'Aaron' is reconsidering his career path that he has undertaken and wish to pursue in the future, related to serious and relevant issues. In an effort to keep his best friend happy, 'Dave' pitches an insane idea, that means to contact representatives of North Korea in an effort to try and persuade their leader 'Kim Jung-un'(Randall Park) to conduct an interview on the show, seeing how big of a fan he is of the show. This entertainment idea soon turns into a high level mission when CIA agent 'Lacey'(Lizzy Caplan) assigns them the task to assassinate the leader of North Korea. But soon this mission will become even more difficult than it already is after 'Dave' suspects that 'Kim' is just being 

misunderstood. And soon this mission's success will become in jeopardy, along with the well-being and relationship of 'Aaron' and 'Dave'. Other major characters include 'Sook'(Diane Bang) head of 'Kim''s PR, 'Malcolm'(Timothy Simmons) 'Aaron''s co-worker, 'Jake'(Anders Holm) 'Aaron''s friend from college, and General 'Song'(Charles Rahi Chun) head of 'Kim''s personal security.

"Lizzy Caplan".

"Diane Bang", "Seth Rogen"
and "James Franco".

      The original idea of this movie was to present in a comedic atmosphere what would happen if journalists were tasked to assassinate a world leader. After production finished and time came for its release, North Korea quickly came forward to condemn the idea and reasons behind this movie and promised that strict actions will be performed. Not long after, Sony Pictures was a victim of a huge attack that violated the privacy of those working there, leaked out most of the works being done their but most of all violated the right of every human being around the world, that of expression. Regardless of the reason behind this attack or the identity of these attackers, they tried to prove to everyone especially artists that they have no right to perform a certain art from that is decent and appropriate if it does not conform to their set of biased rules. These people thought that they will be able to force filmmakers to not show their project and try to do this by threatening the safety and security of people willing to witness this work regardless of its message. Thankfully, Sony Pictures retracted their conformity to the demands of these hackers and decided to put out this movie that eventually people will see and realize that all this buzz and fuss was basically for a nice and enjoyable comedy that shows how coward and small minded these people are.

"James Franco" and "Seth Rogen".

"Seth Rogen" and "James Franco".

      From the producers of the hit comedies 'This is the End' and 'Neighbors' came this funny comedy movie that doesn’t truly breaks any true ground but is enjoyable. The star of the movie "Seth Rogen"('This is the End') co-directed this movie with "Evan Goldberg"('Pineapple Express'). Their take on this picture was a comedy filled with a dark tone of the picture to be able to convey the 'seriousness' of such image. For the most part they do bring us a solid movie, but mainly the set pieces and special effects were a bit downer for me, not able to convey us a certain degree of realism to the location where the story is taking place. Writer "Dan Sterling" booked his first big screen premiere work on a big budget movie. And looking at the result, "Dan" did a pretty decent job in terms of narrative direction and the basic movie storyline, being able to provide along the way certain twists and turns along with the usual gags that accompany these movies. Composer "Henry Jackman", whose previous work include 'Captain Phillips' and 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' provided us with a solid score, mixed with the usual pop songs that follow these comedy movies, while also able to highlight the sense of thrill and suspense that escorted few scenes within the movie.

"Seth Rogen" and "James Franco".

"James Franco" and "Seth Rogen".

      Overall, 'The Interview(2014)' is engaging and entertaining from beginning to end. And though the movie does come close to hitting the 2-hour mark, few times will the audience feel a certain lag or boredom within the narrative development. All in all, the movie's incorporation of making fun of certain pop culture and worldwide moments felt natural and actually funny. This is due to infusing them in a more subtle manner or actually tackling them in the right moment or timing. When the movie actually starts to get into its main purpose, the audiences will start to feel a bit more excitement and actually care about what is happening. With that said, all scenes that took place within North Korea are actually the scenes that are the most fun and engaging. From the tiger attack, to hiding the cargo, and reaching the interaction scenes between the characters all these scenes taking place had their shining moment. However, the final climax battle scene had to be the ultimate moment of the entire movie, with a certain scene(that includes a tank, helicopter and Katy Perry song) being one of the most funny movie moments of this year.

"James Franco", Co-Director "Evan
Goldberg" and "Seth Rogen".

Co-Director "Evan Goldberg"
and "Seth Rogen".

      The movie's star duo "James Franco" and "Seth Rogen" provided an astoundingly funny performance, bringing their characters to life and making them feel so real. "James Franco" surprised many with his over-the-top performance of the famous TV host. This over-the-top take of this character actually made for compelling ludicrous moments, especially during him conducting interviews, that had many cameo appearances by stars( such as "Emma Stone", "Eminem" and "Rob Lowe"). On the other hand, "Seth Rogen"'s character was in charge to bringing the more grounded reaction moments within a silly context. And seeing that this task usually is a daunting task that many fail to do, "Seth" manages to pull it off. The chemistry between "Seth" and "James" was one of the highlights of this movie and the element that kept everything moving forward. The breakthrough performance has to go to "Randall Park", who knocked it out of the park(no pun intended). His portrayal of 'Kim Jung-un' was surprising, due to the likeability and complexity needed that was actually brought to the table. Inclusion of "Lizzy Caplan", "Timothy Simons" and "Anders Holm" was disappointing, especially when it came to "Lizzy" seeing the extremely limited role they had. "Diana Bang" and "Charles Rahi Chun" performed solid performances.

      'The Interview(2014)' is a solid comedy movie that brings few things to the table but isn't radical by any means and didn't deserve all the fuss that came along and was the reason behind the hack.

Official 'The Interview(2014)' Poster.

-'The Interview(2014)' Info:
-Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Diana Bang, Timothy Simmons, Anders Holm and Charles Rahi Chun.
-Studio(s): Point Grey Pictures and Sony Pictures.
-Directed by: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
-Screenplay by: Dan Sterling.
-Music by: Henry Jackman.
-Running Time: 112 minutes.
-Budget: $ 44,000,000.
-Box Office: -Domestic(US): $3,335,000 **
                   -Foreign: **
-Ratings: -IMdb: 9.4/10.
               -Rotten Tomatoes: 50%.
               -Metacritic: 53%.

               -PERSONAL RATING: 7.5/10.

**Limited Release

-'The Interview(2014)' Trailer: