The Interview movie review

Here's what you need to know; Dave Skylark is a big TV personality, his celebrity talk show raking in millions of viewers from across the globe, but Dave and his producer Aaron Rapaport get the chance of a lifetime when it turns out that the Supreme Leader of North Korea is a fan of the show, and is up for an interview. Things aren't that simple however, as the CIA gets involved with a mission for the TV face and his producer, to assassinate Kim Jong-Un, an undertaking just as dangerous as it sounds.

This film has a comically suiting introduction, with a scene in Pyongyang with rocket launches and a little girl singing about death to America. Then we are introduced to our 2 mains, Dave and Aaron. Both characters are played up brilliantly by their respective actors, James Franco and Seth Rogan, Dave is a moron, the face of the TV talk show, and possibly the dirtier of the 2 mains, saying and coming up with some golden stuff, if you like really crude, tasteless comedy. But he'd be crap with nothing to bounce off, and in comes Aaron, who comes in a close second to my favourite character in the film. He is the more serious of the 2, being more of the brains behind the show to Dave's face, but he and Dave bounce off each other really well, and the 2 have some great scenes. He too however produces some great laughs, often of an equally low level brand of comedy to Dave, as well as a funny romance with Sook, a propagandist from North Korea who is a member of a brewing Coup, she's a pretty interesting character on her own, but like Dave, she's at her best with Aaron. Lacey is less interesting than those 3 however, while still funny at times, she's got the least screen time of all of them, and spends most of the film in the CIA control room, there's a running joke in the film that starts with her character, and it's one of many running jokes in the film, it's also the funniest. Then there's of course Kim Jong-Un, the point of the film, and I'll be honest, Kim Jong-Un in this film is great, of course they take the piss out of him, and I love things like how he has a huge collection of supercars and a love of Katy Perry, things you would never expect of the leader of a communist state, that's clever shit. North Korea in this film is a character all it's own, and it's done in a very clever way. As Kim Jong-Un makes efforts to fool Dave, the film is basically one big propaganda piece pretty much, it's like Peace Village but for the entire film, and it's done in a very obvious manner that get's its desired response, everything's fake, and that's also clever stuff. The Plot is about as self explanatory as you'd expect, 2 people going to a very dangerous place to kill a very dangerous man, with the added room to play of it being North Korea, but aside from the plot to kill the Supreme Leader, there really isn't a lot going on in the film, this really isn't a bad thing, because for a film coming up on 2 hours long, it doesn't feel long, it's not bogged down by any needless side plots.

This film didn't have the biggest budget, and it's fair to say you can tell in the effects, they're not terrible, far from it, some effects look great, while others just look ok, not that it's a very effects heavy movie, aside from the 3rd act and the very earie North Korea backdrops, the Pyongyang skyline for example, or the isolated, monolithic mountain compound where most of the film takes place. Where this film excels is in the comedy, I'm no arbiter on comedy, or anything for that matter, but from time to time, I like a good comedy, and this is a good comedy. The jokes are admittedly not the smartest in concept, but in execution they are usually brilliant. and while some jokes are funnier than others, me and the friend I was watching this film with never really stopped laughing at the jokes, some even had the pair of us laughing out loud. The only joke I can remember that didn't work was one of the running jokes in the film, while it would have been funny if they did it once, the fact that they do it multiple times in the film kind of drags it down, and when it comes to a head at the most pivotal moment of the film, it just feels out of place, and by that point it just wasn't funny. on the subject of that pivotal moment, while this film has a really funny first and second act, the third act is something else, ramping up the action and bringing everything to a head in a way that really works. The comedy is still there, and it's still great, but now there's explosions and guns and a down-right vile scene in the control room. This is, of course the most effects heavy part of the film, and as already stated, some effects look good while others look great, and the action is fun to watch, culminating in an oddly poetic and completely badass finale. The third act is easily the best part of the film, it really is when I stopped liking this film and started loving it.

I really enjoyed The Interview, is it the smartest comedy ever, absolutely not, is it really a good political commentary, to be honest, at times, and it has some great characters and some side splittingly funny, albeit dirty, comedy. When things all come to an end, the action is fun and violent, the comedy is still funny, and it really does become a more enjoyable film as you watch the stupidity unfold, I'd very highly recommend The Interview.