The Interview is about a celebrity entertainment TV interviewer and his executive producer and friend, played by James Franco and Seth Rogan respectively. The executive producer feels like his work is not important so he lands an interview with North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, who is a fan of their kitschy show. The US government recruits them to assassinate the dictator and cue shenanigans. Franco’s character has a great Dennis Rodman sequence, which puts his friendship and the mission in jeopardy.
I loved This Is the End, which was the first joint directing gig for Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg, so I was actually excited to see The Interview, which was their second. I was also theoretically psyched to see it because in 2014, I was one of the people who expressed outrage when Sony Pictures did not want to release and movie theaters refused to show The Interview after North Korea hacked and threatened anyone who did. I went from having zero interest in The Interview to wanting to pay money to see it the second that it opened to show that I would not let the terrorists win and all hail free speech. Then the hubbub subsided when it felt like a massive publicity stunt, and I waited a little less than two years to see The Interview.
The Interview was not This Is the End, which had me in fits of unexpected laughter at the apocalypse. The Interview was funny ha ha, not funny LOL and not at all memorable in its juvenile humor. I appreciated The Interview when it had a gag involving Katy Perry music, puppies or Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit references. We need more Asian men playing action heroes in American movies because I got disproportionately psyched when Korean American men swooped in to save the day. I am a fan of Randall Park and am psyched that he got a solid paycheck as the mercurial dictator.
The Interview is funny, but not a must see unless you adore Rogan or Franco. Skip The Interview and watch This Is the End instead.