By Chris Gil
There was a lot of hype for the launch of this movie, as the arguably greatest comedic duo of this decade teamed up yet again in a movie about the murder plot of North Korea’s current leader Kim Jong-un. Seth Rogen and James Franco have produced some of the funniest movies in recent years, including Pineapple Express and This is the End. For The Interview, a movie with as ridiculous of a plotline as attempting to kill the Supreme Leader of North Korea, there were many movie watchers waiting anxiously to buy a ticket. However then Sony got hacked momentarily and there was fear that not only would the world never see the long-awaited-for movie, but also that the United States could receive further backlash from North Korea. Eventually the movie was released on select Internet sites, and thoroughly disappointed most viewers. Although there were occasional funny parts, all in all, “the movie that North Korea almost did not let us see” needed to be much better than it was. The idea for the movie, although controversial, set itself up for comedic gold given the actors involved. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg produced this movie belittling the most dangerous man in the world and to a degree setting our country at risk. To justify going through with the production of this film, the expectation was that this movie would be so earth-shatteringly great that people wouldn’t care as much at how controversial the concept is. The scene of James Franco and Kim Jong-un hanging out was pretty funny, but overall the jokes were repetitive and lacking the comedic genius that we have come to expect out of Rogen/Franco. Even worse, I can never listen to “Firework” by Katy Perry again without it reminding me of this disappointing movie. I hope Seth Rogen makes up for this performance in his next movie.
Grade: C+