Film

‘The Interview’ is a dumb comedy that became an international incident

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Spies like us: Franco and Rogen are in over their heads.

Two and a half stars

The Interview Seth Rogen, James Franco, Randall Park. Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rated R. Available on Video on Demand via Google Play, YouTube and Xbox and at seetheinterview.com.

No movie could live up to the amount of controversy that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s The Interview has been subject to over the last several weeks, let alone a dopey comedy with this many jokes about buttholes. Some people might regard watching The Interview as an act of patriotism, but really it’s just a mildly amusing way to pass the time.

The movie has caused a literal international incident because of a plot that hinges on an assassination attempt against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (played by Randall Park), but substituting a fictional despot in a fictional country probably wouldn’t have made much difference. No doubt inspired in part by Kim’s real-life friendship with basketball star and weirdo Dennis Rodman, the movie presents Kim as a huge fan of vain, vapid talk-show host Dave Skylark (James Franco), whose producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) seizes on the opportunity to land Dave an exclusive interview and a chance to be taken seriously.

But the pair’s mission is quickly co-opted by a CIA agent (Lizzy Caplan) who convinces them to use their interview as a chance to take Kim out. Things, of course, do not go as planned, thanks both to the duo’s ineptitude as secret agents and to their burgeoning relationships with North Koreans (like Rodman, Dave bonds with Kim over basketball and partying, while Aaron falls for a fetching propaganda minister). It would be a stretch to call The Interview a political satire, because while it does have a handful of jokes at the expense of entitled Americans and some obvious jabs at North Korean totalitarianism, it doesn’t forward any particular point of view beyond “dictators are bad.”

Instead it mostly focuses on the bond between Dave and Aaron, whose friendship is tested during the course of their ordeal. Park is funny and even strangely sympathetic as Kim, but he’s never much more than the target of weak bits about his fondness for margaritas and Katy Perry. Franco is the movie’s standout performer, playing Dave as a sort of wide-eyed, giddy kid who happens to be a massive celebrity, and Rogen often ends up playing the straight man opposite Franco’s goofy facial expressions and exaggerated naïveté. Canadian actress Diana Bang also gets a chance to shine in the third act, when her propaganda minister reveals a hidden agenda.

At nearly two hours, the movie suffers from some slack pacing, and its early parade of celebrity cameos is lazy and worn-out. As they did in This Is the End, their previous effort as writers and directors, Rogen and Goldberg show a surprising affinity for big special-effects set pieces, and the climax of The Interview is unexpectedly suspenseful. It’s also silly and cartoonish, an appropriately tossed-off and inconsequential conclusion to a project that should have been allowed to remain tossed-off and inconsequential.

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