By William Wolf

THE INTERVIEW  Send This Review to a Friend

On his mission to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Seth Rogen as cable television producer Aaron Rapaport has to hide a rocket-like object containing poison up his butt. That might also be a good place to stick “The Interview.”

It is a sign of the crazy world in which we live that a hammy farce like this one could cause the uproar of opposition that has resulted in a battle over free speech. But on reflection, humor is always a weapon against totalitarianism, so one can see that even word of as lame a comedy as “The Interview” can have the power to unsettle the North Korean leadership.

I venture to speculate that if the film could be shown there, the North Korean public might secretly enjoy the subversive send-up of the self-sacred leader, seen pilloried in a variety of ways, such as being portrayed a womanizer, weeper, nincompoop and dishonest in his use of fake fruit and vegetables displayed to fool his hungry people into believing there is abundance. His being marked for assassination is the least of it.

But let’s not get carried away. “The Interview” is merely a dumb comedy directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg and written by Dan Sterling based on an idea shamelessly credited to all three. It stars an over-the-top James Franco as Dave Skylark, a TV host who gets guests to reveal themselves on camera, such as Eminem saying he’s gay and Rob Lowe showing a bald head. Reflecting a hunger to be taken more seriously, Skylark and Rapaport head off to Pyongyang to interview the North Korean leader. The complication: The C.I.A. enlists them for the assassination job.

Randall Park is quite funny as President Kim as he tries to seem like a regular guy in his interaction with Skylark in preparations for the interview. Meanwhile, Rapaport is assaulted by a North Korean public relations sexpot (Diana Bang) who is arranging the interview, and she turns out to reject her government and become an ally of the slay boys.

The plot, script and action shoot-outs turn out to be as awful as the lowest level of such buddy comedies churned out of Hollywood. The nerve in this case is to target a real leader by his right name. (Forgive the comparison, but in “The Great Dictator” Charlie Chaplin named the dictator Hynkel, not Hitler, and the country Tomania.) And yes, the film does qualify as satire of a regime. But it is satire in no way up to the task, with sophomoric ideas of humor and almost totally bereft of wit.

The controversy stirred has given the film more attention than it would normally deserve. Fortunately for free speech, it is getting shown and in that sense, it merits display even as one recoils at what passes for comedy. A Columbia Pictures release. Reviewed December 26, 2014.

  

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