Okay, I had to do it.
New Year’s Day. A soft day as it were. Everybody relaxing quietly.
And I watch my very first movie of the year. Yep, the one above. The one I swore never to see. But, like all big auto accidents or building fires, you just have to look. And Direct TV had it on demand for six bucks. I had my own popcorn in-house thanks to a Christmas gift of one of those tin canisters.
I guess I just had to see what all the fuss was about.
Indeed, as Billy Shakespeare would write, much ado about nothing. In a bizarre way, North Korea might have done us all a favor by hacking into the Sony Studios system. They would have spared us all from the absolute mess that “The Interview” is.
Don’t get me wrong. I applaud the fact that this movie is being shown in a variety of ways. The sad thing is that, if we needed to support freedom of speech in America, why did it have to be this film? I could have picked a refugee boatload of other more worthy voices to defend.
In a way, you can’t blame North Korea for being pissed. The Kim Jung Un or whoever that is portrayed in this movie is not just a token appearance. The “character” probably has the fourth most lines of any actor in the film. And, perhaps justifiably, it is not a glamourous depiction. And, yes, folks, he does blow up at the end and I really don’t want to hear from anybody who says I should have just issued a spoiler alert. It’s been in all the papers, guys.
By putting this real person, regardless of how despicable he may be, into the plotline of a major Hollywood production, you cross a line that is very, very dangerous. We as a movie going country would be out of our collective minds if a foreign film depicted Barack Obama in such an offensive manner. So, why would Sony…and, most notably, director/co-screenwriter/star Seth Rogen…even do that?
Because they are just plain idiots, that’s why. Over all his movies, Rogen has proven to be as juvenile and insipid as they come. He appeals to the grossest and lowest common denominator in the movie audience, most likely because that’s the IQ level he fits the most. With zero talent behind him, he still inexplicably makes money and gets films made. So, there’s an audience out there he is somehow appealing to and that’s probably the saddest element of all this “Interview” fracas.
The plot, in itself, is mindboggingly bad. James Franco, who gives perhaps the most embarrassing performance of any actor in five decades, plays an American talk show host who happens to be adored by the North Korean dictator. With Rogen as his producer, they are invited to Korea for a one-on-one exclusive interview. Of course, when the US government finds out about this meeting, they recruit these two morons to carry out an assassination plot. This is major literary license at work. Franco and Rogen’s characters are so incredibly stupid that there is no way even our misguided leadership would put them in charge of such a mission.
What follows is a series of un-comical mis-adventures that are an endless array of sex and bodily function jokes. And, naturally as is the case with most Hollywood films aimed at the Male 18-24 audience these days, the F bomb is dropped in virtually every line of dialogue. If I actually cared what North Korea thought about this country, I’d be ashamed.
We have enough problems on this globe without having some asshole like Seth Rogen throwing more gasoline on the fire. If, as they say, the North Koreans have a nuclear missile pointed directly at Los Angeles, I sincerely hope that the target site is whatever bed Rogen is sleeping in at the time.
Sadly, you could easily do a movie like this as a satire. Look at what Charlie Chaplin did with his Hitler spoof in “The Great Dictator.” Remember what Stanley Kubrick did with his nuclear war dilemma in “Dr. Strangelove.” But, in cases like that, the filmmakers worked their magic with imaginary characters and scenarios, not the real thing. Folks like Seth Rogen are not smart enough to know that, and, let’s face it, you can’t possibly mention his name in the same paragraph with those other geniuses.
Yes, I am happy that we got the choice to see “The Interview.” Rejoice in our freedom. And then feel free to avoid the movie however humanly possible.
LEN’S RATING: No stars.
Dinner last night: Vegetable stir fry.
New Year’s Day. A soft day as it were. Everybody relaxing quietly.
And I watch my very first movie of the year. Yep, the one above. The one I swore never to see. But, like all big auto accidents or building fires, you just have to look. And Direct TV had it on demand for six bucks. I had my own popcorn in-house thanks to a Christmas gift of one of those tin canisters.
I guess I just had to see what all the fuss was about.
Indeed, as Billy Shakespeare would write, much ado about nothing. In a bizarre way, North Korea might have done us all a favor by hacking into the Sony Studios system. They would have spared us all from the absolute mess that “The Interview” is.
Don’t get me wrong. I applaud the fact that this movie is being shown in a variety of ways. The sad thing is that, if we needed to support freedom of speech in America, why did it have to be this film? I could have picked a refugee boatload of other more worthy voices to defend.
In a way, you can’t blame North Korea for being pissed. The Kim Jung Un or whoever that is portrayed in this movie is not just a token appearance. The “character” probably has the fourth most lines of any actor in the film. And, perhaps justifiably, it is not a glamourous depiction. And, yes, folks, he does blow up at the end and I really don’t want to hear from anybody who says I should have just issued a spoiler alert. It’s been in all the papers, guys.
By putting this real person, regardless of how despicable he may be, into the plotline of a major Hollywood production, you cross a line that is very, very dangerous. We as a movie going country would be out of our collective minds if a foreign film depicted Barack Obama in such an offensive manner. So, why would Sony…and, most notably, director/co-screenwriter/star Seth Rogen…even do that?
Because they are just plain idiots, that’s why. Over all his movies, Rogen has proven to be as juvenile and insipid as they come. He appeals to the grossest and lowest common denominator in the movie audience, most likely because that’s the IQ level he fits the most. With zero talent behind him, he still inexplicably makes money and gets films made. So, there’s an audience out there he is somehow appealing to and that’s probably the saddest element of all this “Interview” fracas.
The plot, in itself, is mindboggingly bad. James Franco, who gives perhaps the most embarrassing performance of any actor in five decades, plays an American talk show host who happens to be adored by the North Korean dictator. With Rogen as his producer, they are invited to Korea for a one-on-one exclusive interview. Of course, when the US government finds out about this meeting, they recruit these two morons to carry out an assassination plot. This is major literary license at work. Franco and Rogen’s characters are so incredibly stupid that there is no way even our misguided leadership would put them in charge of such a mission.
What follows is a series of un-comical mis-adventures that are an endless array of sex and bodily function jokes. And, naturally as is the case with most Hollywood films aimed at the Male 18-24 audience these days, the F bomb is dropped in virtually every line of dialogue. If I actually cared what North Korea thought about this country, I’d be ashamed.
We have enough problems on this globe without having some asshole like Seth Rogen throwing more gasoline on the fire. If, as they say, the North Koreans have a nuclear missile pointed directly at Los Angeles, I sincerely hope that the target site is whatever bed Rogen is sleeping in at the time.
Sadly, you could easily do a movie like this as a satire. Look at what Charlie Chaplin did with his Hitler spoof in “The Great Dictator.” Remember what Stanley Kubrick did with his nuclear war dilemma in “Dr. Strangelove.” But, in cases like that, the filmmakers worked their magic with imaginary characters and scenarios, not the real thing. Folks like Seth Rogen are not smart enough to know that, and, let’s face it, you can’t possibly mention his name in the same paragraph with those other geniuses.
Yes, I am happy that we got the choice to see “The Interview.” Rejoice in our freedom. And then feel free to avoid the movie however humanly possible.
LEN’S RATING: No stars.
Dinner last night: Vegetable stir fry.
No comments:
Post a Comment