Last Looks
Just when I thought Seth Rogen couldn't think of a more plain title then Neighbors he tops himself with his latest effort titled The Interview. With all the talk of is this movie whether it was going to come out or not really made me that much more excited to see it. The marketing strategy at the Video Music Awards using celebrities such as Nicki Minaj, Jason Derulo and Iggy Azelia really had me laughing. I for one have to admit that I had my suspicions about this movie intially. I was actually wondering was the Sony leak one huge conspiracy. To hype the movie up only to pull the plug then to release it for free on Christmas day would be genius in theory right? Buys went through the roof as it has already made the most money for a film that was released online. Those concerns were quickly put to rest in the coming weeks. Who knew that the actual North Korean government was going to get involved and make threats to movie theaters who played it and leak confidential information from Sony. North Korea felt the film promoted terrorism and shed Korea under a negative light. Terrorism has been such a sensitive topic post 911 it was risky to even touch a film like this even with the humor added to it. What ever the case maybe the first official bootleg finally came out and it went like this.
The Breakdown
North Koreas fictional leader Kim Jong-Un is set to do a terrorist attack on the United States. He is a horrble person who puts his own people in concentration camps however his nation is infactuated with him and feels he is great . Aaron (Seth Rogen) is a talk show producer and wants to cover more serious issues instead of the usual Hollywood scandels. After Kim admits in a post that he is a fan of Aaron's produced show Skylark Tonight, Dave Skylark (James Franco) the host convinces Aaron it is a good idea to interview him to provide the show with some more serious content. After sending a request to Koreas leadership they get back in touch with Aaron and set up a secret meeting to conduct this interview. Aaron makes the trip where he is first approached by a worker of Kim's named Sook. She tells him he can only ask Kim questions he writes himself and only has 24 hours to decide. So Skylark convinces Aaron that it will be ok because the interview will be so big it doesn't matter what he wants to ask. After the announcement is made that Skylark will indeed interview North Koreas president media backlash insues as the public feels Skylark is not qualified for an interview of this magnitude. Shortly after members of the CIA approach Skylark and Aaron to assassinate their president as he is a terrorist and has a plan to nuclear attack the United States. Aaron is skeptical because the CIA lady Agent Lacey is very attractive and is trying to convince them to do something they are not supposed to. Lacey explains their master plan and assures that nobody will know that they had anything to do with the assassination. She goes about showing them how to transfer poison to the leader by handshake. The two reluctantly agree and make their way to NorthKorea.
Aaron and Skylark arrive in North Korea where Sook takes them on a tour of the country where they notice an unhealthy population. Afterwards they are taken to the Kim's home where the bag that contains the poison is sought out by one of his security. After convincing him the poison was gum he begins to chew the poison jeopardizing the entire operation. Aaron informs the Lacey that the poison is gone so an alternate plan is created for Aaron to meet in a secret location where a bag of new poison will be secretly transported to him. But on his way to retrieve the poison Aaron is attacked a fucking tiger! The package that was supposed to be carrying the poison was released to take the tiger out. After the Korean government hear the commotion Aaron has no other choice but to secure the package in his asshole.
After Aaron removes the package of poison from his rectum. Skylark is finally visited by Kim who is star shocked by him and presents him with a mini statue of him. Kim and Skylark end up hitting it off and becoming friends. Kim shows Skylark his car collection and his military tank. They end up taking the tank for a spin and firing the guns. Meanwhile Aaron is given the rules for the interview and is told if any part of the agreement is violated they will hit the kill switch and end the interview. Kim and Skylark realize they had a lot in common as people think both of them are incompetent of doing their jobs. They enjoy a night with some beautiful Korean women and smoked some joints.
The next night at a banquet Skylark is supposed to transfer the poison to Kim but is interrupted when the security guard who first took the poison passes out and dies. Which makes everyone at the banquet including Kim burst into tears. After realizing that this mission is to difficult to execute Skylark decides he does not want to do the mission any more. Aaron and Skylark get into an altercation. Aaron is saying that Kim is manipulating Skylark and really is an evil person. Skylark gets upset and discards the poison. Later when Aaron finally meets Kim he attempts the plan to shake hands with him and transfer the poison but Skylark intervenes before they could shake hands. At dinner that night Kim gets upset at the table stating his frustrations about people feeling that he is unfit to be leader and vows to kill many people to prove he is a capable ruler. Meanwhile Aaron and Sook hit it off in his room and begin to make out, however, Aaron still has the poison in his hand so he is doing his best to make love to her without using that hand. Before they can have sex she stops and tells Aaron that she is upset at her position in the company and wants out. Skylark interrupts as he is upset at Kim because he noticed that all of the food in a grocery store is fake proving that he is a liar. He accidentally spills the plan to murder him while Sook was hiding under the covers. She convinces them that killing Kim isn't going to solve anything and that she is going to sabotage the questions for the interview to showcase the bad side of Kim so Korea can stand up and revolt against his cruel acts.
So the interview is finally set to happen live. Before the interview however Kim gives Skylark a puppy to sweeten him up. As the whole world tunes in, Skylark changes his view of Kim again and begins making him look like a good person initially. Skylark suddenly switches on him and begins asking him the hard hitting questions about not feeding his people and spending millions of dollars on nuclear weapons. The producers of the show attempt to hit the kill switch but Aaron and Sook pull guns out on the crew to keep them from cutting the feed. A fight breaks out in the production room between the two sides. Meanwhile members of the Korean security attempt to barge into the production room to stop the interview. After not getting Kim to look bad on any of the questions Kim tells Skylark that everyone is right about him and is not capable of conducting a real interview. Skylark then begins to remind Kim of the neglect and pain his father caused him and Kim breaks down into tears. Proving after all he is a bad person Kim pulls a gun out on Skylark and shoots him in the chest. Kim escapes however Skylark was wearing a bullet proof vest and survives. He reunites with Aaron and Sook and they try to escape the house with North Korean soldiers attempting to kill them. After saving the puppy Skylark leads them to the tank. The soldiers along with Kim attempt to blow up the tank while other members of the North Korean military decide to shoot their nuclear missiles at America. But the tank is able to shoot a missile at Kim's helicopter killing him with Katy Perry acoustics playing in the background. Since Kim dies the word is never sent for the nuclear attack. Aaron and Skylark leave Korea however Sook stays behind to ensure that her country does not fall into the wrong hands.
Skylark writes a tell all book about the experience. Sook and Aaron continue their relationship via Skype as North Korea regains social order.
Nose Candy
I have been playing gay peek a boo (Eminem)
Are you honey dicking me? (Aaron)
They hate us cus they aint us (Dave)
Verdict
Overshadowed by controversy The Interview did have its funny moments but did not live up to all the media hype. Im glad the film was released and did not find the film was promoting terrorism although it did have more then it's fair share of stereotypical humor on Koreans. The acting was good for the most part as I think Rogen and Franco played well off of one another and set each other up for some funny spots. I loved the Enimem appearence he is so private its amazing how he has made so few film cameos because he is extremely entertaining and really set the tone for the film. I guess theoretically the movie made sense as Aaron strives for more respect as a journalist and this interview seems to be his big break, however, they were not offered anything by the CIA for killing Kim. So what was in it for them to risk their lives in the first place? A major email leak, countless threats and 3 Korean sanctions later I wonder if Seth Rogen knew that if the film was going to be this problematic would he even ever made it. Although not the laugh out loud comedy we hoped for The Interview may not be worth the pr nightmare but is still definitely worth a download.
