The Interview

gold2040 · 24/12/14 - 19:53

So after all the hype and drama surrounding this, it is finally being released on VOD

I'll probably watch it 'just because'

All carriers are listed here, though it seems you may need a proxy initially for some of the sites

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30599836

MrSuper · 24/12/14 - 20:05

Available to watch on sites like Google Play and YouTube for a price, but i think it's only available in the US right now.

Who'd have thought a comedy from Seth Rogen and James Franco would be the most controversial movie of the year?!

Some have said the movie is rubbish anyway, but in fact it screened before all this blew up and received some decent reviews. It's not at all bad.

gold2040 · 24/12/14 - 20:08

MrSuper wrote: »

Available to watch on sites like Google Play and YouTube for a price, but i think it's only available in the US right now.

Who'd have thought a comedy from Seth Rogen and James Franco would be the most controversial movie of the year?!

Some have said the movie is rubbish anyway, but in fact it screened before all this blew up and received some decent reviews. It's not at all bad.

It'll be ripped and torrented by next morning

Matt35 · 24/12/14 - 20:55

Won't surprise me if all the controversy was created by sony to boost the ratings. Lets face it because of all that they'll now rake it in where as without it, it would have probably done nothing at the box office.

big brother 9 · 24/12/14 - 22:11

gold2040 wrote: »

It'll be ripped and torrented by next morning

100% but by the next morning is being a tad unkind to the uploaders..........It will be available to torrent within 14 minutes

gold2040 · 24/12/14 - 22:18

big brother 9 wrote: »

100% but by the next morning is being a tad unkind to the uploaders..........It will be available to torrent within 14 minutes

*checks*

We have lift off

Gort · 24/12/14 - 22:26

Matt35 wrote: »

Won't surprise me if all the controversy was created by sony to boost the ratings. Lets face it because of all that they'll now rake it in where as without it, it would have probably done nothing at the box office.

Wouldn't surprise me, either. But a more likely scenario would be that they were hacked by some group, so Sony, and maybe others, decided to make good use of a bad situation. I find the whole North Korea angle a bit dubious, to say the least.

Takae · 24/12/14 - 23:03

gold2040 wrote: »

So after all the hype and drama surrounding this, it is finally being released on VOD [/url]

Here comes a tidal wave of outrage and bitter complaints from cinema chains.

Heh. Poor Sony. It's a no-win situation on every avenue possible. They're screwed if they chucked the film into their vault as it'd piss the "creative" gang and the rest of the world off. Screwed if they released it on VOD as it'd piss cinema chains off, which could affect their working relationship from thereon. Also screwed if they went ahead with the cinema release as it'd piss cinema chains off since it'd put them in an awkward position. Above of all, they're screwed for not grounding the film permanently, which would allow them to file an insurance claim to cover the financial loss.

Mind you, I see that as a nice payback for making a six-film deal with Seth McDull Rogen and Evan McPillock Goldberg as a writer-director-producer duo. ^_^

IJoinedInMay · 24/12/14 - 23:59

Matt35 wrote: »

Won't surprise me if all the controversy was created by sony to boost the ratings. Lets face it because of all that they'll now rake it in where as without it, it would have probably done nothing at the box office.

I've thought the same thing since the first news report on the alleged hacking. The film sounds crap.

BelfastGuy125 · 25/12/14 - 00:16

I think it is too much for a PR stunt. I'm fairly cynical about these things but the reputation hit and even things like share prices being hit, to a company not on the most stable ground as it was, I don't think they would have risked it considering even if it wasn't that great, the film would have banked at least double what it cost, back.

[Deleted User] · 25/12/14 - 01:18

Just watched it via Streams...its okay but not hilarious however I can see how it may have possibly upset North Korea?

Yuffie · 25/12/14 - 02:07

This film has a 9.8 out of 10 rating on IMDB based on 45,000 reviewers at the minute.
That is crazy. It's amazing how much the US public will rally behind something for the sake of it.

I'll watch this at some stage ... Just because.

MrSuper · 25/12/14 - 03:57

Apple have refused to release the film on iTunes.

Yuffie wrote: »

This film has a 9.8 out of 10 rating on IMDB based on 45,000 reviewers at the minute.

What's its rating on Rotten Tomatoes?

pete137 · 25/12/14 - 07:17

MrSuper wrote: »

Apple have refused to release the film on iTunes.

What's its rating on Rotten Tomatoes?

50% which is more accurate.

koantemplation · 25/12/14 - 07:30

So, is Eminem really gay?
And Rob Lowe really bald?

Tracy · 25/12/14 - 07:45

I thought it was a little bit rubbish the first 10 minutes were ok then it went down hill from there.

koantemplation · 25/12/14 - 07:53

Tracy wrote: »

I thought it was a little bit rubbish the first 10 minutes were ok then it went down hill from there.

Even without seeing it, it was obvious that North Korea (if they really did it) would make the film more infamous than it deserves by hacking it.

If they just let the film come out, it would have come and gone quicker than Franco's talent.

darnall42 · 25/12/14 - 08:04

watching it now,absolutely awful

omnidirectional · 25/12/14 - 09:18

BelfastGuy125 wrote: »

I think it is too much for a PR stunt. I'm fairly cynical about these things but the reputation hit and even things like share prices being hit, to a company not on the most stable ground as it was, I don't think they would have risked it considering even if it wasn't that great, the film would have banked at least double what it cost, back.

I've seen a lot of people on Facebook etc claiming it's a publicity stunt and we're all 'suckers' for falling for it. They seem to overlook the whole Sony hacking incident and the embarrassing leak of private emails, scripts for upcoming movies, private details of current/former employees etc. Odd to do a publicity stunt which causes major damage to the company and leaves it open to legal action.

ShaunIOW · 25/12/14 - 09:20

Matt35 wrote: »

Won't surprise me if all the controversy was created by sony to boost the ratings. Lets face it because of all that they'll now rake it in where as without it, it would have probably done nothing at the box office.

I've thought the same thing all along - Sony have managed to get millions in free advertising worldwide for a film that most people would have not bothered with or even heard of if not for the controversy. We've seen it all before when the BBC ban a single and it boosts sales and automatically becomes no 1 as people buy it cause its banned not because its any good, whereas under normal circumstances it'd have passed most people by.

fenlander · 25/12/14 - 11:02

If somebody in a certain intelligence agency had decided to make a point of just how preposterous (as well as dangerous) North Korea is, and had sat down to write a script to ensure that the message reached the largest possible number of people worldwide, they could not have done better than to script the events of the last couple of weeks.

As it is a cheap, no-account little film that would have caused barely a ripple is currently going viral. If the North Koreans really were involved in the hack, they got well suckered.

Of course, I'm not saying that's what happened, but I do love a good conspiracy theory. One day, perhaps, they'll make a movie about it.

koantemplation · 25/12/14 - 11:13

Its not a bad film, just what I'd expect from a Rogen Franco type film.

The bit with the Tiger and the Missile had me laughing, and when Skylark was practicing shaking hands with the Kim Jong substitute.

Dave 101 · 25/12/14 - 20:13

Watched this on Xmas day and enjoyed it very much.
It's a nonsense film but if you don't take it too seriously, you can have a good laugh at it.
I don't know or care about the hype surrounding this movie and can say without fear that no one has blown up my TV, so it's safe to view.

MrSuper · 25/12/14 - 22:34

The critics are now having their say. Mostly mixed.

I don't know any political satire that could carry the burden of repping free expression in America. The Interview certainly can't. Its mission is merely to make audiences piss themselves laughing. At that it succeeds. It's killer funny. Even when the jokes miss, or grow repetitive, you can't help rooting for it...

In the end, The Interview hits the sweet spot for raunchy fun and spiky lampooning because Franco and Rogen are effing hilarious and fearless about swinging for the fences. It's the American way.

If you set up as provocative a premise as do the makers of The Interview, you ultimately have to deal with all its implications; let's just say that what concludes the film is rote action, simplistic wish-fulfillment stuff that feels cheap and naive and more concerned with looking coolly kick-ass than with any real-world consequences.

Even if one part of the film is sincere in wanting to highlight North Korea's negatives (famine, ideological orthodoxy, cult of personality, militarism, nuclear brinkmanship, et al.), the larger part is devoted to very Western-style sexual grossness, deterministic outrageousness, self-satisfied obliviousness and contended immaturity.

Again, this is ultimately a silly movie. Knowing what we know now, it'd be great if Rogen could have dropped a few jokes at Sony's expense, the way [Bob] Hope would make fun of Paramount in the 'road' movies.

But no matter what you think of dumb comedies, The Interview, thanks allegedly to Kim [Jong-un], has gone from disposable to indispensable cinema. It's a must-see movie in the context of what has happened, and will spark a discussion of, in comedy, how far is too far?

Rogen and co-director Evan Goldberg let the film sag noticeably in the middle of its 112 minutes, as if they really had nothing more than two jokes and an exploding head to pitch. The film's final third takes a sharp turn from the good-natured if crude slapstick comedy of these bumbling buddies to a drippy morality tale ginned up with some horror-film violence...

The Interview has the earmarks of a corporate concoction gone wildly awry. Jokes don't land, scene shifts jerk us through the threadbare plot and only [Diana] Bang, as the mouthpiece-turned-freedom-fighter, seems to have had any fun. When the sage said it's not the high ground democracy needs to protect, it's the low-hanging fruit, The Interview is what he had in mind.

In its parade of ribald gags and infantile preoccupation with body parts, not to mention a climactic decapitation, water-balloon style, The Interview displays all the mindless excesses that repressive regimes condemn in Hollywood movies. Which may be Rogen and Goldberg's point - 'See, here's what they hate about us. And you're gonna love it.'

Maybe you will love The Interview - if you can ever see the movie — as much as some people hate or fear it. But if you're hoping for any cogent political satire here, then the joke's on you.

The odd thing about The Interview, from my forlorn Christmas Eve viewing perspective, is that it's neither the torture chamber some critics have claimed, nor the enjoyably brash lark others found it. Like most either/or's in life and in the popular culture, this one's in the middle...

It should've been a geopolitical laff riot with real nerve, instead of falling back on the lazy deployment of carnage so familiar from so many successful American comedies lately, from Pineapple Express to Tropic Thunder.

Make no mistake: The Interview doesn't depart much at all from a goofy, party-hearty playbook defined by such Rogen comedies as This Is the End and Neighbors. Peppered with cameos and running pop culture gags from The Lord of the Rings to the oeuvre of Katy Perry, this is a movie firmly rooted in childish things, regardless of its admittedly grown-up subject matter.

As baggy and undisciplined as The Interview is, the humour is generally harmless and even endearing... What's more, The Interview belies its dum-dum bona fides by making some genuinely perceptive observations.

ironjade · 25/12/14 - 23:02

Total crap written by (and apparently, for) 12 year-olds. Great marketing campaign though.

Los_Tributos · 25/12/14 - 23:09

ironjade wrote: »

Total crap written by (and apparently, for) 12 year-olds. Great marketing campaign though.

Any 12 year old screenwriter that can get his script made into a major motion picture deserves a hell of a lot of credit. Imagine what he could be capable of writing when he hits 18. One to watch for sure.

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