Cassidy, "The Interview"

The Interview is a movie that has done nothing but cause controversy since its appearance in the media. While Seth Rogen and James Franco, the stars of the film, are known for being wacky and never afraid to offend for the sake of comedy, many people say The Interview takes it too far. The controversy surrounding the film is not only due to its plot, but also the highly publicized hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony Pictures was hacked and then threatened to not release The Interview to theaters.

The Interview is the story of talk show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen), his best friend and producer of his show, Skylark Tonight. The two learn that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (Randall Park) is a huge fan of Skylark and his show, and decide they want to try to interview him for the show. Rapaport makes a call and gets a response saying Jong-un will do the interview. Rapaport meets with Sook Yung Park (Diana Bang), a propagandist for Jong-un, in rural China to receive instructions for the interview. The CIA learns of the interview and Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) meets with Skylark and Rapaport and convinces them to assassinate Kim Jong-un for the United States. The two then go to North Korea and meet with Kim Jong-un and Sook. They then go through a bunch of ordeals while in North Korea and so on and so forth.

While the basic plot of the film is unique, the execution of the film is pretty standard for an outrageous comedy. The movie has a lot of vulgar language and crude humor, which not everyone enjoys. I do not really mind that though, and I love James Franco, I think he's a great actor. Him and Seth Rogen are hilarious together, in my opinion. However, this movie was not a high point.

I did not hate the movie, like a lot of other people do, however it is not exactly something I would have been upset about missing. I definitely see why it upsets and offends people – there is a lot of racist jokes about Asian people, especially the North Koreans. I feel that the movie was not as offensive as others had led me to believe, however it is still an offensive film. Maybe I was just expecting something just completely disgusting, but I did not thing the movie was. It should have been more racially sensitive and should not have made light of topics as serious as nuclear warfare.

I felt that the funniest parts of the film had absolutely nothing to do with the core plot of the film. For instance, I loved the huge bromance between Skylark and Rapaport. I thought it was a cute and silly humor rather than the crass humor dominating the rest of the film. The Interview was full of racism and crude humor. It is not a film for the easily offended, nor is it one to watch if you want to sit down and just watch something that makes you cry from laughing so hard. It is not very funny, but it still had its moments. If you are expecting some great comedy, this is not your movie. If you are looking for an okay movie with some good moments, then The Interview will do just fine.

Rating: 2.5/5