'The Interview' Review: Fails to Live Up to the Hype

Sony Pictures emerged victorious from the disastrous hacking episode as it released its controversial comedy flick "The Interview" not only in theatres, but also on digital platforms including YouTube.

"We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release," Sony Entertainment Chief Executive Michael Lynton said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Given the cyber attack incident, there were high expectations from "The Interview". However, it seems to have disappointed fans. 

Plot: The James Franco and Seth Rogen starrer centres around the assassination of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un. This plot allegedly irked the authorities of the impenetrable country and led to the destructive cyber attack.

Franco plays the role of a TV host named Dave Skylark, a cheerful man who helps celebrities to unburden their souls. For instance, the very famous Eminem comes out of the closet in the initial moments of the movie and Rob Lowe reveals that he is after all bald and not the handsome man girls would go gaga over.

On the other hand, Seth Rogen plays the character of Aaron Rapoport, Skylark's producer. A while later the two learn that their show is a favourite of Kim Jong-un, which is played by Randall Park. They try to make an appointment with him for a live interview, and obviously are successful in doing so. However, this endeavour of the pair attracts the CIA team lead by Agent Lacey -- a character played by Lizzy Caplan of the "Masters of Sex" fame -- which appoints them to kill the North Korean leader.

After reaching North Korea they learn new facts about Kim Jong-un, who eventually meets his fiery-end.

The review round-up of "The Interview" is below:

Deadline: "It's an awfully stupid movie, and by stupid, I don't mean good-stupid, the kind that makes you laugh so hard you forget to be embarrassed. The Interview is so drenched in flop sweat that anyone seeing it for reasons of patriotism should be saluted.It is not a great satire; we have seen better."

"Many of the best jokes in The Interview have nothing to do with North Korea, it's worth recapping the ancillary mayhem that the Sony hackers would have suppressed," AV Club reports. 

Rogen and co-director Evan Goldberg, during the 112 minutes of the movie, fail to impress as from the time Skylark and Rapoprt reach North Korea, the movie is "as sophomoric as you'd expect," Businessweek reports. "In a vacuum, the best thing the film has going is the parallel between fictional Rapoport, purveyor of celebrity news, and real-life Rogen, who has made a career out of juvenile jokes...Even if the actual movie plays less like a climax and more like the outtakes that filmmakers sometimes roll after the credits."

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