The Interview movie review & film summary (2014)
Late in the film there’s a ludicrous, emotional scene between Franco’s character, an American news personality-jackass, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (Randall Park), that reminds us what Franco can do when he gets serious and subtle. His palpable sorrow almost makes the weak East-West jokes pop. Early in the film, and for much of it, he is simply trying too hard. Imagine James Dean aiming for Will Ferrell speed and pitch. In Franco’s relentless hyperactivity I sense immense fear, of not supplying enough energy to this gargantuan film, of not giving Rogen enough to volley back. It’s as misguided as Leonardo DiCaprio’s yelping lizard in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Seth Rogen, on the other hand, hangs out. The credits list him as a co-director and producer, but he wears none of the presumable stress of those duties in his performance. His naturalness serves the chatterbox dialogue a lot better than Franco’s general muppet approach.
Franco’s manic newsman convinces his longtime producer (Rogen) to seek an interview with Kim Jong-un after learning that their talk show is the supreme leader’s favorite. Before they can seal the deal, the CIA recruits them to poison Kim during their North Korea visit. Trouble is, Kim ends up showing a human side very different from the West’s image of an infantile, eccentric tyrant. Could Kim be, deep down, just a cool geek, an American slacker at heart?
I didn’t laugh once, but there were several lines that, in context, got a wide fool-grin out of me. Here are a few:
“She’s not honeypotting you and I’m not honeydicking him.”
“A tiger has night vision goggles?”
“Welcome to the jungle, baby, welcome to the jungle. Na na na knees.”
“McConaughey goat f--k!”
A few other smirky lines related to the coming-out of a famous rapper* on Franco’s trashy TV show prepare us for an average of one homosexual panic and/or homoerotic joke per scene--standard ratio for the Rogen genre. (*The rapper’s deadpan actually saves the confession scene from Franco’s Jiminy Glick-wannabe preening.)
