Posted on 12/26/2014 3:53:33 AM PST by Las Vegas Dave
Pinging the lists..(as a FYI).
...it was horrible...
Which gives credence to the rumor that the Sony dustoff was nothing but a publicity stunt to bolster revenue.
Follow The Money.
Lately, I jumped straight to what the regular audience folks have to say because they are the only ones who make sense.
That said, I watched the first half of The Interview last night and found it amusing and at times really funny.
Worth the money just to give the middle finger salute to North Korea.
Agreed. The movie sucks. It is so amateurish that it doesn't even qualify as a low budget film, more likely a no budget production and thus a reason for the self created fiasco by SONY!!!
It’s fairing even more poorly with top critics, who give it a measly 32 percent positive rating.
The film is doing better with regular fans, however. It gets a 73 percent “liked it” audience score from Rotten Tomatoes.
Critics say the satire about a television host and producer asked by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jung-un doesn’t deliver the goods.
“Characterizing it as satire elevates the creative execution of the film’s very silly faux assassination of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un far beyond what it merits,” writes Betsy Sharkey in the Lost Angeles Times.
In the Village Voice, Stephanie Zacharek writes that “The Interview” is “contrived absurdity” and that it has very little payoff for all the trouble it caused.
Slate’s Aisha Harris argues that those looking for a satire of North Korea are better off re-watching “Team America: World Police,” the puppet movie created by the makers of “South Park” more than a decade ago.
One performance does stand out in the move, according to several reviewers.
Randall Park, who plays Kim Jung-un and is (SPOILER ALERT) blown to smithereens in the movie, is a “riot throughout,” according to Roger Friedman of The Independent, who gives the film a positive review.
Sharkey also singles out Park’s performance as the highlight of the movie.
Sony Pictures initially pulled “The Interview” from its scheduled Christmas Day release after hackers threatened to stage September 11-style attacks at theaters that showed it.
Major movie theater chains then said they would not carry the film, which North Korea had declared an act of war given its plot.
Sony reversed itself this week, announcing it would not only screen the movie in select theaters, but that it had worked out deals with several companies to show the movie online and on-demand.
President Obama in a press conference last week had criticized Sony’s initial decision to pull “The Interview’s” release, arguing it would give a victory to North Korean efforts to repress speech.
The FBI has linked the hacking of Sony to North Korea, though that country’s government has denied involvement.
As comedies go these days, its not too bad. Too many inside jokes and gay references for my taste but, what the heck its a comedy.
The movie did clearly portray the regime in terms of a slave state. In this regard it performed a valuable public service in explaining to a large segment of the population (young, dumb and you know the rest) exactly what kind of person is running North Korea. I haven't seen Chaplin's "The Dictator" but in some ways this movie serves the same purpose, ridicule of a despotic leader.
1 hour and 52 minutes of my life I will never get back. But I will be D@MNED if some tin pot third world pi$$ ant tells us what movies we can and can’t release in our own country.
Color me “unsurprised” since the entire premise, even intended as a comedy, was beyond ridiculous. Throw in Seth Rogen and you’re ready for EPIC FAIL. The NORKs’ power play is the only thing getting this dog beyond the direct-to-video market.
The movie about the making of the movie and it’s aftermath will be much funnier... It will star Brad Pitt as Seth Grogan an Joe Flacco as James Franco... Barack Obama will play the Korean dictator. Seriously... It will be much, much funnier, and the funniest parts will be inserting the actual rhetoric spewed from North Korea after they are exposed as the actual perpetrators.
It is now obvious the "hacking" was a cleverly designed plan to con people into wasting time and money watching a totally worthless movie. The United States is self-destructing over outright greed and collapse of moral values and then wants to point the finger at someone else? If you can't make a good movie, then lie, deceive, distort and downright do anything short of gunpoint to make the people watch your trashy production.
Of far greater entertainment would have been a move about Obama and all of his missteps starring him, his wife, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Boehner, Reid, Pelosi, Christie, Schumer, Tip O'Neil/Ted Kennedy (have them come back from the dead), Al Gore and any others who came out fanning the flames with their big mouths. Use as extras all of the welfare freaks who have been rioting...I mean, they could get paid to riot this time. The reaction to such a film would have been overwhelming world wide. Just a suggestion.... And, of course, you couldn't have Obama die in the film as the SS would investigate EVERYONE involved in making the film and any who might comment on it. Perfect storm timing for a Monty Python type production exposing this government (both sides).
Raul Castro doesn’t want you to see “Ishtar.”
“Plan 9 From Outer Space” is far superior.
Saw it, for free, in order to know what I was talking about.
It is puerile, full of innuendo and bathroom humor.
It also gives the goods on the artificiality of the NK regime, and the true conditions in that country, in a way that may get through to that segment of the population that would turn away from a serious documentary as dismissively as many of us would turn away from this film.
This is one of those cases where the “regular” people might be rating it positively for no other reason than political motivations. There are a lot of people out there convinced that North Korea tried to stop this film by hacking Sony. These people are predisposed to liking the film for no other reason than they think by liking it (or watching it) they’re sticking it to North Korea. With that in mind, I wouldn’t take the 73% positive rating from “regular” people very seriously.
or “Gigli”
Pray tell,..what is the FR free link for the film?
“I peruse Rottentomatoes for film information and am always amazed how much the critics get wrong. Lately, I jumped straight to what the regular audience folks have to say because they are the only ones who make sense.”
“Critic” reviews are worthless because they are now primarily based on PC criteria, liberal propaganda values, and showing off to other reviewers how cool they are and how knowledgeable they are about Hollywood esoterica.
User reviews are more useful, but even here you have to be careful because reviewers are self-selected from those who were attracted to the movie in the first place with expectations it was the kind of movie they would probably enjoy, and are more likely to give a really bad or stupid movie good reviews because they happen to LIKE bad or stupid movies. Most useful is when there’s a consensus among watchers that a movie sucked: stay away from that movie at all costs!
I am embarrassed to say I talked my wife into seeing that when if came out in a theater. Being a Chuck Norris and Louis Gossett Jr. fan how could I pass it up?
I might still be paying the Chick Fli9ck debt on that one.
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