Joke of “The Interview”

The other day I watched “The Interview.”  I thank Netflix for providing me with such an opportunity and saving me a few bucks though I do pay for Netflix. 

The movie was funny. In fact, it was just hilarious. And that it only was. It didn’t pick on anyone specific. Instead, it made fun and ridiculed everything and everyone: media, CIA and the US desire to intervene in everything, and North Korea and its system (though at times it looked not as funny just because when hunger is ever funny). In addition, it made fun of relationships between journalists/reporters (60 Minutes vs Cable Entertainment talk show), how CIA will use anyone to take care of its agenda by using a female character with traits for which most men die for (glasses, long hair with bangs, a hint of showed bosoms, and sweet talk), and the leader of North Korea who is not a bad guy but someone who is misunderstood, wants to have some fun, and gets angry quickly because he has daddy issues. Overall, the movie was a simple parody of things that we take sometimes too seriously and don’t see humor and idiocy in our view of the world and how we treat each other. The movie wasn’t politically or socially correct. That was the whole point. As such, if North Korea doesn’t understand this or any other country that attacks non-sense of a movie, then how can we really improve the world, our relationship with each other, where certain leaders’ egos are clouding their judgment, and they don’t get humor for humor’s sake. After all, I don’t really understand American humor. I find it repulsive and idiotic most of the time. However, sometimes movies, a TV show, or stand-up comes along that makes me laugh regardless how inappropriate it is. The point of the comedy is not to take things too seriously. And if someone doesn’t understand that, then they need to learn how to laugh. Have you seen Jeff Dunham routines? They are so wrong on so many levels, but sooooo funny.

Plus, James Franco and Seth Rogen were hilarious. Yes, they were inappropriate in the best of times in their scenes, but they were not Sacha Baron Cohen’s inappropriate like. To me, it seemed their play was on purpose. Every sentence was almost like a joke in of itself. As such, this is the reason why the movie worked. Comedies are hard to write and act in; not everyone would be able to make it classy and not crass.  And they succeeded. I think I laughed in almost every scene.

I also enjoyed set designs, especially those portraying North Korea. Everything was too big, too monstrous, and too dark. It reminded me of Soviet style architecture which was influenced by 1930s style architecture that was prevalent in places like Canada, Europe, and the Soviet Union and moved on to Asia.

It was sad to hear when the movie was cancelled by Sony. Is this what will happen if Alibaba acquires a major, or a few, Hollywood studios? Will we have censorship of what people should watch? If that’s the case, then the dream that was the US will die and the old world (not just Europe – which has more freedoms now than the US) will dominate the globe and no one will be able to escape anywhere anymore. I hope that is not the case, and the movie “The Interview” and what happened afterwards reminds us to keep our head above the water of those who prefer to tell others what to do, what to think, what to buy, and whom to obey.

And, in the end, did I mention it was funny?