Crowds (and Pirates) Flock To 'The Interview' 148
Rambo Tribble writes: Many of the 300+ theaters showing The Interview on Christmas were rewarded with sell-out crowds. While reviews of the comedy have been mixed, many movie-goers expressed solidarity with the sentiment of professor Carlos Royal: "I wanted to support the U.S."
Despite sellout crowds, the movie's limited release meant it only brought in about $1 million on opening day (compared to $10M+ for the highest-grossing films). Curiosity about the film seems high, since hundreds of thousands rushed to torrent the film, and others figured out an extremely easy way to bypass Sony's DRM.
My review (Score:5, Interesting)
So there's a lot more gore and less funny than you would hope. Most of the movie is pretty lame after the Eminem interview, where you're still trying to figure out the movie's "style" and probably have a bit of hope left in you. Mostly it's a mish-mash of vignettes strung together to try to tell a boring story. Reminds me a lot of the terrible Dumb and Dumber To, but not as bad. I'm not sure that's a compliment. Go watch Top Five or the revamped TMNT, which are both better films.
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Yep, you pretty much nailed it. At first I thought with these 2 in the movie it was going to be hilarious and then the whole hacking thing happened and I thought, well now this movie is going to end up making Sony more money than any movie ever created. Then I saw it, half of it anyway, and I'm not that interested in seeing the rest... It's not a great movie, it's not even a good movie. At least with something like Sharknado, you know what you're getting yourself into, with this, it's just not very good
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The redeeming virtue of The Interview is that it makes everything else look good by comparison. This tawdry mishmash of low-grade scriptwriting, casting, directing, acting and editing is a rare treat for aficionados of cinematic rubbish.
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and? what did these people expect? its a comedy making fun of a dbag dictator. It would be like people in the 30s complaining about the great dictator being culturall
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i really liked the whole "honeypot/honeydick" thing. The thought that everybody is trying to snow everybody else is quite on-topic.
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It definitely isn't a compliment. Seth Rogen is definitely trying to outdo Jim Carrey for number of roles he plays as an imbecile.
I guess you do what you know.
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Jim Carey was smart enough to say no moreand cut down to one or less movies a year.
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I am 43 and I still like the Seth Rogan juvenile films myself, I knew it would be funny stupid and it was, no surprise there.
But I will say I thought the whole film was twice as funny just because when they make fun of Kim Jong-un I just get this mental picture of Kim getting very upset somewhere and demanding they remove this movie from the internets!
Re:My review (Score:4, Insightful)
Snarky assholes make snarky comments, go figure!
There is nothing wrong with watching a movie just for laughs and to relax, not every movie has to be watched so that you can prove how much of a intellectual you are. If you did not like the movie that's cool, no reason to be a dick about it.
If you watched this movie thinking it was going to be anything more than what you found, your the dumb ass, it was more than obvious.
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Anonymous Coward acting superior. News at 11.
Best review (from IMDB) (Score:3, Funny)
"The movie was hands down the best cinematic experience I have ever had. It was a sophisticated roller coaster of emotion that flung and looped the the center of my being to places I have never been. It has romance,it has action, and such a splendor of visual effects that that I literally wept. To put it in perspective I love this movie like I love my wife, except I'd save this movie from a fire. Before I saw this movie I had cancer, saw the movie, no cancer. The movie was so fantastic that time actually st
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Except for the part about having too much gore, I completely disagree with you. It does falter a bit when it tries to switch between comedy and action modes as the plot to kill Kim Jong Un unravels. But it still works well as a satire of our celebrity obsessed media culture.
James Franco plays his character perfectly. (Granted his character is the sort of smug, smarmy asshole which is not a huge stretch from Franco's current media image.) Kim is more than just a caricature here. He is portrayed as a charisma
didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:3, Insightful)
I didn't go see it, I won't download it. I don't care about the movie.
I find the whole business with it, the hack & blaming North Korea to be a stupid fucking incident and I'm not rewarding Sony for being a cunt.
Re:didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:5, Funny)
Why do you hate America?
Re:didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:4, Insightful)
Because America is currently overstuffed with morons and ruled by moron herders.
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I'd say the same thing about the groupthink on slashdot.
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Oh wait, I get it now!
The Nerfs don't have an over blown sense of entitlement and superiority. Also if you hitch them to a wagon they will be able to pull it without all the whining, heart attacks and need for a candy bar and coke every few metres...
NB: Nothing against Americans per se - I have several friends that are American (pun intended). Just sheeple in the US propping up their evil government in ignorance despite its "transparency" (and not the kind obama promised an
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Look around.
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Why do you ask easy questions?
Re:didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:5, Funny)
Re:didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:5, Insightful)
Because not believing, with little evidence, NK is competent enough to pull this off makes you a B357 K0r34n 1337 h4xx0r.
What on earth makes you think that NK has to have the native talent? The didn't figure out how to make nukes on their own either. They didn't home-grow their substantial currency counterfeiting operation, either. They likewise don't design and build their own military equipment. But that doesn't stop them from having nukes, from doing big business in phony currency, and sinking other people's ships.
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Uhuh. Sure. Tell you what, I'll trade the medallion for the cash the hackers demanded from Sony, since the demand for cash was real and the whole "korea did it" meme is fake.
Re:didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:5, Informative)
That's just it... The movie is, by most accounts, shit. North Korea is annoyed but almost certainly wasn't responsible for the hack. Going to see it does nothing other than line Sony's pockets.
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The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say it was a big, fat marketing ploy to make the best off of two bad things (the breach and the fact that critics panned the movie even before the whole hacking thing).
Re:didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:4, Funny)
It's hard to believe in a conspiracy where Sony is really clever. The only thing crazier would be a conspiracy theory that the people in the Bush administration pulled off an intricate ruse to fool the whole world.
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The only thing crazier would be a conspiracy theory that the people in the Bush administration pulled off an intricate ruse to fool the whole world.
Well, they fooled enough of the US to get voted in in the first place...
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thrice! and going for a four-peat.
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The only problem with your theory is that it makes Sony appear much smarter than they are
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What 'conspiracy'? That had a stinker, the plan worked perfectly for its Christmas Day release. And even if North Korea did anything, the Americans sure did give them the money shot with the reaction they put on display, it could be its own movie, something of a Keystone Cops thing.. It was brilliant! The movie industry is alive and well. Now with more audience participation!
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The breach revealed too much juicy stuff to be a intentional - but I wouldn't put it past Sony to play up the Interview connection. Remember the initial breach and associated bragging announcement by GoP made no mention of the Interview at all.
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The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say it was a big, fat marketing ploy to make the best off of two bad things (the breach and the fact that critics panned the movie even before the whole hacking thing).
Sony's monetary losses to recover from the security breach is estimated at >$100m. The movie cost ~$80m to make. So far, tickets sales have brought in $1m.
The marketing department needs to be fired.
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North Korea is annoyed but almost certainly wasn't responsible for the hack
That is not only a false pretense but it's missing the point entirely. Even if you assume the hack was another group, North Korea already declared releasing the movie as an "act of war" and promised "merciless" retaliation. That hardly qualifies as just being "annoyed".
Anyway, regardless of the quality of the movie, part of the idea is to show how silly NK leadership acts. The ultimate goal in creating a movie like this, I think, is to break the cult of personality which has been built up in NK (there ar
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N. Korea could really tick Sony off by re-editing it and making it good.
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I really don't see how Sony's been a cunt here. They've been one before, but here they've just been stupid (with their poor security) and a little indecisive (but they made the right decision in the end).
Re:didn't go didn't download, don't care (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly I've found most of the conspiracy theorizing to be straight up comical. This movie has cost Sony $79 million. They made $1 million on opening day even with the fury because none of the major distributors would show it. They've lost far more with the early leaks of their other bigger budget films. If this really was a ploy to drive up viewership for this movie than it was a complete failure and as much as Sony makes some terrible decisions they haven't proven themselves to be quite this stupid in how they run their business.
My favorite comment in some article I read was this (paraphrasing): North Korea's guilt may be most telling in a certain absence: All of the movies stolen from Sony have made their way to the streets *except the one movie that North Korea doesn't want you to see. I have no proof and they may be completely innocent BUT there's a lot of good logic in that statement.
Anyway... I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It's not an Academy Award winner by far but that is not what I watch a Seth Rogan film for. Toilet humor at its finest is what it is was and always shall be. They happen to highlight the atrocities of (and really piss off) a terrible totalitarian regime in the process with a heavy dose of reality thrown in it seems (more than their other movies) so props to the effort.
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Speak for yourself.
I found it to be the most brilliant marketing campaign in ages. Everyone bought into the hype, including heads of the nations involved, and an otherwise stupid movie soared in popularity.
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I don't care about this guys comment.
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Fuck that spoilt little shit tinpot-dictator living a life of luxury in a land of abject poverty. He embodies in the worst possible way way is wrong with almost all of our world leaders and where our world is heading.
But also fuck sony and their history of abusive business practices and abject greed.
This is about WATCHING the movie because you want to and especially because it annoys Mr "worship me because my father was rich
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What you said! Ditto. And associating being a flaming rude asshole with "being american" is just dumb.
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I care not for it too. Its previews didn't interest me.
Re:Convenient! (Score:4, Insightful)
The idea that Sony would be willing to accept the liability massive costs with disclosing private information of its employees really beggars belief; what money they could have made from the film would really not be worth the potential risk here.
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False dichotomy.
The hack was obviously not a publicity stunt.
Turning the hack into a promotion for a shitty movie that wants to be Inglourius Basterds but can't pull it off? Well, when life gives you lemons...
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Not only that, the comedic reaction to the affair is a movie in its own right, and most likely a much better one. North Korea couldn't ask for better propaganda, and for free!
OTOH, there is precedent for this . . . (Score:2)
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"
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Never let a good crisis go to waste, eh?
Sayy Whaaat! (Score:3)
You mean to say there were problems with radically altering the release plans for a major motion picture at the last moment!
Trying to do a for rent feature on kernel, which correct me if I am wrong normally just provides users with some code to redeem their move on some other VOD providers site, on short notice meant software issues and implementation holes is no surprise.
Now if Sony had been planing from the begging to make the Interview the first major direct to VOD feature release, we might have story. All we have here is "there were problems with a rush job".
Honestly I think the fact the mostly people seem to be able to pay their money and watch the file issue free speaks pretty highly of the folks that put it all together so quickly.
Its a little surprising that risked doing a seetheinterview.com and actually "screening" the movie there rather than just having a bunch pointers to youtrube, amazon prime, xbox-live, playstation network; in other words the folks that have been doing this for a while.
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An oddly apt typo...:)
It's complete crap (Score:5, Informative)
Franco's acting was so bad it made Rogen look positively Shakespearean, and Rogen is a complete hack.
If you have to see it, download it, don't pay a penny for this tripe, it was so bad you would have to have a fake terror attack associated with it just to sell it.
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I think the point of the entire movie was to be just one long running bad joke at North Korea's expense.
Do not fight the tiger. You will lose.
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I watched it and thought it was funny. I didn't expect academy award worthy acting, just some physical comedy, dirty jokes, and special effects. It had all three and a sweet russian tank. T-54 I think.
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Yeah, not many laughs, at the end of it I did feel like my time watching it was wasted. It's not just that it lacked laughs but it also lacked being a good action film. Kim was a thin character set in some weird dull bond lair type place in the middle of no-where. It made expendables 3 look like an awesome film and was about as funny.
That explains all. (Score:1)
The sorry state of the US becomes clear when people even have the idea that it "supports the US" going to watch a crap movie. How dumb can one get?
No better press than to be banned. (Score:3)
Not saying that Sony would have been planning this exactly, but I don't see why a movie should create as much fuss or - if so - why we should care, "force" corporations to show it, etc. As far as I can tell, people are going to it to somehow "stick it to the man"? It's a crappy comedy that happens to insult a foreign leader, who got insulted. Whoopee-do.
If there was some kind of black comedy portraying, say, Obama as the worst kind of racial stereotyping, released in Korea, are we going to have a war over that too?
The modern digital war is now about hearsay, childish attacks, "what they said about me", and threatening action on the back of the worst (or zero) evidence.
I really hope you don't start WWIII because of pissing about like this.
Don't ban the movie. Don't make a fuss about it either. Let it blow over into the history of stupid things people haven't liked. When you have the PRESIDENT having to say that a corporation should show a movie, because of some political motive, it really is the beginning of the end.
Not watching this (Score:1)
I'll wait for "The interview 2: puttin' Putin down"
It's free advertising. (Score:3)
Sony is playing off the mass-media hubbub of the "North Korea thing" to seed the movie around – in the same way that software vendors, rock bands, and so on have leverage what amounts to "free advertising."
Surprisingly easy-to-circumvent DRM (from Sony?), articles about the overwhelmed servers, and the advert-aticle of the post (TFA). All classic indicators that someone is trying to create a 'cult classic,' but clumsily.
Or, perhaps, it's because it sucks and they know it. . .
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Assassinate american billionaires (Score:1)
There was a guy at Florida State that was making a dark comedy about "Trickle Down Economics".
The plot involved stimulating trickle down by assassinating the families of the Forbes 100 billionaire list.
He was strongly advised to halt production, and did.
Do you think he might be more warmly received today?
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I bow to our PSYOPs Overlords (Score:4, Interesting)
Do not question Official information. Carry on.
SOmething I've always wondered (Score:2)
What about bluray, digital (and rental), streaming, and licensing for TV and such?
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Many people had no choice but to pirate... (Score:2)
The decision of Sony to limit the release to the US as of now (presumably because they still want to be able to negotiate with cinema chains in Australia, Europe and elsewhere) means people who want to see it have no choice but to pirate it.
If Sony had made the online release (through the special website at the very least) global then piracy wouldn't be anywhere near as much of a problem.
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"No choice" would be if we're talking about food, water, health care, energy....
Its not like you HAVE to see it. Heck, doing stuff like that lessens the chance of legitimate distribution, since there will be less of a voice asking for it.
Finally, the proper distribution model (Score:3)
Every movie should have a voluntary payment option like this, directly to the studio. I will use it every time I watch a copyrighted movie past its 1/3 length.
Thanks the North Korea!
Was not horrible, was amusing (Score:3)
If you have ever seen a seth rogen film, and they are pretty much all the same, this one was kind true to that.
A simple comedy. I though james franco was pretty funny, again, not because the movie was intelligent, but because he had delivered his lines well. There were a few funny jokes, made much better by the delivery. The actors at least thought they were being funny.
Its the kind of film you want to have a few drinks and a joint before you watch it though. Some nudity, but not much, the oblig anal rape scene, lots of sex jokes and seth rogenesque buddy buddy dialog... Its similar to national lampoon or austin powers or something like that. Not that seth rogen is near as funny as mike myers, i dont mean to say that.
Point is, it was worth the download to me. And I do not support america (although against NK, well lesser of two evils right.)
I should like to point out that the movie was filmed in BC canada and stars a canadian. So its hardly the most patriotic movie for americans in the first place. So in short, i disagree with the previous comments I have seen posted today.
Linux support for youtube rentals (Score:1)
Not nearly as bad as the trailer made it seem (Score:1)
If you saw the trailer, you knew it was going to be a sophomoric bromance pic. The jingoistic fervor that has embraced the marketing campaign is even stupider than the picture, but it had an enormous number of laughs in it, if you went in not expecting a lot of nuance and deep meaningful insight.
If you thought you were striking a blow for truth, justice and the American Way, well, bless your pointed little head.
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Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
I live in North Korea you insensitive clod!
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I live in North Korea you insensitive clod!
Playing along, you could still go see it as a show of resistance to N Korea's neurotic, obsessive insecurity.
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He not only lives there, he's also the president..
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He not only lives there, he's also the president..
He does have access to Slashdot, so either that or he's part of the hacker corps. =)
Re:Fascist moderators! (Score:4, Insightful)
Your definition of "patriotism" seems strange. Mindlessly chanting "USA! USA! USA!" doesn't really qualify as "patriotism" in my book. Real patriots are fighting the NSA's mass surveillance and any silly draconian laws the government is trying to pass in response to this very convenient hack of a company with notoriously bad security.
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Re:Fascist moderators! (Score:5, Insightful)
The US government is not trying to censor this movie, and there were no serious threats to begin with, so freedom of speech is safe.
This is just chest-thumping nonsense. You don't need to see a movie produced by an evil company that routinely abuses its customers in order to support freedom of speech.
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Threats were made, but there were no serious risks. This is much ado about nothing.
I see freedom of speech as bigger than one government.
Freedom of speech is not really under attack. It's mainly just businesses with a poor understanding of the nearly nonexistent risks that caused the movie to be less available.
And sticking up for freedom of speech is fine, but I'd rather do it in ways that don't involve giving money to companies like Sony, or seeing silly movies.
Re:Fascist moderators! (Score:5, Insightful)
That sort of patriotism is about as sincere and effective as a flag lapel pin. It's fitting though that all this happened at Christmas, because seeing the movie now is just crass consumerism. Don't confuse the two.
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Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
I concede that patriotic was not the best word choice for what I meant. What I actually intended was broader, the ideals of freedom shared by many free countries in the world. To me, seeing this movie as a statement of support for its release in spite of the intimidating threats and actions aimed at squelching it is valid.
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How is filling Sony's coffers patriotic?