Is it possible to give a film a bad review before anybody’s seen it? Apparently so, as the North Korean government have all but threatened war with the USA based on the trailer for The Interview. The new comedy re-teams James Franco and Seth Rogen, who co-directs with Evan Goldberg, as a hapless TV presenter and his producer who go to the “world’s most dangerous country” to interview Kim Jong-Un. There is one problem however – the CIA have unwittingly hired them to assassinate him whilst in the country.
Here’s the “controversial” trailer:
Upon watching the trailer, it becomes clear that the contents of the trailer aren’t what has caused problems, but the synopsis of the film, which seems like a broad over simplification. I mean, if Rogen and Goldberg’s directorial debut This is the End is anything to go by, it is very likely that instead of assassinating Kim, he will probably just tag along for their bromantic adventures (which is problematic for an entirely different set of reasons). For me, the main problem is that the trailer just isn’t that funny; instead, it seems structured more like an action movie (with emphasis on big set pieces) rather than the lovably lowbrow comedy we’ve come to expect from the Rogen/Goldberg pairing.
Even despite a poor trailer, I am still really looking forward to this – it is an example of a film whose plot is so ridiculous I can’t see how it could possibly fail (although I will try and retract these words if it is a massive failure). In fact, I would happily watch more comedy duos take down tyrannical world leaders; Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly Vs. Robert Mugabe is surely in the pipeline if The Interview is a box office hit.
The film is released in the US on the 10th October and in the UK on the 29th, and all release dates can be found here. Expect the North Korean retaliation to occur sometime after its US opening weekend, depending on how big of a box office hit it is- presumably the only reason North Korea didn’t start a war over Team America was because it was a massive flop.
Do you think The Interview will live up to its pre-release hype? And more importantly, do you think that this will have any effect on international relations with North Korea?
(featured image source: Columbia Pictures)
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