Never before in the history of the medium has a film caused as much trouble as The Interview. What was originally supposed to be just another buddy-action movie starring James Franco and Seth Rogen quickly became something else entirely as soon as the film's plot was revealed.
For the most part, The Interview is the story of two hapless idiots being tasked with the assassination of a certain (and still-living) North Korean dictator. As is to be expected, the North Korean government did not take kindly to such a film. It's not often that one government threatens another over a film; however, the biggest fallout caused by The Interview was a massive security breach targeted towards Sony itself. Massive amounts of confidential data was leaked, all of which revealed secret Sony plans for several of its upcoming projects.
So, after all of the trouble that The Interview has caused, was it actually worth it? Could the film really justify itself after nearly starting World War III? In short - not really, no.
The Interview is currently sitting at 43% on Rotten Tomatoes and 50% over at Metacritic. It's still early, but there is a trend here. Where such a score would usually imply that critics are torn, even the best reviews typically boil down to, "It's good, but..."
Of course, the bad reviews are still bad: Variety's Scott Foundas said that, "The Interview is scarcely as funny or absurd as the average news item about North Korea itself, with two main characters who are so aggressively annoying that you secretly hope the assassination plot will turn against them." It's not exactly a glowing recommendation, and it doesn't get much better from there.
While it's slightly more positive, The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy didn't exactly have much good to say about the film: "As political satire goes, The Interview has the comic batting average of a mediocre-to-average Saturday Night Live sketch, with a few potent laughs erupting from an overall mash of sex, drugs and TV broadcasting jokes that feel rooted in a sense of humor primarily characterized by a frat-boy/altered state/prolonged adolescence mind-set."
As stated before, even the best reviews are mixed, such as the one from Forbes' Scott Mendelson: "The film is entertaining, and it contains enough insight and nutrition to merit a recommendation. But the film's core character arc, about a entertainment-centric tabloid reporter who wants to be a serious journalist, becomes something of a metaphor for the film's own losing battle."
Finally, the film's best review comes from ComingSoon's Edward Douglas, but it comes with a rather huge asterisk: "The premise might seem slightly wonky, but the results are absolutely hilarious, especially Franco and Park who effortlessly steal the movie. Even so, this movie is probably going to get us nuked."
From what the reviews are saying, perhaps Sony should considering another project before it makes another comedy based on killing a real-life foreign dictator. Maybe then they won't have a treasure trove of confidential documents and negotiations leaked to the public over a somewhat average film.
Either way, The Interview opens on Christmas Day.
