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Crowds (and Pirates) Flock To 'The Interview'
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.
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.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
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.
Be seeing you...
Everyone should watch this movie just as an act of patriotism.
I live in North Korea you insensitive clod!
It's very convenient for the government that everyone buys into the idea that the crackers were under orders from the North Korean government when there is no concrete evidence; they get to try to shove through new bills that will infringe upon our liberties in exchange for 'safety.' It's very convenient for Sony that people are this easily manipulated; they'll go and see the movie en masse thanks to all the nonsensical fearmongering.
They're just taking advantage of this for their own ends, as they often do. And the 'patriotic' American public is as dumb as ever.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Watch, or pay for. The fact that your comments seem to support the latter would put them in downmod territory.
Learn to love Alaska
How is going to see a movie a patriotic expression. I do not pledge allegiance to the flag of Sony.
Sony got hacked. That's it. A company that constantly schemes to screw their customers got handed their tush. I am not bothered this event and do not see it as an affront to my being a citizen of the US of A. I am more concerned with our own government hiding behind the actions of a tin despot to divert our attention from their own activities against our own citizens. If you are for our government establishment you are against us.
Yeah, I heard the headlines, North Korean hackers bla bla.
And honestly I don't see the point if this were true.
I wonder however if this whole initial retraction to show the movie had to do with something along the lines of China owning AMC movie chain now. I dunno. But I wonder.
What ever the reason, I'm not going to see the film.
The hype is just to much, and I distrust, "to much"
I'm REALLY (surprised) that timmyboy didn't "write" this (article) like a retarded fifth grader (who has) just discovered the "existence" of parentheses. Editors, why don't you hang yourselves? Dice, why don't you hang the editors and then hang yourselves?
The things you mentioned are not mutually exclusive with supporting freedom of speech. I do find freedom of speech worthy of support. If you find that problematic, oh well.
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.
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.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
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?
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.
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.
How is filling Sony's coffers patriotic?
I'll wait for "The interview 2: puttin' Putin down"
.... wouldn't that have pissed NK more than this movie?
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. . .
He not only lives there, he's also the president..
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The Interview is free to air broadcast material. Nothing more. It's a stupid jingoistic "America knows best" drivel. Not even funny as propaganda. I regret wasting 2 hours of my life watching such a stupid stupid movie.
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. =)
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?
Great to see the US supporting a Japanese coproration
This must be seen! Hear hear!
I myself had no plans to see it. I didn't care about it one way or the other. If I were to go see it now that "terrorists" made the threat, I would in fact be giving those bastards what they want. I changed my behavior due to their actions.
Do not question Official information. Carry on.
It's my machine to do with as I please. If you can't respect that then I won't "rent" or "buy" your film. I'm glad it was released because I oppose censorship and this would set a bad precedent, but it's not worth giving up MY rights to see your probably stupid film either.
What about bluray, digital (and rental), streaming, and licensing for TV and such?
XDInd
Great PR job.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"
I see freedom of speech as bigger than one government. And I disagree that no serious threats were made when there were death threats made against "innocent" employees whose personal information was compromised in the hack.
It's what it is, which makes the whole "hacking" story look like a publicity stunt.
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.
"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 stopped. It has a run time of zero minutes because the creative genius behind it was so great that the the fabric of time was effectively torn. This rivals the birth of Christ and I highly recommend this film."
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.
I don't like N Korea, but an assassination comedy being approved by a world leader as he praises Sony's decision to show this movie in American theatres which never should have been made in the first place is fucking stupid. As if there isn't already enough problems in this world.
Parent is a goatse mirror.
Real patriots like Snowden.
We should unite in a demand that the government indemnify him, so he can come home. He deserves that from us.
Because as we've learned from another recent news item, only 5% of the world's population lives in the US.
Finally, there is an easy way to pay for a major release directly to the studio! I'm downloading the torrent. If I end up actually watching it past 1/3 of the movie length, I will go and pay the rental fee on seetheinterview.com, after watching.
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!
17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
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.
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Playing along even more, he uploaded it to the torrent site, so he didn't do a good job of suppressing free speech or whatever floats your patriotic boat.
Anybody else notice how you cannot watch the rental from a linux browser(chromium, opera, firefox)?
Paying to see this movie is only patriotic if you are Japanese. SONY pictures made it.
How is filling Sony's coffers patriotic?
Considering Sony is a Japanese company, I have no idea.
skip to the disclaimer at the end of the credits. The Interview has nothing whatsoever to do with Kim Sucks Cock or whatever his name is.
So, basically, fear (OMG INVISIBLE HAXXORS FROM A COUNTRY WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT EXCEPT THEY'RE PROBABLY NOT AMERICAN) is now being used as a marketing ploy/gimmick/tactic, and it appears to have worked brilliantly. It sparked a lot of interest in an almost-unheard-of film in a very short amount of time. Well done Sony.
I personally have no intention of going out of my way to see the movie (or even to download it, legally or not) - not because I hate Sony or I'm anti-anything-in-particular, I just don't find Seth Rogan and co funny and I don't think I would enjoy the film, based solely on the fact that I've not enjoyed any of his other films to date. That's just personal opinion, anyway.
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.
--- Say something clever. Pretend it was me. Thanks.