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The Interview Bombs In US, Kills In China, Threatens N. Korea
First time accepted submitter twitnutttt (2958183) writes "While it has been broadly panned in the U.S. as not very funny, The Interview is surprisingly getting good reviews in China. And the North Korean government's fears of the threat posed by this movie are apparently merited: "It is powerful because it depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood. The people around him have all the signs of fear you might expect with a despot — they second-guess his likes and dislikes. Maybe he — and they — were right to fear the film. North Korean defectors sometimes smuggle USB sticks with films and soaps into the closed-off country, and there is a view in the south that these are a particularly powerful means of undermining the regime in Pyongyang. If that's so, The Interview might be a good candidate for inclusion."
If you've seen the movie, and have your own reactions, please label any real spoilers out of courtesy.
It may be an unfunny movie, but reports are that in the limited number of theatres it has been relieased in, the shows are sold out.
That's hardly "bombing".
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
This ain't charlie chaplin folks, it's a guy who built a career on man-boy humor and dick jokes. The fact that North Korea is so offended by this only confirms how absurdly immature their fearless leader really can be. A chubby Jewish guy almost toppled the whole charade with toilet humor.
'The Interview,' Greeted By Sold-Out Shows, May Net Millions This Weekend
'The Interview' Opens to Singing, Sold-Out Crowds as Sony CEO Explains His Decision to Show Film
'The Interview' Draws Sell-Out Crowds After Sony Flips On Release Cancellation
New York showings of âThe Interviewâ(TM) sell out
Oh yeah, it's "bombing" in the US alright...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
You want a good movie mocking a dictator?
Duck Soup. It's like a thousand times as good as the Interview.
and acting was pretty bad although it was funny 1/3 of ht show. Basically it was border line Borat style shock comedy. The guy playing Kim Jong did the best acting vs the main stars.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Why do I keep seeing news agencies and the like reporting that The Interview is being "broadly panned" when it's not?
http://www.metacritic.com/movi...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/...
The consensus seems to be that while it's a mediocre film it's good for a few laughs.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
"It is powerful because it depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood. The people around him have all the signs of fear you might expect with a despot â" they second-guess his likes and dislikes. Maybe he â" and they â" were right to fear the film. North Korean defectors sometimes smuggle USB sticks with films and soaps into the closed-off country, and there is a view in the south that these are a particularly powerful means of undermining the regime in Pyongyang. If that's so, The Interview might be a good candidate for inclusion."
If nothing else, it's rather sad that Seth Rogen and James Franco are able to have a bigger impact on North Korea than sanctions and every diplomat and US president since the end of the Korean War.
This sounds like Nobel Peace Prize buzz to me. ;-)
So many people are panning this movie. Have you guys posting negative comments actually seen it, or are you just reacting to the press?
I mean, I get it -- there's bound to be some sort of automatic counter-culture response to defend against the massive amount of press talking about how controversial and important it is.
Yes, it's a little controversial to target an actual country and an actual leader so directly. But you know what, their message while embellished for comedic effect isn't really far off base. I think the world could use some more of this controversy, and there's nothing saying this type of thing needs to be in dry journalistic form.
As far as the movie itself goes --- it's a Seth Rogan bromance dick joke movie. It really doesn't bring anything new to the table. It's not his best movie, but it's by no means bad. It's fun and entertained me the whole way through.
It's a movie that includes Seth Rogen!
What did you expect? A new Schindler's List?!?
the movie has been sold out in limited theaters
the most pirated movie of christmas (this should be a slashdot money shot)
the movie is funny as hell.
I hope this article is meant to be satire
I don't see why only disliking stupid jokes is a liberal-only thing. It seems more like what is and is not funny is subjective.
While I'm almost embarrassingly rich thanks to a wealthy family, I've never understood the US obsession with wealth as an indicator of anything except... that a person has cash or other material assets. There are many ways to become rich, and almost none of them involve much productivity, let alone effort.
The North Korean regime's survival depends on keeping its people completely uninformed. Here's an article about how even a little bit of information about the outside world can destroy the carefully constructed myths that sustain North Korean society: http://articles.latimes.com/20...
"About two years ago, a North Korean who worked in the state fisheries division was on a boat in the Yellow Sea when his transistor radio picked up a South Korean situation comedy. The radio program featured two young women who were fighting over a parking space in their apartment complex.
A parking space? The North Korean was astonished by the idea that there was a place with so many cars that there would be a shortage of places to park them. Although he was in his late 30s and a director of his division, he had never met anyone who owned their own car.
The North Korean never forgot that radio show and ended up defecting to South Korea last year."
The article is old, but I don't think things have changed much in North Korea.
But not enough to justify a pair of full-price tickets. I will give it this; it was better than any Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey movie I've seen.
Why is all the good stuff already modded 5, when I have mod points?
invade North Korea, depose the North Korean government, and depose & disarm the North Korean military, and once they stabilized it, hand it over to South Korea
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
First Seth Rogen movie for you? I thought it was one of his better ones, though I still think it sucked. Still, despite all the schlock, it did make the important point that North Korea is a vile regime that condemns millions to near-starvation conditions while the elite live in astonishing luxury. It paints with a broad brush to be sure, but beneath it all there is a true chord playing.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I thought the head explosion scene was pretty anticlimactic. If you're going to make this kind of movie, why tuck your balls away at the climax?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's North Korea. They spend half their time proclaiming how they're going to wipe out their enemies. They're media is in a constant state of hysteria.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Or someone who is aware that that audience exists and is fairly large. I'm not part of it but I don't have to be to know it's size is significant.
Just did a line while having my dick sucked browsing slashdot. It's the only way to live.
The real highlight came with the "I'm gay" Eminem interview at the beginning. My hats off to Marshall Mathers.
The next 105 minutes was a bit of a let down.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
is revered as a god, I can see an awful lot of North Koreans trying to sneak a look at this movie. it could potentially be a game changer for them to see how the world looks at their perfect leader. Might even topple the government. Probably not, but one can hope.
... either people that don't like slapstick comedy or people that don't like the political message of the movie.
Actually read the bad reviews. They're like reading bad Amazon reviews... "This 20 dollar jack is no where near as good as my 400 dollar jacket... 1 star!" Or "I can't recharge my computer with this USB cable... 1 star!"... They're fucking stupid.
They keep saying stuff like "the humor is crude"... really, you complete waste of human life? That is fucking shocking. It is a stupid screw ball comedy, fuckwit.
Anyway, you just need to filter the idiot reviewers from the ones that understand what genre they're reviewing. And my god there are a lot of fucking idiots working for the mainstream newspapers. I read these reviews and can see very clearly why these newspapers are having circulation issues. They are staffed almost entirely with morons.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Me neither.
"Steaming" would be more appropriate for this turd...
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
When you can download or watch it for free. I have never gotten the people around here who say piracy doesn't hurt sales, of course I am going to seek the cheapest method possible to get it. I don't give a shit about DRM/IP/etc.. I am cheap and not some evangelical mission.
Because you wouldn't have bought it anyway, duh.
Mod parent up. Piracy has always been a non-threat. Pirates don't buy. They're never a missed sale, they're simply a no-sale.
...it's about what we've come to expect from Rogen and his pals. In parts hilarious, disgusting, inane, chaotic (well, most of it was that...), thought-provoking, puerile and brilliant. Not unlike reality.
I'd say Last King Of Scotland but that's hardly a comedy...
relevance to Slashdotters: Dana Scully is in a supporting role! :)
The movie "suffers from" low-key and subtle humour, much appreciated in a number of different countries and cultures but not so much in the USA. (Several of these countries also spell "humor" with two U's.)
Is it just me who found the title for this submission a little strange, especially considering the hackers threatened to bomb the theaters which'd show the movie? I initially misread it into thinking they actually did it somehow.
Do you reviewers understand!?
If buying a $40 3DBluray sure, but $5 movie, no.
Teens use their friends as guides, "Hey I saw this, you gota see it", or "X was so so sad, dont waste your money"
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
"Pirates" are not definable in absolutes like that. Some studies have shown they are the biggest consumers of both paid and "stolen" media.
Saying they are simply a non-threat/no-sale is just as intellectually dishonest as when the RIAA/MPAA claim every pirated copy is a fully lost sale.
"It depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood..."
Yeah, I highly doubt he gives a shit about being misunderstood. The rest of it is spot on.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
When I was a kid, we read reviews, we had a free paper and we used it. Now you have so many options for free reviews that the hardest part is deciding which one you like the best, and kids don't read reviews any more?
Either you're off your nut, or kids are actually getting dumber.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I saw it earlier today via YouTube. It certainly wasn't great, and it can't be compared with classics like "The Great Dictator" or "Duck Soup", but I was surprised how much I liked it. It was much more entertaining than either the trailer or the reviews suggested. The story was reasonably engaging, there were some good gags, the actors weren't bad, and it even had a few points to make. I always count my yawns during a movie, and FWIW, it ended up getting my highest rating of zero yawns - go figure.
My major complaint with it was its near-continuous use of the "F" word. (Sorry to spoil that for those of you who were wondering.) If Seth Rogen and his buddies talk like in real life, maybe they were just being realistic relative to their particular juvenile reality. But the movie would have been better without that.
In the old days, a movie would use just one or two F-words to guarantee an "R" rating, and with the mission accomplished, they'd move on. I seem to remember that one film even cut in an "R" rating notice in the middle of the film just after the first F-word. (Help me out Kids: which movie was that?) And of course, there's the famous South Park episode where the F-word was basically the whole point of the episode. But I don't see any point to it here. Less is more on that, Folks: after one or two F-bombs, it doesn't have any effect and just becomes annoying. (BTW: same goes here. :-) It's like those folks who constantly say "like" or "knowwhatamsayin?" Like, knowwhatamsayin?
40+ critics might think this movie is shit and it is a shit movie but god damn was it a funny movie. If you're looking for cinematic enlightenment then you're stupider than the movie you've criticized.
I've never understood this one, a blockbuster is a great movie while a bomb is a bad one. But a blockbuster is a bomb. WTF?
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
You keep speaking of "liberals" as if they're a hivemind, much as some speak of "conservatives" as if they're a hivemind. You're just making hasty generalizations.
Looks like you've been duped into believing the left vs right/liberal vs conservative false dichotomy scam.
Hardly. They obviously believe the product has some value or they wouldn't have stolen it.
Worth downloading != worth paying money for.
"Piracy" is a propaganda term. Copyright infringement is a non-threat because, even in the event of a "lost sale" (you can't truly lose sales because you never had them in your possession), you still lose nothing; you merely don't gain.
When retards make a comment like that on a public site, hosted in the US, viewed primarily by US citizens. You would think they could see the inherently contradictory nature of such a thing but no, they are convinced somehow that the US government clamps down on information like a repressive regime, yet somehow managed to miss this, and the millions of other, sites hosted in its borders.
Have you ever actually watched the Daily Show? They go after the president when the president does something ridiculous. Fox News is a pretty easy target because they're extremely hypocritical and they give air time to idiots like Palin. CNN is also a frequent target. Don't worry about Hillary. I'm sure Boehner will find something in the 8th congressional witch hunt that he didn't turn up in the first seven.
"Liberals" could mean just about anyone, but the very vocal SJW crowd are famous for being humorless, prudish buzzkills. What used to be the case for the right wing religious whackos is now true of the left wing SJWs: they lay awake at night worrying that someone, somewhere might be having a good time. No more representative of the mainstream left than the televangelists were of the mainstream right, but boy are they vocal. Heck, some of them are probably the same people, just with a new excuse for moral scolding and finger wagging.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
OMG can you imagine?... "bombs in the US" NSA smokes computers on misguided info...haaaah! Nice to think for yourself now a days. Who can you believe? Not the media-owned networks. (have you seen the forgotten?) Damn NBC / Universal Studios pluggin' crap
Piracy is convenient.
Downloading - a few minutes of my time to start the download. Then after it finishes (which is very fast usually), I can watch the movie on whatever device that has enough processing power and a screen, at any time having full control of it.
Going to the cinema (in general) - need to drive to wherever the cinema is, at a specified time, watch it with a bunch of strangers (that may include screaming children), no control whatsoever - cannot pause the movie to go to the toilet, cannot rewind a few seconds to rewatch a scene I missed, cannot increase or reduce the sound volume, cannot even have a conversation with whoever I came to watch the movie (assuming I did not come alone) during a boring part. Forced to watch ads before the movie. Cannot bring the food that I want (that is not sold (at high prices) in the cinema). The movie has to be recent enough to still be showed in cinemas.
Going to the cinema (this particular movie) - All of the above but include traveling to the US, getting a hotel room etc.
Buying a DVD/Bluray - Better than going to the cinema, but still have to go to a store that sells them, have to sit through a bunch of unskippable ads.
Time from "Hey, let's watch a movie! Which one? [googles some previously unheard of movie] This one." to actually watching it:
DVD: 30 minutes - 1 hour (assuming the store is open), days (if the store is closed).
Cinema: 30 minutes - 3 hours (assuming the movie is being shown in cinemas and the cinema is open), days (if the cinema is closed), undefined (if the movie is not shown in cinemas).
Download: 5 - 30 minutes (my internet connection is up to 500mbps).
Oh, and Netflix is not available in my country in case you were going to suggest it.
So, see, even if the tickets for the movie (or the DVDs at the store) were given away for free, downloading would be the preferred option.
We were just given a gift card to go to the movies as a family... I'm now dreading the experience. In a way, I feel like I'm being paid to go to the theater and watch a show and yet I'm still not looking forward to it.
Plus it's got the mirror scene. I'll bet The Interview doesn't have that.
The only people who hate this movie are those who want to look like sophisticated critics and the overly sensitive. Every bad review I've read are borderline illiterate and moronic, and they are on legitimate websites. I'm sorry but this movie isn't serious, because it's a comedy. Yes there are sexist, anti-semetic, and homophobic jokes. The writers realize these aren't allowed in a normal public situation, that's the joke. We never hear about North Korea because we don't really have a solution to a nuclear capable totalitarian dictatorship. It's good to put the spotlight on them.
Really? I thought it was really funny. Most of my friends rented it on release day, and most of them thought it was at least kinda funny. No one thought it was bad.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
It's very Seth Rogen driven comedy, funny at moments but most part of it smells a little like US propaganda. It depicts a smart, maniac and manipulative Kim Jung Un. Funny enough, we know CIA it's capable of trying to murder a foreign leader.
Of course this raises the question of how people too poor to eat can read a USB stick. Perhaps the average N. Korean owns a computer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
It has Seth Rogan in it and it has the setting of an intellectual comedy film sort of like Frasier and people are surprise it "isn't very funny?" THEY'RE SURPRISED?! How is that surprising to anyone?
Pirates don't buy.
Of course they don't. They're too cheap to pay for something someone has produced and believe they are entitled to take what they want. [...] They obviously believe the product has some value or they wouldn't have stolen it.
Not really. I'm actively considering pirating the Interview then immediately deleting it, unwatched. I could easily afford to pay to stream the movie, but I hate Sony only slightly less than I hate the influenza A virus.
If one doesn't believe something have value, why steal it in the first place?
On principle. I don't actually want to see this movie. "Free" is a price too high for this. I imagine I would want to take a shower after viewing it, and I have no desire to invest a fraction of my life in watching such drivel.
However, I strongly believe we should not be cowed into self-censorship by threats. Therefore, I feel a compulsion to access this movie in defiance of said threats, a goal which is in tension with my strong desire to give Sony nothing of value.
Ergo, the degenerate solution of pirating and deleting the movie unwatched. It's a logically consistent position.
No no. It's because they'd cut me open and eat me hearties.
For a Seth Rogen movie, it wasn't bad. Certainly no worse than most of the other movies he's done. I thought it was funny personally.
I highly doubt that the movie is being heralded as unfunny or even a failed movie in the US. The movie was also released online which means that people did not need to go to the limited number of theaters it was released in to go see it. Just about everyone I know, myself included, have watched the movie and found it to be hilarious. We all watched it online.
Ergo, the degenerate solution of pirating and deleting the movie unwatched. It's a logically consistent position.
No, it's ridiculous. You're not sticking up for freedom of speech or against censorship by downloading one of Sony's awful movies. But at least you're not going to give an evil company like Sony money; only an absolute idiot would do that, and sadly there are a lot of those.
The Interview Bombs In US, Kills In China, Threatens N. Korea
Yeah, but what do the French think of it?
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
Actually this isn't completely true: there's been numerous times I have actually paid for something I otherwise would not have DUE TO having 'borrowed' it first; turning a 'no sale' into a sale directly via the mechanism of so-called 'piracy'.
Kim , You seem to be confusing the US with your father.
> Given that atheism doesn't give any exclusive right of life and death to man...
not directly, but those are details.
who is the source of any system of values so far? for atheism, man.
> All non-religious texts?
yes, if you follow the rationale behind banning the description of a god's action, you ought to realize that the removal of such god is even more dangerous. In other words, waiting for a god to possess you and make you kill (which is the only way to be sure a god is behind it) is safer than wondering whether to kill or not.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
I've never seen a Seth Rogan movie before. I probably won't ever see one again. It was better than I expected, but that's not saying much. It had its funny points, but it was still a crap movie. The good thing is, I only paid 6 bucks, I watched it in the comfort of my own home, and my food was a whole lot cheaper and better than the theater crap.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I saw it!
Movie was juvenile, but I actually found it pretty hilarious. Not high-brow funny, and a little stunted sometimes, but I laughed. I'm not sure I need to see the movie again (ok ok, it was pretty low-brow yuks, for sure) but it was a good enough time (I didn't pay to see it, so....)
SPOILERTH:
it could have had a much better ending, with Kim Jong-un faking his death and moving to a different country, or abdicating and becoming a disco dancing star, or something happier than getting blown up, but that's just my 2 cents.
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