To be fair, the movie is funny. LOL funny. Essentially, it's a bromance-triangle movie, with a Communist, psychopathic dictator trying to break up a celebrity interviewer and his long-time producer.
And I even get why the North Korean government hates it. I mean, how nice would we be about a movie about assassinating George W. Bush? Even if it was made by Iraqis? Somebody would get droned. This had the potential to be a niche comedy, like Franco and Rogen's days on Freaks and Geeks. Between North Korea's suspected cyberattacks on Sony and the US, and threats made by North Korean sympathizers (how many of those could there possibly be? 6?), the movie will now be seen as a some sort of patriotic statement about free speech. Is it?
Well, it's definitely about free speech. Franco plays a telegenic celebrity interviewer named Dave Skylark, who's biggest accomplishment is confirming that Eminem is gay. Rogen plays Aaron Rapaport, which is a serious journalist-sounding name (maybe named for this guy?), for a guy who once wanted to do serious journalism, but has spent the last decade making tons of moolah with his best buddy Dave Skylark. Aaron's feelings of not doing real journalism get them into their mess to begin with.
After bitching to Dave that he wants to interview more important subjects, Dave gets a promise from him that Aaron will never break up with him if Aaron gets what he wants, and ends up getting Aaron on the scent of Kim Jong-Un, hoping that the dictator's love of Dave Skylark could get them an in with the most reclusive man on the planet. Against all odds and despite terms that violate all journalistic ethics, the interview is a go when the CIA literally shows up at Dave and Aaron's crash pad.
Lizzy Caplan plays straight woman CIA Agent Lacey to Franco's and Aaron's wild antics as she entices them with sexy glasses (Really? Is that a thing?) into agreeing to assassinate the guy they're interviewing. Because North Korea will have no way of knowing that the CIA showed up at their place. And whisked them away to Langley for training in using a Ricin strip and a handshake. And North Korea will be in no way suspicious that Americans would want to assassinate their leader either. Hey, if you want realism, watch Manufacturing Consent.
Diana Bang plays Sook, also a straight woman to Franco and Rogen's craziness, a North Korean propaganda official who will be doing Aaron's job for him while Skylark simply reads the questions she's already written for Kim Jong-Un. Once in North Korea, and awaiting The Interview in Kim's private mansion, they lose the Ricin strip and have to get it replaced by drone drop, fight a tiger for it, and store it in Aaron's ass. I wouldn't mention this, except it leads to a ridiculously awesome bit where Seth Rogen, naked, simply bounces and waves his dick around furiously to the horror of North Korean soldiers. Once again, this film is not realism.
Trouble ensues when Kim Jong-Un actually shows up, desperate to meet Dave Skylark and be his best buddy. Well, when a guy's got a tank, his own basketball court, and lots of chicks in bikinis hanging around, he's hard to resist. Can people who party hard really be all that bad? Randall Park literally owns every scene, even when his Kim Jong-Un is losing badly to Dave Skylark. He can be shy, geeky, self-effacing, blythely happy, and then turn around to quietly rage about killing each and every one of his own people to be taken seriously as a world leader. He's effusive when tooling around in a tank, shooting off shells for the fuck of it, and bitter about every setback. Life is supposed to be perfect for him. His whole nation is set up to provide everything he could ever want at everyone else's expense. So, Park plays him as childlike and freely happy morphing into teenaged Trench Coat Mafia with no notice.
While Dave is letting Kim sabotage his relationship with Aaron, Aaron retaliates. Angry that Skylark is abandoning him and drinking Kim's Kool-Aid, he's only too happy to fall into Sook's arms. While Sook admits to Aaron how awful Kim and North Korea are, Skylark gets a front row seat to Kim's psychopathic crazy, and discovers he's been played by a mass killer. Together, the three team up (four, if you count the gift puppy) to brave bullets, bitten-off fingers, and the threat of a nuclear war to totally waste Kim and pave the way for Sook to bring freedom to her people. And Seal Team Six gets to save our heroes.
Back at home, best buds again, Aaron and Dave reflect how the chicks totally played them. Lacey played them to get Kim dead; Sook played them to start her own successful revolution for Freedom. And Skype. They're pretty good-natured about it, because Skylark got a book deal and a puppy, and Aaron got a hot, kickass girlfriend out of the whole thing.
And that's the movie. Is it about Free Speech? Well, Dave Skylark thinks so. And who can argue with the guy who made Kim Jong-Un cry and shit himself?
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