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The Interview (2014)
A Decent Comedy, Misses Real Opportunity to Slam American Journalists
I rented the Youtube stream of The Interview this morning while having breakfast which is probably the most awesome thing about this whole film, is that it's new and I didn't have to break any laws to watch it a day or two after release in this way. I hope this trend continues outside of the ridiculousness that surrounded this film.
At any rate, the film...
The premise is known to everyone: Two tabloid show hawkers land an extremely unlikely interview with North Korea's president, are intercepted by the CIA before hand and given a mission to assassinate him. Obviously, from the get go, the story is a farce, so if you go in thinking it's not, you'll be disappointed.
Overall, the film centers around the idea of misinformation and lying, who lies to who, why it's okay to lie in some situations and not in others. Sure, there's the entire plot line which is basically just a cheap pantsing of Kim Jong-Un (not that it's undeserved mind you), but really, despite bland characterization overall (Rogan and Franco are only believable because they're friends off camera too, it's characters dealing with how to respond to lies, spot lies, what to do about it later, etc, if we were to remove all political aspects of the movie.
There are a lot of very funny scenes involving this ongoing theme, such as Franco's character's realization he's been lied to by Un, Un realizing Franco's lied to him, etc. All over the place are these really funny moments about revelations the characters have about each other, though it does get a little tiresome by the end after everyone's apparently been betrayed at least once in some way.
Some of the action was directed quite poorly, which is expected with this being a comedy. For instance, just simple things like shot continuity involving a tank and a helicopter. Tank is shooting backwards at helicopter (retreating from it, with barrel pointed backwards) and in movie-time, milliseconds later, it's facing forward for the 'cool tanks don't look at explosions' shot. Little things here and there would pull me out of the film, but they're really only noticeable when the film takes a turn into action territory the last 10 minutes. And I must say, the despite it being completely unnecessary and feeling a little out of place, Un's ultimate destiny in the film is quite a beautiful shot.
One of the real disappointments with a movie that starts from a political place is not taking it to it's logical conclusion. The plot points all revolve around the fact that North Korea's propaganda machine is impenetrable and the country's people believe the most ridiculous things due to a stranglehold on information, but there was no mention of how we have similar issues in the United States with misinformation due to money and corruption in our own country. These things didn't even have to be clearly defined since our characters ARE NOT journalist, they're tabloid peeps. However, Franco's final line (paraphrased) that he started a revolution with a camera and a few questions should've been expanded on to slam American journalists for not asking question...though I think Rogan might have been better as Franco is the 'retard who is out of place' in the film, in terms of his behavior.
Ultimately, it's just a silly comedy with nothing real to say, though it does, randomly, through real facts at the audience, but they're from the mouth of the 'enemy' in the movie who is at that point called a liar, so the message gets lost to audiences unaware of realities spoken of. If you can understand that it has no position on anything other than leaders shouldn't be dicks to their countries, then you'll enjoy it. Otherwise, look for your pointed satire and political criticism elsewhere and pretend this movie is about an unnamed country with a fantasy leader and it'll probably be more enjoyable.
The TV Wheel (1995)
Pilots Must Be Strong
The entire premise of the show is that a camera has a rotating platform with multiple stages on it that morph and change so that they bleed together and because of the way that the stages move around the camera, they can create scenes which create really neat optical effects using practical spacial relationships and forced perspective. It sounds highly technical (and it is to a degree) but in execution, it's simple, effective and unique.
The big fallout of the pilot, though, was that the writing wasn't all it could've been. There's lots of room on HBO to get wild with the ideas all in search for a laugh, but it seemed the production was more focused on the 'wow' factor of the concept rather than provide real humor, which is sad because I think some of the writing was 'forced' in terms of trying to use the format more and they lost their focus and primary objective which is humor.
However, it's worth watching simply for the spectacle and it makes one wonder how great the show would have been if Joel and crew had been allowed to get past their growing pains. I for one think it definitely would've found it's footing within 3 or 4 episodes and the focus would be on humor and the delivery via the creative concept would just come naturally.
But we'll never know and that's a real shame.
Branded (2012)
It's not what I expected...
But it definitely wasn't as bad as some of the reviews are saying. I think some of the reviews are being sensational in how bad it is, but I guess to each his own.
Overall, movie is about a guy who works as an advertising genius and decides to leave all the money and glamor behind when he starts realizing that his deeds are leading to people being hurt by his actions. While in hiatus from the city life on a farm in the Russian countryside (did I mention this is a Russian movie?) he has some sort of revelation about a ritual that came to him in a dream. After he performs it, he finds himself back in the city only to see physical representations of how advertisements and marketing are sucking the will power out of people, becoming slaves to the system (this is where most of the trailer footage comes from). When he figures out what he's seeing, he ends up formulating a plan of using the same tactics used to turn people into cattle to crush the forces that enslave human will...but at what cost?
Overall, I have to say, there's lots of loose ends, subplots with no payoff, a relationship play that could've been left on the cutting room floor and many other elements that sort of add too much noise to the main story, almost to the point that there IS no main story, just a series of events that finally lead to the credits rolling. However, I was entranced by the randomness of the movie overall and found it's quirkiness charming. It's that same randomness that caused the hate-fest on the movie, so knowing this, it's not as bad as reviews say, but it's definitely noticeable.
However, I firmly believe that this movie was the victim of post production tinkering. Even comparing trailer 1 to 2, you can tell that even the people making the trailer were trying to shift the advertising campaign so as not to completely anger it's possible audience after seeing the movie. This begs the question: What was the original story? And why does Sydow (who never has any direct contact with the protagonist and apparently has no reason to be in the movie at all) get vaporized by lightning? This one scene alone speaks volumes as to how editing can kill a movie. Even if the original movie they shot wasn't good, editing that story into a completely different one cannot save the movie and in this case, although it was quirky in it's weirdness, completely destroyed any sense of completeness.
It's not unwatchable, but it's certainly far from being anything coherent.
Skip to the End (2004)
Like checking up on old friends...
This retrospective of the cast and crew of Spaced is, of course, like any other documentary of it's kind, but it's also kind of like checking up on old pals and what they're doing now.
It includes some scenes and sketches featuring the players before they were spaced, as well as discussions on what would happen on a 3rd series and why it hasn't happened. Overall, it's quite enjoyable, but only if you're really into the show. If not, you'd probably find it as enjoyable as being a Star Wars fan at a Star Trek convention.
There are quite a few amusing scenes, however of outtakes and various other 'extented scenes' that were cut (for time or content, it's unknown), and is almost worth watching for these moments alone.
So if you've got 2 hours and have seen the series, this is a great way to see it from a different perspective. If you're not a fan or haven't seen the series, I'd recommend starting from square one with series 1, episode 1.