The Movie:

Even if you're not familiar with The Interview, you're familiar with The Interview as it's the movie that infamously led to the Sony Pictures hack supposedly perpetrated as an act of retaliation by the North Koreans. It was all over the news, even your mom heard about it. Because of this the planned theatrical release was all buggered up and after hitting a streaming service or two, the movie now gets a second life through the magic of home video. So with that controversy no pushed to the side, what's the movie all about?

The story follows two men, host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen), who run a TMZ style celebrity gossip television show called Skylark Tonight. Aaron aspires for… more. He knows that their show it little more than fluff but he wants to do something a bit more ambitious. When he learns that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) is a big fan of the show, Dave comes up with the idea that they should try and book an interview with him in his homeland. Aaron figures this'll never happen but goes along with it, because why not? But after a few phone calls are made, it's settled: the guys are going to go to North Korea to interview the man himself on his turf in Pyongyang.

Enter CIA Agent Lacey (fellow Freaks And Geeks alum Lizzy Caplan). She gets wind of what's going on and uses her feminine charm to con Dave into agreeing to an assassination plot. Aaron finds out what's going and makes it pretty clear he thinks this is a bad idea, but goes along with his pal really out of obligation for their longstanding friendship. Of course, once they get there Dave and Kim Jong-un become fast friends while Aaron falls in love with a beautiful Korean woman named Sook (Diana Bang), who just so happens to be quite close to the little dictator himself.

Just as goofy as it sounds, The Interview is pretty funny stuff even if it doesn't ever approach ‘comedy classic' territory. Rogen and Franco have, as most already know by this point, a great chemistry together and that same chemistry is what made previous collaborations work (Pineapple Express being a great example) and this most recent effort work as well. These guys have had a blast working together going all the way back to their Freaks And Geeks days and that comes through in most of their collaborations, this film being no exception. Having said that, outside of the concept though, The Interview doesn't see them really spreading their wings in any sort of attempt to try a different brand of humor, so expect lots of crass, sophomoric humor (but hey, funny is funny, let's not get highbrow about this).

What really stands out about this picture, however, is just how blunt it is in how it goes after real life Korean ‘great leader' Kim Jong-un. Where Team America: World Police skewed his father, his father was still portrayed by a puppet. Not so in this film, Randall Park does a fantastic job of bringing him to life and in completely and mercilessly skewering him. Interestingly enough, when Skylark first starts bonding with him, we like the guy. But we know that's not going to last, the illusion that Kim Jong--un and his cronies put on for their guests is soon exposed for the ruse that it is. Park is fantastic in the role and as the movie builds towards an unexpectedly crazy and surprisingly violent finale, he really shines in the part. As to the rest of the cast? Franco and Rogen play Franco and Rogen, but they do it well and their fans would and should expect no less of them. Franco's character is presumed by most to be pretty brainless, and for most of the movie we're led to believe this is true, but he has an interesting shift in the last half of the movie. Rogen's the smarter of the two, both actors play their parts well. Lizzy Caplan is quite good as the ‘honeypot' used to draw Skylark into this scheme but Diana Bang is the scene stealer here, delivering some genuinely hilarious moments as Sook once she and Rapoport reveal their feelings for one another.

The movie is well-paced, the jokes come at you pretty much constantly and the production values are pretty decent as well. Supporting performances are fun across the board and while the movie will no doubt be better remembered for the controversy it caused more than anything else, fans of Franco and Rogen's style of comedy will definitely find a lot to enjoy here.

Video:

The Interview looks just as good as you'd expect a brand new Hollywood feature to look on this AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.40.1 widescreen. Not surprisingly, there are no issues with print damage whatsoever. Detail is typically quite strong, close up shots really show off in that regard, while color reproduction is pretty much spot on. Skin tones look great, color reproduction is very nice and black levels are strong throughout. There are no problems with edge enhancement or compression artifacts and all in all, the movie looks great on Blu-ray.