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film review

This photo released by Sony - Columbia Pictures shows James Franco, left, as Dave and Seth Rogen as Aaron in a scene from Columbia Pictures' "The Interview."Ed Araquel/The Associated Press

If The Interview is the movie they didn't want us to see, we would have been better off letting the cyber terrorists win.

But that's not an option – the thinking being that you can have our zany buddy film about a scheme to assassinate a chubby Asian despot when you pry it from our cold, dead, popcorn-buttered hands. And so a mediocre screwball comedy from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg – the talented longtime Vancouver-born collaborators are responsible for Superbad, This Is the End and Pineapple Express – is elevated to some vague level of importance, not on merit but by circumstance.

You know the story behind this occasionally funny farce, right? Its release was pushed back from this fall to Christmas after the North Korean government threatened "merciless" action because of the massive disrespect paid to the hermit nation's supreme leader Kim Jong-un. Then the computer systems of Sony Pictures Entertainment were infiltrated by a group calling itself "Guardians of Peace," which took issue with the lampooning. Terroristic threats were issued; the film's scheduled Dec. 25 release was scuttled due to security reasons.

After an uproar of discontent – President Barack Obama basically vetoed Hollywood's wimp position – a shamed Sony Pictures arranged for last-minute direct distribution via online services and scattered screenings at independent cinemas.

So, "free speech" wins, in the form of butt jokes, frat-bro misogyny, incompetent espionage, mild political commentary, pop-up gore and harmless Bing-and-Bob Road to Pyongyang shenanigans.

Freedom fries all around, then.

The Interview reunites Pineapple Express and This Is the End cohorts Rogen and James Franco. The former plays the capable but dissatisfied producer Aaron Rapoport of the fluffy Skylark Tonight light news show, which stars the latter as mimbo host Dave Skylark. Franco is eager and entertaining as the cocky fool, interviewing rapper Eminem (who, on air, comes out as gay) and Rob Lowe (who comes out as bald).

Turns out the North Korean ruler is a fan of Skylark Tonight – or at least sees its dim-witted star as a perfect dupe – and so invites Rapoport and Skylark for an exclusive televised interview on his home turf.

Seeing the interview as a propaganda platform for the impoverished, nuclear-threatening nation, most everybody is unconvinced over the surprising scoop. But Franco's Skylark is ecstatic over the get, explaining that the skeptics are jealous – "They hate us because they ain't us – and that in ten years Ron Howard would make a movie of the unlikely turn of events.

And perhaps Howard will, given the real-life controversy surrounding this film.

Randall Park from HBO's Veep is marvellous as Kim, portrayed as a complex, cagey, dangerously insecure young man with father issues, a basketball jones and a trend-defying hair cut. He is also the subject of a CIA assassination plot – the term "take him out" is lost on the soft-headed Skylark – that involves the two tabloid-television journalists.

The stooges are not trained operatives, thus setting the possibility for hilarity to ensue. Unfortunately the funny isn't realized – the writing just isn't sharp enough. This isn't East-West satire on the level of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, nor is it as clever spy-farcing as Mike Myers's Austin Powers films. Full marks though, for the redemptive parallels that surface between Skylark and David Frost, who gained respect for his zinging of former president Richard Nixon during their televised interview in 1977.

Since this week's release of The Interview, North Korea has launched a counterattack, accusing the United States for disrupting the nation's cans-and-string connections to the internet, while calling Obama an ugly name for his urging of Sony Pictures to release the film.

Perhaps one day North Korea will stop worrying and learn to love The Interview, an unwittingly provocative comedy that most likely bombs if not for the international furor it has created.

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