# Sony pulls the plug on The Interview



## ArtDecade (Dec 17, 2014)

Apparently, the hackers and their threats were enough for Sony to pull the release of the Interview. Its a strange world when a few guys behind computers can shut down Hollywood. 

It&#8217;s Official: Sony Scraps &#8216;The Interview&#8217; | Deadline


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## wankerness (Dec 17, 2014)

To be fair to Sony, they were planning on releasing it right up until every major theater chain pussied out over the horribly worded 9-11 referencing threats that came out yesterday. If no theater will show it, they'd lose tons of money since there'd be literally zero ticket revenue, so this is a financial decision on their part. They stuck by that stupid movie right up until the theater chains panicked like idiots. They might VOD it.


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## ArtDecade (Dec 17, 2014)

I understand that, but the greater problem is that threats can shut down an entire industry. Its the precedent being set... I think Franco and his movies suck, but people should be allowed to see them if they choose.


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## Devyn Eclipse Nav (Dec 17, 2014)

When the threats are "If this movie is show, we will blow up theaters that it's shown in" it makes sense that most theaters backed out. It's kinda bad for business when your theater explodes. And even if it's an empty threat, it's a credible threat in this day and age, so of course people are gonna worry


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## monkeybike (Dec 17, 2014)

They should just drop it on pay per view. What are they gonna do then to stop it?


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## Xaios (Dec 17, 2014)

What the crap? Man, that's just surreal.  

I was actually thinking I'd see this. While I'm not overly fond of everything Franco and Rogen have done, I enjoyed "Pineapple Express" and "This is the End," and the premise was interesting enough that I'd figure I'd find out where they could take it. So much for that. 

Has these "Guardians of Peace" offered any kind of rationale for why they don't want it shown? Or is it the typical "we blow up everything that we find remotely offensive because reasons" rhetoric that terrorists are so fond of?


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## ArtDecade (Dec 17, 2014)

Zeno said:


> When the threats are "If this movie is show, we will blow up theaters that it's shown in" it makes sense that most theaters backed out. It's kinda bad for business when your theater explodes. And even if it's an empty threat, it's a credible threat in this day and age, so of course people are gonna worry



Yeah, but you can't back down to threats. Its a terrible precedent. Hackers posing as Scientologists, Christians, Muslims, Environmentalists, Truck Drivers, Manchester City fans etc etc can threaten every movie that "offends" them. Where does it stop? Its a complete violation of our right to Free Speech. Personally, I think The Interview looks like utter nonsense. But that doesn't mean that they should be censored and shut down because of threats. I'm not sure what to think about this whole mess. Pretty soon, we will be limited to the most bland things because people will be forced to filter everything through a tiny lens to avoid upsetting others.


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## loqtrall (Dec 17, 2014)

Man, our freedom of expression crushed by some faceless NK hackers hiding behind computers. The point isn't that the plot of the movie was volitile, the point is that another country just bullied us out of releasing a movie by way of a blind threat. What will we back down from next because another country doesn't like it?


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## ArtDecade (Dec 18, 2014)

Hollywood chimes in... and I hate to admit that I agree with them!

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/hollywood-slams-controversial-decision-to-shelve-105479119917.html


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## wat (Dec 18, 2014)

I honestly wanted to see it


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## asher (Dec 18, 2014)

Did they miss Team America somehow?


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## ArtDecade (Dec 18, 2014)

asher said:


> Did they miss Team America somehow?



Maybe the hackers only had 56 kbit/s modems back then?


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## wankerness (Dec 18, 2014)

I profoundly doubt it's actually anyone from NK given their complete technical ineptitude with everything ever, there's been zero hard evidence to prove that (something was written in korean somewhere, which means they installed the font set and have google translate at least). For all anyone knows it's just some tools from 4chan. Thus, the terrorist threat is not credible "in this day and age." When was the last time anything anywhere got blown up by north korean terrorists?


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## crg123 (Dec 18, 2014)

The ending has leaked all over the place for those who want to see it.

Even the Verge, which is just a normal news site, has it up.


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## Rev2010 (Dec 18, 2014)

Zeno said:


> When the threats are "If this movie is show, we will blow up theaters that it's shown in" it makes sense that most theaters backed out. It's kinda bad for business when your theater explodes.



Umm, if these threatener's actually had the bombs to blow up sh*i*t they'd just be doing it already, not sitting around waiting for a movie to upset them into action.

It's a BS threat and it's sad to see in America we allow this kind of thing to manipulate us. It's a movie, a work of fiction. Some of our foreign policies I would imagine are far more prone to piss off foreign peoples than this movie.

I wonder if Rogen and Franco and whomever else have a breach of contract suit in their plans. And btw, I too am not a Franco or Rogen fan, don't dislike them, just don't think they're anything special. This is about artistic rights and bullying tactics IMO.


Rev.


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## troyguitar (Dec 18, 2014)

wankerness said:


> When was the last time anything anywhere got blown up by north korean terrorists?


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## Xaios (Dec 18, 2014)

wankerness said:


> When was the last time anything anywhere got blown up by north korean terrorists?



In fiction, NK seems to be successfully blowing stuff up all the time.


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## wankerness (Dec 18, 2014)

I just can't believe that anyone is scared of North Korea. I thought even Fox News and the fearmongering brigade acknowledge the fact that their offensive capabilities related to the United States are zilch. If like, Iran or some competently managed country with citizens that aren't kept completely segregated from all external media outlets and thus 100% clueless as to anything that happens in the world was threatening direct action, maybe there'd be cause for concern. But, North Korea? Gimme a break. Not to mention, it probably isn't even them since their tech people are probably still using Windows 3.1. The odds of them managing to untraceably hack and release all this material is about equivalent to the odds of, I dunno, an isolated tribe of pygmies doing so.

The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy | WIRED


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## FILTHnFEAR (Dec 18, 2014)

Good job Sony. Way to go being total pussies. 

Not that I have a problem with Seth Rogen movies getting cancelled, but this is not a good thing. At all.

Can't wait to see where and when this happens next, now that the precedent is set


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## Xaios (Dec 18, 2014)

FILTHnFEAR said:


> Good job Sony. Way to go being total pussies.
> 
> Not that I have a problem with Seth Rogen movies getting cancelled, but this is not a good thing. At all.
> 
> Can't wait to see where and when this happens next, now that the precedent is set



Sony didn't pull the plug until after all of the major theater chains, ie the people who deal with them _directly_, jumped ship. Had they kept trying to push distribution of a film that no theater was willing to show, they would have lost even more money. Mothballing the film was purely a financial decision on their end, it was the theaters who decided that showing it would be a safety concern, not Sony.


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## FILTHnFEAR (Dec 18, 2014)

Xaios said:


> Sony didn't pull the plug until after all of the major theater chains, ie the people who deal with them _directly_, jumped ship. Had they kept trying to push distribution of a film that no theater was willing to show, they would have lost even more money. Mothballing the film was purely a financial decision on their end, it was the theaters who decided that showing it would be a safety concern, not Sony.



Good job owners of major theater chains. Way to go being total pussies. 

Fixed.


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## monkeybike (Dec 18, 2014)

asher said:


> Did they miss Team America somehow?



It appears Paramount is banning theaters from playing Team America now. I guess a bunch of theaters were going to play it in response for the interview being pulled.


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## SeditiousDissent (Dec 18, 2014)

Terrorists, your game is through.
'Cause now you have to answer to
America
FVCK YEAH!


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## MFB (Dec 18, 2014)

SeditiousDissent said:


> Terrorists, your game is through.
> 'Cause now you have to answer to
> No one, apparently



Fixed that for you


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## wankerness (Dec 18, 2014)

monkeybike said:


> It appears Paramount is banning theaters from playing Team America now. I guess a bunch of theaters were going to play it in response for the interview being pulled.



Yep. Paramount pulled it from a bunch of showings. Apparently some idiot hackers writing a poorly worded threat with no basis in reality outweigh free speech. I REALLY hope this gets exposed as just being the work of a bunch of turds from 4chan just to make the cowards look even worse than they already do.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Dec 19, 2014)

North Korea as a whole may be technically ass-backwards, but they've proven several times in the recent past that they have the capabilities to perform massive hacks. They might not have made much of a splash in the Western media, but when _millions_ of accounts at South Korea's largest banks and telecom companies were hacked earlier this year and those hacks were traced to NK, that shit was _all over_ the news here. I don't doubt for a minute that NK has the capability to hack Sony. They might not be providing adequate health or nutrition to their people, but that's in part _because_ they spend money on shit like this. They might not trade with the US or other western nations, but there isn't exactly a shortage of computers and electronics available in/from China or Russia, who they _do_ do business with.

I'm not saying that it's a sure thing that NK did it, but it'd be foolish and poorly informed to just assume they couldn't have done it.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Dec 19, 2014)

Also, this nonsense has nothing to do with freedom of speech or freedom of expression, fellas. The government didn't pull the movie, Sony did.


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## Hollowway (Dec 19, 2014)

If I can teach myself to hack overnight can I make a poorly worded threat that I'll bomb the theaters that _don't_ show it? Maybe I can shock them back into doing the normal thing, instead of wussing out. Kind of like in cartoons when someone gets hit over the head and has amnesia, so they hit him again to fix it.

This is just ridiculous. One of the main ideas of response to 9-11 was to not let the terrorists alter our daily lives by becoming fearful and caving to their demands. Like the saying goes, "The best revenge is living well." 

I just think it's weird that an obvious joke movie could have anyone convinced that it would cause deaths. Should we no longer show Bond movies from the 60s-80s in case Putin wants to bomb us? Should we stop current Bond movies because of the Middle East? Maybe stop watching the Blacklist on TV? Sheesh. 

I'm not much of a fan of these guys, and I'm not sure I would have seen the movie at all, but now I'm DAMN sure going to spend money on it, just to prove the whole idea is stupid.


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## Ibzzus (Dec 19, 2014)

An article I read this morning summed it up nicely 

"Sony Just Set A Terrible Precedent, One That Will Embolden Every Hacker On The Planet And Haunt Corporations For Years

There's no good reason for Sony to do this other than protect itself from a bunch more embarrassing emails leaking out. That's not a good enough reason, and it sets a dangerous precedent. Hacker groups now know they can bring a major corporation to its knees just by threatening leaks on the same level as the one Sony experienced over the last few weeks. A Sony spokesperson declined to comment."

This is why you NEVER give in to terrorist threats.


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## wankerness (Dec 19, 2014)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> Also, this nonsense has nothing to do with freedom of speech or freedom of expression, fellas. The government didn't pull the movie, Sony did.



I never tried to imply it had anything to do with the government (although the government in this country is run by corporations anyway). I mean that this is showing that the reaction of several companies in this country is to just pull something that caused anonymous internet threats, which is a great precedent for leaning towards more forced censoring and restrictions on what's allowed. The government hasn't said the internship is unlawful, but it doesn't matter, cause it's already been blocked. I consider stuff like the SJW brigade to also be anti-free speech and constantly attempting to get everyone to censor their stuff and block universities from using language they don't like; just because they're not getting government legislation put into place or involving the government doesn't mean they're not attempting to harm free speech in this country.

RE: NK hacking, yeah, you're probably right. I guess there's nothing stopping them from paying external hackers tons of money, too. I still am skeptical that it's entirely NK, I bet it ends up being some amalgam of hackers who've piggybacked onto the same big incident instead of simply North Korea doing everything with their own resources. I still think fear of them doing anything that will actually threaten anyone's lives in this country is completely insane, though.


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## ArtDecade (Dec 19, 2014)

wankerness said:


> I still am skeptical that it's entirely NK, I bet it ends up being some amalgam of hackers who've piggybacked onto the same big incident instead of simply North Korea doing everything with their own resources.



FBI blames North Korea for Sony hack


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## Grand Moff Tim (Dec 19, 2014)

wankerness said:


> I never tried to imply it had anything to do with the government (although the government in this country is run by corporations anyway). I mean that this is showing that the reaction of several companies in this country is to just pull something that caused anonymous internet threats, which is a great precedent for leaning towards more forced censoring and restrictions on what's allowed. The government hasn't said the internship is unlawful, but it doesn't matter, cause it's already been blocked. I consider stuff like the SJW brigade to also be anti-free speech and constantly attempting to get everyone to censor their stuff and block universities from using language they don't like; just because they're not getting government legislation put into place or involving the government doesn't mean they're not attempting to harm free speech in this country.
> 
> RE: NK hacking, yeah, you're probably right. I guess there's nothing stopping them from paying external hackers tons of money, too. I still am skeptical that it's entirely NK, I bet it ends up being some amalgam of hackers who've piggybacked onto the same big incident instead of simply North Korea doing everything with their own resources. I still think fear of them doing anything that will actually threaten anyone's lives in this country is completely insane, though.




Might want to stop using SSO, then. They curtail our freedom of speech by not allowing us to use certain language, talk about certain topics, or even talk about proper topics in the improper places. Same goes for facebook, youtube, or any other site that involves a user agreement upon signing up. That's how freedom of speech works: The government can't pass laws curtailing it, but private entities can do what they want. 

This whole nonsense does set terrible precedent (as even Obama has said: Obama: Sony 'made a mistake' - CNN.com), but it's simply _not_ a freedom of speech issue. It's one company choosing not to release a movie, and I'd honestly be surprised if they don't eventually release it anyway.


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## possumkiller (Dec 19, 2014)

So the theatre owners refuse to play The Interview because they shit their pants over some empty threats. Then these same theatre owners want to play Team America to try and piss of NK?


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## wankerness (Dec 19, 2014)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> Might want to stop using SSO, then. They curtail our freedom of speech by not allowing us to use certain language, talk about certain topics, or even talk about proper topics in the improper places. Same goes for facebook, youtube, or any other site that involves a user agreement upon signing up. That's how freedom of speech works: The government can't pass laws curtailing it, but private entities can do what they want.



Well, if some anonymous spammer with broken english came in to SSO and typed in all caps that we were no longer allowed to talk about say...Ibanez guitars, since they hate Japan, and then the moderators responded by going "Yikes, well we better implement that policy and ban the word from our forums and not allow anyone to talk about the company anymore," then I would consider that on the level of this Sony thing and would consider finding a different site.

The problem isn't that companies have a code of ethics, the problem is when they allow an anonymous third party to change it on the fly. If Sony had said in the first place "this is inappropriate, we can't do this," I don't think anyone would have a problem. The precedent issue is having some anonymous third party screech that something's offensive until it gets pulled from release. It's like Britain back in the 80s with the whole video nasty crap, just this whole thing seems even sillier. If they censor stuff on their own volition like they did post 9-11 with various movies that included bombings or shots of the WTC or whatever, I think it's sort of silly but I don't think it was a problem. There's a difference between being sensitive to an issue and appeasing the demands of people that shouldn't have any say.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Dec 19, 2014)

I'm pretty much in agreement with you there, dude. The whole situation is absurd and sets a ridiculous precedent, and I don't like the implications it has. I just cringe when I see people talk about it like it's a freedom of speech issue. For the record, when I mentioned that initially, it wasn't directed at you. That's actually why I included it in a separate post from the one addressing NK's hacking capabilities.


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## mcsalty (Dec 20, 2014)

wankerness said:


> Well, if some anonymous spammer with broken english came in to SSO and typed in all caps that we were no longer allowed to talk about say...Ibanez guitars, since they hate Japan, and then the moderators responded by going "Yikes, well we better implement that policy and ban the word from our forums and not allow anyone to talk about the company anymore," then I would consider that on the level of this Sony thing and would consider finding a different site.



For your comparison to be accurate it would have to be more like:
"Anonymous hacker types that we are no longer allowed to mention Ibanez guitars and presents some kind of serious potential threat to the major advertisers that generate most of SSO's revenue, causing them to pull out of the website so long as Ibanez guitars are mentioned. SSO then pulls any mention of Ibanez guitars from their website, because the money spent running it without the return of revenue from said advertisers would be a huge loss financially."

As Xaios has already pointed out, Sony didn't pull The Interview's release until all those major theater chains backed out of playing it due to the threats they were given.


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## wankerness (Dec 20, 2014)

mcsalty said:


> For your comparison to be accurate it would have to be more like:
> "Anonymous hacker types that we are no longer allowed to mention Ibanez guitars and presents some kind of serious potential threat to the major advertisers that generate most of SSO's revenue, causing them to pull out of the website so long as Ibanez guitars are mentioned. SSO then pulls any mention of Ibanez guitars from their website, because the money spent running it without the return of revenue from said advertisers would be a huge loss financially."
> 
> As Xaios has already pointed out, Sony didn't pull The Interview's release until all those major theater chains backed out of playing it due to the threats they were given.



I also pointed that out and am well aware, I just didn't feel like spending more than 5 minutes on coming up with my ridiculous comparison and thus it's extremely lacking and full of poor grammar.

By the way, apparently they're not going to VOD it either now, but it seems to be because if they don't do that they can write it off as a complete loss in taxes, so again, financial reasons


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## crg123 (Dec 23, 2014)

Well that didnt last long...

BBC News - The Interview: Sony's North Korea film to be screened in US



> A comedy film about North Korea that had its Christmas Day launch cancelled after a major cyber attack and threats against US cinema-goers is now to get a limited theatrical release, Sony says.
> 
> The Interview will be shown in some independent US cinemas on Thursday.
> 
> ...



What ever you may think about this there is on thing that's certain, Kim's going to be like 



Spoiler



-http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE0LzEyLzE4L2E2L3RoZS5pbnRlcnZpLmE4ZTVhLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/f5c34529/01b/the.interview.kim_.jong_.un_.jpg



When he sees this.


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## wankerness (Dec 23, 2014)

He's going to be like a 404 error that you have to copy/paste? That sounds serious indeed!


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## tacotiklah (Dec 23, 2014)

North Korea got theirs in the end though...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/w...ected-as-north-korean-internet-collapses.html


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## wankerness (Dec 23, 2014)

How many people in NK have internet access, I wonder? My guess is single digit % of the population. Seems like sort of a pointless counterattack (if indeed that's what it was), but hey, bad news for NK's government is always good news to me.


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## tacotiklah (Dec 23, 2014)

I'm guessing that you're right, in which case the people affected by this are by large the North Korean government and Kim Jong Un. 

My money was on China having some hackers hit them up, but there are reports that it was some hacktivist group.


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## Emperor Guillotine (Dec 24, 2014)

BIGGEST PR STUNT EVER.


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## Dusty Chalk (Dec 24, 2014)

Lollers. I actually had that thought. It's supposed to be a horrible movie, and as a result, it's going to be the most watched of "those" Seth Rogan movies. Also:


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## bouVIP (Dec 25, 2014)

So it's all over the internet now.


Anyone watch it?

I did and thought it was funny though stupid...but really funny


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## brutalwizard (Dec 25, 2014)

Sony really honeydicked me into watching it.


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## ferret (Dec 25, 2014)

I'm terribly annoyed by the number of people in my Facebook feed who are buying this movie now to ".... North Korea."

.... them both. The governments are already punishing North Korea with internet outages. Please for the love of god don't give a single cent to Sony. They need to be punished for their repeated, nearly quarterly now, massive information security failures. This is your data being potentially stolen from them. You should care. Or at least care that your PS4 can't access PSN or whatever.


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## Emperor Guillotine (Dec 25, 2014)

Seth Rogan films are total shit. This was just a way of drawing attention to the otherwise terrible flick.


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## Rev2010 (Dec 25, 2014)

Just finished watching it. I really liked it! Way better than I thought it would be. Quite funny and entertaining. 


Rev.


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## loqtrall (Dec 25, 2014)

Watched it,

Actually pretty fvcking hilarious.


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## wankerness (Jan 3, 2015)

Norse &#8211; Norse Investigation Focusing on a Small Group, Including Sony Ex-Employees


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## Jarmake (Jan 5, 2015)

Watched it the other night... It really sucked. Typical Seth Rogen movie. Had to watch dumb and dumber to afterwards to heal my sore eyes and it was much better than interview.


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## Xaios (Jan 5, 2015)

I heartily enjoyed it. Yeah, it had Seth Rogen being Seth Rogen (and he was the normal one) and James Franco just being really ....ing weird, but sometimes that works. It wasn't revelatory, it was just a gloriously goofy comedy that played to its strengths.



Emperor Guillotine said:


> Seth Rogan films are total shit. This was just a way of drawing attention to the otherwise terrible flick.



If you haven't seen it, watch 50/50. It has an archetypal Seth Rogen dropped into an actual serious movie, but it really works (with no small credit going to great performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anjelica Huston).


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## wankerness (Jan 5, 2015)

I like Seth Rogen in every single thing I've ever seen him in, even when the movie isn't very good.  Even junk like Neighbors, Observe & Report, Zack & Miri Make a Porno, and Knocked Up have their moments. I particularly like him in Freaks and Geeks. That part where he interrupts Nick's song to smash his guitar and then says he did him a favor is still my favorite thing he's done.

This all said I don't know if/when I'll ever watch The Interview


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## Jarmake (Jan 5, 2015)

wankerness said:


> I like Seth Rogen in every single thing I've ever seen him in, even when the movie isn't very good.  Even junk like Neighbors, Observe & Report, Zack & Miri Make a Porno, and Knocked Up have their moments. I particularly like him in Freaks and Geeks. That part where he interrupts Nick's song to smash his guitar and then says he did him a favor is still my favorite thing he's done.
> 
> This all said I don't know if/when I'll ever watch The Interview



The best work that seth ever did was freaks & geeks. I really liked seth back then.


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## pushpull7 (Feb 5, 2015)

They should have kept the plug "pulled" and I feel that there would be IQ points earned. I made it through about 10 minutes and was horrified at how bad the content was. I mean, yeah, eminem is a douche, but the absolute horrible not/funny/completely 3rd grade humor of the others....I FF through it to see if it got better and just pretty much chalk it up to standard child-like humor, disgusting nonsense and a lousy attempt to try and bring in "cameo/celeb" to a really bad film. "Adult" comments/content can be fine, but this is like a bad wanna-be adult circus.


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## wat (Feb 10, 2015)

I honestly liked the movie a lot and thought it was pretty damn funny


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## Defi (Feb 19, 2015)

They should have pulled this movie just based off the fact it was terrible. Caught the last half while my roommate was watching it... 40 year old virgin, superbad, and knocked up had some funny stuff, but this movie is as generic and dim witted to the max. The most cliche attempts at provoking laughter. disappoint.


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