This is just nonsense now. Franco stopped Rogen from getting Kim Jong-un with the second ricin strip, because they are now bros. Rogen is chatting up Sook.
. @Lanre_Bakare is really loving this #TheInterview live blog.. pic.twitter.com/yYbHhBBS9b
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) December 24, 2014
Ok the ricin guard just died. His head exploded. Genuinely gruesome. My colleague Olly Laughland is here now. He’s written numerous articles about the Interview and looks gutted at how underwhelming it all is.
Hear, hear! Oh wait…
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An hour in and Franco and Kim Jong-un are raving and hanging around with naked women. Their bromance has driven a wedge between Rogen and Francbro.
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Kim Jong-un is now having an existential crisis about leading his nation while playing basketball with Franco. Basketball, North Korea… where have I seen that combination before?
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Clearly, the excitement over this film is not universal.
My name is Stephanie Haberman, and I have successfully survived a half-hearted hate watch of The Interview
— Stephanie Haberman (@StephLauren) December 24, 2014
What I'm watching instead of the interview pic.twitter.com/q6j4FDwKzi
— erin mccann (@mccanner) December 24, 2014
They’re bonding over a shared love of Katy Perry now. This is actually quite funny.
Ok. I’m 53 minutes in and I’m making a cup of tea. Franco is now hanging out with Kim Jong-un and firing rockets. They’re getting along famously
Rogen’s been caught after he squashed the tiger and had to shove the replacement ricin strip up his bum. I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence.
So we’re 46 minutes in and I think it’s fair to say this film is about as funny and satirical as Kevin And Perry Go Large, for non-British readers; this is what I’m talking about -
Ok, something is happening. Rogen is face to face with a tiger. Those dictators and their pets, eh?
The man’s got a point.
Sony has a site where you can watch The Interview for $5.99 and I can't think of a single reason not to trust them with my credit card info.
— Guy Endore-Kaiser (@GuyEndoreKaiser) December 24, 2014
If you wanna be paranoid, we’ve got info for how to watch The Interview elsewhere here, in case you are the only person on the internet who has not yet found it.
So the ricin plan has gone awry. Franco put the strip in a chewing gum packet and one of the guards ate it! I wonder what will happen now, no genuinely. I have no idea
The slightly incongruous music keeps coming, with some Wu Tang Clan playing as the pair go to some sort of castle.
They are now in Pyongyang, where Franco is giving a Rocky-style speech to the North Koreans:
We’re into a training montage now where the pair are given code names (“dung beetle” and “aardvark”), and given fancy watches just like in James Bond.
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Hey Breaking Bad fans, Ricin is what they’re going to use to kill the big man.
Franco is now proposing how he’d kill Kim Jong-un. He somehow manages to work in a porno reference. This is 50 per cent cameos, 50 per cent dick jokes.
Bit late for that now, Seth.
I need to say that a comedy is best viewed in a theater full of people, so if you can, I'd watch it like that. Or call some friends over.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 24, 2014
But just in case you do want to watch The Interview the old fashioned way, here is a state-by-state list of US theaters that will be screening it.
We’re now at CIA headquarters in Langley where they play Usher tracks, apparently…
The pair aren’t so sure if regime change is a wise idea, but agent Lacey reassures them they’ll ensure the new guys won’t be the wrong type of dictator. WARNING: at exactly 27 minutes in Franco has a fake erection after discussing how hot agent Lacey is. Is there a way to re-ban this film?
Now agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan from Masters Of Sex) is asking them to “take out” Jong-un. Quizzical looks abound before the penny drops. They need to assassinate the leader of North Korea!
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People appear to be too busy taking selfies with The Interview to actually watch it.
Warning for those watching this later on, at 23:30 Franco tells a prolonged joke about how much his penis smells. I’d rather be doing the washing up right now.
For no reason at all the pair have just boshed some drugs and got turnt up. Bad move, because the next morning a couple of feds are at their door. Here comes the recruitment pitch…
In Franco outfit news, he’s now sporting an emerald cardigan and a mint green tie. It’s a new low.
Because it’s been the kind of year in which the president of the United States, leader of the free world, is supposed to have an opinion on the release of a terrible movie... the president of the United States has an opinion on the release of a terrible movie. Here’s a statement put out this afternoon by White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz:
The President welcomes the news that people will be able to decide for themselves whether or not to see this film, and appreciates Sony’s work on this effort over the past few weeks. As the President made clear on Friday, we do not live in a country where a foreign dictator can start imposing censorship here in the United States. With today’s announcements, people can now make their own choices about the film, and that’s how it should be.
2015 can’t come fast enough.
Skylark just announced that in three weeks he’ll be interviewing Kim Jong-un, which leads nicely into a segment where Seth Meyers and Bill Maher quip about the prospect. The cameo levels here are incredible. So far the film has been about 50 per cent cameos.
North Korea is now being compared to Mordor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt just had a cameo which saw him stroke a cat.
Franco’s now wearing a suit that makes him look like Jack Nicholson from Batman.
He’s now shouting at a helicopter as it departs and talking about the fact he finds the North Korean solider/shouty woman Sook (played by Diana Bang) sexy.
So Rogen walked up a mountain to meet the North Koreans, fell asleep, was crawled on by a bug and then, when he was told he could have a meeting with the big man, made a joke about Skype. It’s raining outside.
James Franco is doing some social media self promotion of his own for The Interview’s big debut: If you take a photo of yourself watching The Interview, he will “like” it. That’s nice, but we’ll go one step farther: as we mentioned earlier in this blog, if you tweet @GuardianUS or @KaylaEpstein a photo or Vine of yourself watching The Interview, we’ll feature you here, in our live blog.
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The comment thread is heating up. Not a lot of laughs here either though…
The decline in the USA under Obama has been spectacular, they are treating this as a victory, a victory over a fat pygmy who is starving his own people.
Wow, going so petty just to piss off Noth Korea...
The Guardian has reached the same cinysm level as the whacky dictatorship.
except for this one
Yaaaaay! We're free to watch a film about killing yet even more brown people! Let the liberal press rejoice!
We’re 17 minutes in and so far this has been utterly stupid.
Ok. He’s in China, marveling at people eating octopus as he goes to meet the North Koreans. On a mountain.
But he’s on the phone with a North Korean diplomat. He needs to knock that off, pronto.
Rogen’s doing a west Indian accent. I think.
Not a film to miss a chance for a good ol’ celebrity in daft situation joke, now a producer has revealed Matthew McConaughey has just been outed for having sex with a goat, lol.
Haters gonna hate
Clicks on link to live-blog of The Interview :: closes laptop :: wipes hard drive :: sets laptop on fire :: throws laptop ashes into river
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) December 24, 2014
Oh, you’re going to live tweet watching “The Interview” :closes laptop:
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) December 24, 2014
@KaylaEpstein Please stop.
— Michael P. Ventura (@mpventura) December 24, 2014
We apologize for nothing.
Literally, ten seconds after Rogen was complaining about not being able to do “real journalism” it’s revealed that Kim Jong-un is a massive fan and wants to do an interview with them.
Franco’s cravat is a thing of wonder. Looks a bit like an Urban Outfitters navajo rug
Ok, Franco and Rogbro are having a chat about why they always cover salacious nonsense in their show such as “Nicki Minaj’s vagina flopping out at the Grammys”. I wonder where this is going to lead? Worthwhile journalism such as being recruited to try and assassinate a world leader, perhaps…
Skylark is now chatting to Rob Lowe. I wonder if he’s going to take his wig off to reveal a horrible head of hairlessness. Oh, he just did.
I realise I’ve not given you any context about this film at all and just rushed into spouting off sentences that make little sense. Here’s a handy summary of who the main characters are from Jordan Hoffman’s excellent review:
Both Rogen and Franco, who have marvellous chemistry and exude good cheer, continue to tweak their personas in this very amusing, very imbecilic film. Rogen (who co-directs with longtime creative partner Evan Goldberg) is Aaron Rapoport, a producer of TV news infotainment. He’s hitched his wagon to David Skylark (Franco) a boastful, possibly bisexual airhead who knows his handsome smile will excuse him from life’s problems.
Ok, got it. Good.
Ok, if you’re watching along I’m exactly 9:50 into this thing. Seth Rogen has a massive crestfallen look on his face at this point after having an existential crisis about not being a “real journalist”. I know EXACTLY how he feels.
Now Skylark is wearing a cravat and opining about his colleagues and using Lord Of The Rings references while doing a Golem impression. I feel like I’m inside the mind of a frat bro.
Now Franco is reading clearly homoerotic lyrics back to Eminem. THIS IS SATIRE
Get involved: let's make this a watch party
The moment we worried would never come has finally arrived.
Are you going to be watching at 1PM ET? Come and join us by tweeting your thoughts, photos and Vines of your watch party or whatever @GuardianUS and we’ll pull the best contributions into the live blog. It’ll be like one big rowdy midnight release party, except it’s the middle of the afternoon and most of us are still in pajamas.
You can also contact myself and my co-pilot with extended thoughts about the film on Twitter and email:
Lanre Bakare: @Lanre_Bakare | lanre.bakare@theguardian.com
Kayla Epstein: @KaylaEpstein | kayla.epstein@theguardian.com
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Eminem just said the phrase “gay peek-a-boo”
This scene is a lot like when Zane Lowe talked to Eminem, except he just said he was gay, a statement which is making James Franco pull a very very funny face.
Dave Skylark (James Franco) is sporting an orange tie and a HUGE grin. And Eminem is there too talking about how he hates old people. WOW this is controversial
Brian Williams is here too, being funny.
A young girl is singing a nationalistic song of triumph with the classic line “Die America, Die!”. The tone is set.
First things first, let’s watch a trailer for THE INTERVIEW. Talk about preaching to the choir.
Ok. Paypal done. YouTube on. Let’s watch this thing.
Someone who won’t be joining us on this journey is Dennis Rodman who wants you to go watch his film about North Korea instead:
“If you want to see the real thing and what really goes on there, go see the screening of my documentary ‘Big Bang in Pyongyang’ at the Slamdance Film Festival at the end of January,” he continued. “It’s going to be EPIC!”
Good old Rodman.
At the moment I’m trying to download and pay for the thing, which is harder than you’d expect…
Lanre here, ready for the cinematic event of the century, as long as the Sony site doesn’t fall over with all the people attempting to download The Interview at the same time.
History
Sony has FINALLY released The Interview online. Come join us as we document the experience in real time.
Ready or not, here we go ...
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I just despair of the media in the USA and UK , what a load of rubbish , I really wish there was something we as public could do to get rid of all this crap