Oh my. There are molehills and then there are molehills. No matter how much attention you give to this very little film made by very little people, it doesn’t and shouldn’t tip the balance of anything – not World War III, not International Terrorism and not even your personal Saturday night home alone with Pop Secret.
Dave Skylark (James Franco) is the host of the kind of interview show where celebrities come and bare all. My personal guess as to why they bear all is this is the least demanding or inquisitive forum for such revelation. Dave’s follow-up questions are mostly on the order of, “when you say ‘gay,’ what do you mean by that?” I.e. absolutely impossible to mistake for probing journalism of any kind. It’s like coming out to a teddy bear. A teddy bear with a talk show.
Intimidated by claims that Skylark Tonight is a schlocky reboot of “The Pat Sajak Show,” producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) reads a news article saying everybody’s fav North Korean funbuddy Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) is a fan of the show and decides this would be a glorious opportunity to bring Dave’s shallow personality to every television in the free and unfree world. When Kim accepts, the CIA gets involved with a surefail plot to kill the dictator. I want to scoff at the plot here, but, let’s face it, if Argo was real, the CIA is capable of anything.
The “importance” of this film should be the portrayal of Kim Jong-un. Will he be ruthless? Amoral? An evil genius? Enigmatic? Misunderstood? Bored? Sycophantic? He comes off as an insane playboy, but who can tell what is actually being said here? Most of the character development is described by things coming in or going out of various asses, so I guess the true answer is “constipated.” It hardly matters. There was an opportunity for some very sharp drama or comedy here and it was meticulously avoided through the doofery of Franco and Rogen. There is, roughly, a zero percent chance your opinion of Kim Jong-un will be changed as a result of this picture (with plus or minus zero percent chance of error).
How do you suppose people deal with 
self-created overhype? I suppose there are several ways – I still know people who insist that Phantom Menace was quality film, mostly to cover their internal blush. Anyway, given the controversy over The Interview – the Sony leaks, the terrorist threat, several major theater chains refusing the film, and a subsequent federal investigation – this all is like Geraldo’s Al Capone Vault for a new generation. The Interview is neither good, nor important, and will die a quick and unmemorable death.
♪I am the world
I starved those children
I am the guy who makes a brighter day
For all most many some at least one citizen
There’s a choice I’m making
To host an Abrams pair
What “fun” they’ll have deep
Within my lair♫
Rated R, 112 Minutes
D: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
W: Dan Sterling
Genre: Political mischief
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: The kind of hawk who needs Kim Jong-un to be dead by the end of the film
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Historians
♪ Parody inspired by “We Are the World”
