The Interview
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
18
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The Playlist Tess HofmannDec 12, 2014
Comedy is most effective when it’s taking a risk. Here, the directors took a big risk, and managed to finesse something shocking and novel out of the familiar Franco-Rogen dynamic without overplaying their hand. Read full review
91
HitfixDrew McWeenyDec 12, 2014
The Interview is laugh out loud funny all the way through, and once again proves that Rogen and Goldberg will do anything, no matter how dark, for a big laugh, and that character is just as important as punchlines in their work. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichDec 16, 2014
Fashioning "The Great Dictator" and "Inglourious Basterds" into a cross joint and then lighting it from both ends, Goldberg and Rogen’s second directorial effort follows the hysterically violent misadventures of idiotic talk-show host Dave Skylark (James Franco, hamming it up) and his underachieving producer, Aaron (Rogen). Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 27, 2014
Within the bloodshot-eye perspective of their other stoner comedies, it’s bluntly funny and ever-so-slightly sweet. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniDec 27, 2014
Crazy funny. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergDec 24, 2014
The North Korea scenes are often very funny, with many of the jokes coming at the expense of the fish-out-of-water visitors. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 24, 2014
The Interview sticks to the anything-for-a-laugh plan for nearly the entire journey, with far too many jokes about things going in and coming out of rear ends. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 24, 2014
It's stupid. It's in bad taste. It impossible. I know all that. Look, Quentin Tarantino killed Hitler in "Inglourious Basterds" and the neo-Nazis stayed quiet. It's a farce, people. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonDec 23, 2014
No matter what you think of dumb comedies, The Interview, thanks allegedly to Kim, has gone from disposable to indispensible cinema. It’s a must-see movie in the context of what has happened, and will spark a discussion of, in comedy, how far is too far? Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 27, 2014
If Amy Pascal loses her job over this, it will be an outrage. The only thing about which we disagree is The Interview. She hated it; I think it’s a blast. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 25, 2014
Randall Park’s interpretation of Kim is dark, and darkly funny, a delusional turn with wincing, believable bits of psychoanalysis. Read full review
60
EmpireWilliam GossFeb 2, 2015
Considering how its inflammatory ambition and scattershot execution put it closer to Spies Like Us than The Great Dictator on the political comedy spectrum, The Interview should ultimately stand as the boastfully juvenile lightning rod that modern American culture deserved — no butts about it. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 17, 2014
Real-life geopolitical blunders aside, The Interview generally hits its marks. And every time it does skid into juvenile idiocy — with too much scatological humor, for instance, and an overuse of “you-go-bro!” attitude — it follows it with a stride or two toward uproarious meta-satire. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanDec 12, 2014
Both Rogen and Franco, who have marvellous chemistry and exude good cheer, continue to tweak their personas in this very amusing, very imbecilic film. Read full review
52
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 12, 2014
While The Interview never slacks in its mission to tell jokes, it's such a messy and meandering movie that it never quite lands as a satire of politics or the media or anything else. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerDec 27, 2014
Elevated to some vague level of importance, not on merit but by circumstance. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSteven BooneDec 27, 2014
I didn’t laugh once, but there were several lines that, in context, got a wide fool-grin out of me. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDec 27, 2014
Every once in a while, a movie is more than a movie, but it’s surprising when that becomes the case with a punk-ass comedy, one that’s more puerile than pointed yet not without some good laughs. Read full review
50
NPRBob MondelloDec 26, 2014
It's not a political satire, or even satire of tabloid journalism. It's just another "bromance," with jokes so bad (they are) "freshmanic." Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 25, 2014
The Interview is pretty much what everyone thought it would be before all the trouble started: a goofy, strenuously naughty, hit-and-miss farce, propelled not by any particular political ideas but by the usual spectacle of male sexual, emotional and existential confusion. Read full review
50
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekDec 18, 2014
The more desperately a comedy tries to be outrageous, the less likely it is to be outrageous -- or even just funny. And that's the fate that befalls The Interview, which offers a few moments of casual brilliance... but otherwise trips itself up in the threads of its contrived absurdity. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartDec 17, 2014
Hate to say it, but this film ain’t half the satire it could have been. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernDec 17, 2014
It's a pity that the film is bereft of satiric zing, bludgeoning the laughs with a nonstop sledgehammer of bro humor. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissDec 17, 2014
The joke barrage becomes hit-or-miss, as if the creators — including screenwriter Dan Stewart, working from a story by Rogen and Greenberg — don’t know or care which is which. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 12, 2014
An intensely sophomoric and rampantly uneven comic takedown of an easy but worrisomely unpredictable target. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 12, 2014
Considering the controversy and chaos Sony Pictures Studios is undergoing because of it, The Interview fails to live up to the hype, floundering as a rowdy comedy as it grows duller by the minute. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 19, 2014
Even if the film were sharper, even if it was made by satirists on the order of Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern in their “Dr. Strangelove” days, I would still argue that greenlighting such a film is a blunder. The exercise of free speech does not exempt one from the consequences of stupidity. Read full review
40
Total FilmKen McIntyreFeb 12, 2015
Undeservedly controversial comedy lacks both laughs and nuance. The best bit they could come up with is Seth Rogen shoving a rocket up his bum. Read full review
40
The DissolveAndrew LapinDec 25, 2014
Even with a strong first half lampooning the vapidity of American news media, The Interview is the worst thing Rogen has ever done. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 27, 2014
So this is the little movie that caused the big fuss. And little it is, a dopey bro-com that piddles along delivering mild laughs until it turns overly, unamusingly bloody in the climactic scenes. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinDec 15, 2014
It essentially uses a major global issue to cheaply dress up what is two hours of hit-and-miss erection jokes. Read full review
30
VarietyScott FoundasDec 12, 2014
An alleged satire that’s about as funny as a communist food shortage, and just as protracted. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 18, 2014
In the real world, a debate has been raging over what does and doesn’t constitute torture. In the movie world, there’s no debate; watching The Interview is torture from almost start to finish. Read full review
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