back to article The Interview? Kim Jong-Un, you really shouldn’t have bothered

North Korea really didn’t need to go to the trouble of hacking Sony Pictures over The Interview – even if it did have anything to do with it. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea should have just objected to the movie on the basis of good taste (and the possession of a sense of humour) and it would have been a fair …

  1. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Cut! or hack?

    > North Korea really didn’t need to go to the trouble of hacking Sony Pictures over The Interview

    But they didn't! A far more likely possibility is that S.P. was hacked by film lovers in an attempt to stop them making any more dross like this.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cut! or hack?

      Interesting that the Sony haters are still deluding themselves that it wasn't north Korea, despite everyone with knowledge saying it was.

      Perhaps they are not feeling pretty stupid for initially jumping on this, thanking the hackers and unknowingly supporting terrorism..

      Its quite funny how some seemingly innocent actions (like say running LOIC or seeding Sony torrent data), ends up with a court appearance..

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: Cut! or hack?

        >>"Interesting that the Sony haters are still deluding themselves that it wasn't north Korea, despite everyone with knowledge saying it was."

        Whether they did or they didn't, you more show your own lack of knowledge of the security world than the person you replied to with this comment. Plenty of intelligent people doubt whether it was really North Korea behind the attack and there are good arguments why it may not have been. If you're calling news outlets like Ars Technica and El Reg. "deluded" for questioning whether it actually was NK or not, then you're going to have to back that up. And it has NOTHING to do with whether or not someone is a "Sony hater". Seriously - is that a thing? I thought it had eventually died off after that rootkit fiasco finally dropped out of the news.

  2. thomas k.

    it was ok

    Showed up on Netflix so got to watch it for free, basically.

    Not all that good but not as awful as I was expecting, either - typical Rogen/Franco fare, with Franco coming off best, as usual, and certainly better than Pineapple Express.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If the norks did it in the first place

    I find the alternative more believable - ex-IT staffers which the platinum+diamond handshake lady (Amy Pascal) laid off about year and a half ago. Though blaming them for that would have been sooooooo inconvenient as far a a suitable casus belly for more sanctions is concerned.

    Also, that would have failed to show that the National Stazi Agency has been doing something useful (actually it was their Czech colleagues which try to run total CCTV + telecoms surveillance in the Warsaw pact, everyone else inclusive of Stazi, Securitate and 6th division relied mostly on humint).

  4. The Axe

    Conspiracy theory

    Whilst Sony were hacked, it was probably more an inside job, than a hack by NK. As for all the brew-ha-ha about cinema goers being bombed for watching it, that sounds more like an attempt at bigging up the film because it was so crap in the first place that the only way to make any money from it was to hype it up to the rafters. What better way than to create a demand to see the film than to withdraw it for a while and then miraculously all the security problems disappear and the film is shown to a clamouring public. Except it'll still go down in the annals of movie history as a crap film.

  5. Herby

    Barbara Streisand effect (in spades)

    Whoever did the hack (the finger pointing hasn't ceased) and the subsequent demand for the film not to be released made up for the fact that it isn't that good of a film. We will never know how the film would have fared if there wasn't so much PR.

    Just remember, there is a saying "There is no such thing as bad PR". Spin doctors have this down to a fine art.

  6. DropBear

    Sigh...

    Is there any other type than toilet humour left in use today in movies...? Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of the loop, but somehow I never seem to manage to find anything else in a "comedy" these days...

    1. BongoJoe

      Re: Sigh...

      The last two 'comedies' that I enjoyed were GalaxyQuest and Love Actually.

      And as these are ages old it, sadly, just goes to show...

      1. Cliff

        Re: Sigh...

        Love Actually is underrated - it's unashamedly sentimental but none the worse for that, it's warm, fun, cleverly constructed. Pure Curtis doing pure Curtis.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: LOVE ACTUALLY....

          < SHIT!!, IN FACT!>

      2. Haku
        Thumb Up

        Re: Sigh...

        By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!

    2. Mark 85

      Re: Sigh...

      I guess my hanging onto a bunch of the old Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy movies is good thing then....

  7. Anomalous Cowturd
    Unhappy

    Complete waste of bandwidth.

    I downloaded it on the back of its reputation, but gave up watching after about 20 minutes.

    Not a snigger passed my lips.

    Utter shite!

    Deleted...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's got Seth Rogen in it

    What exactly were you expecting?

    1. OzBob

      Re: It's got Seth Rogen in it

      when he's in a minor role (50/50, this is the end ) he isn't bad. When he's co-head-lining, that's when its crap.

    2. Mark 85
      Trollface

      Re: It's got Seth Rogen in it

      Hmm... Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell... Put them together and it's movie magic.

      1. John Bailey

        Re: It's got Seth Rogen in it

        "Hmm... Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell... Put them together and it's movie magic."

        Ohh.. Does it turn into a pumpkin then?

      2. Cliff

        Re: It's got Seth Rogen in it

        >>> Hmm... Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell... Put them together and it's movie magic. <<<

        For fuck's sake don't encourage them, however ironically - irony is just too close to comedy for them to comprehend.

      3. BongoJoe

        Re: It's got Seth Rogen in it

        And don't forget for the female lead we're going to need that woman, Jessica Ruud van Nistelroy

  9. Seanie Ryan

    have to agree

    turned it off after just 4 minutes.. it was terrible. Bad acting, Bad attempts at humour. tasteless.

    and i will usually watch anything.

    1. Zot

      Re: have to agree

      'Turned it off' - So you didn't see it at the cinema then?

      And there's no point in watching something for 4 minutes, you can't gain anything from doing that.

      It was meant to be tasteless. It was quite amusing when Jong-Un and Skylark's personalities hit it off, when all along it was Jong-Un pretending.

      The insane gore seemed a little weird though.

    2. Myself-NZ

      Re: have to agree

      Have a go at dumb and dumber to, makes the interview seem like a blockbuster in comparison....

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The concensus so far is that it's not very good...

    ...but, this film has Seth Rogan in it, Seth Rogan is 'Jewish'...all Jewish actors and writers are brilliant and funny, irregardless if they're not. If Mr Rogan wants to be a part of a precursor to regime change in North Korea then it doesn't really matter that the film is no good, it just matters that it's out there in the public domain, so that when the time comes to kill Kim Jong Bong it won't be a shock but just another 'seven day wonder'.

    His Mossad handler thinks Mr Rogan is clever, talented and funny...and that's good enough for me.

    For all those of you who have paid to see this film then you can take pride in the knowledge that you have helped cement Seth Rogan's reputation as a 'world class funny man' and have aided in the toppling of a dangerous dictator. Now if that isn't worth the price of admission, then i don't know what is?

    Lots of love,

    Mr Menachem Begin.

    1. Brandon 2
      Coat

      Re: The concensus so far is that it's not very good...

      From another well known film starring a Jewish actor / comedian, "Everyone in the room is now dumber for having [read that]." Pardon the paraphrasing. I'll get my coat.

  11. Deryk Barker

    Gosh, maybe my eyes are faiing but that still from the movie seems to me to have three people in it, but only two are mentioned in the caption.

  12. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Yep.

    A) Don't think it was north Korea, as plenty have said. I should note here, US old media has dutifully reported, over and over (until they got bored with the story) the "party line" that "officials" say it was North Korea, and trotted out an expert (without naming who they worked for) to say it was North Korea (with no reasoning as to why.) They never even suggested the possibility of someone else doing it as literally all other news coverage on the planet has. US "new" media (i.e. sites that are not just a newpaper or news channel's online portal) did cover it properly. Luckily I have time to listen to BBC News during my lengthy commute, so even if I hadn't read it on The Register, I heard the Kaspersky employee's doubts (having analyzed attacks of South Korean systems and found this did not follow the usual "modus operandi"), and later on the paper trail suggesting ex-employees being responsible.

    B) I think I liked the movie slightly more than the reviewer. But, yeah, it was pretty low-brow compared to what it could be. If Kim had been involved with these hacks, I would think it would have to be strictly due to (spoiler?) him being incinerated during the movie; the movie is too far off reality to be a serious (or even much of a non-serious) critique of North Korea or it's regime.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Norkage

    If it wasnt for the headlines around the evil Nork H4x0rZ and the resultant national duty of all Americans to watch this film, it would have rightly bombed.

    I tried to watch it. Twice. That is 20 minutes of my life I will never get back.

    I feel Sony should face a class action suit for trying to make people feel patriotic for watching this monumental drivel.

    Now, at least, we can stop saying it was the Norks - Sony execs probably did it as the only way to get people to watch this pile of dog poo.

    1. Cliff

      Re: Norkage

      Sony are also behind Jack and Jill with Adam Sandler playing Adam Sandler twice over, in male and female form. They're not picky.

      1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

        Re: Norkage

        But you have to give it to Sony P... It takes some chutzpah to manoeuvre the

        President of the mighty USA to essentially order all good Americans to go and watch that movie, or else.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Mark 85

          Re: Norkage

          I guess I'll pack my bags and wait for the flight to Gitmo then. I haven't seen it, nor will I.

          1. BongoJoe

            Re: Norkage

            3 am...

            <knock, knock>

            1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

              Re: Norkage

              Oh. Touched a raw nerve, did I?

              1. BongoJoe

                Re: Norkage

                It appears that a few of us have...

  14. Seanie Ryan

    intelligence

    "So you didn't see it at the cinema then?"

    nope i didn't. Why , was a different one they showed in the cinema to all the other methods you could rent it online?

    and i have enough going on upstairs to know after 4 minutes that its tastelessness was not to my taste.

  15. zen1

    Well I thought it flat out sucked.

    I lasted maybe 10 minutes, none of which I'll ever get back. To be blunt, some of the hacking fallout has been far more entertaining and comical than this "movie" could have ever aspired to be.

  16. Florida1920
    Facepalm

    How bad is this film?

    Even iTunes didn't want it. It wound up on Netflix faster than you can say "direct to video."

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