We Hate Movies - S5: WHM On-Screen: The Interview

Episode Date: December 19, 2014

On this very special WHM On-Screen, the guys chat about the controversy over the new Rogen/Franco film, The Interview! Plus: We get exclusive details about the film from one of the few people in the world to have seen it: our very own Chris Cabin! We set out to discuss the film and the Sony Pictures controversy behind it, but somehow managed to also come up with an even better idea for a film, a futuristic horror thriller tentatively titled Hitlergeist. The Interview stars Seth Rogen, James Franco, Lizzy Caplan and Randall Park; directed by Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen. Hitlergeist will (hopefully) star Craig T. Nelson. Unlock Exclusive Content!: http://www.patreon.com/wehatemovies

So we don't know, like, So we don't normally do like attention grabbing headlight, ripped from the headlight, ripped from the headlines, Dick Wolf type episodes, but we felt this is something we wanted to kind of address here in one way or another. Everybody's talking about it. Everybody's talking about it. Everybody's talking about a new way of walking, you know? And we thought, hey, let's chat about this. We have someone

on staff who's one of the few people in the world, the entire world, that has seen this film. This is a special WHM on screen talking about the Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg film, the interview which you all know has been pussily ripped from theaters

by Sony pictures but our resident the only professional film critic here Chris Cabin saw the movie so we have someone who has seen the interview so and you can read his review on slant.com slant magazine dot com that's a bad plug

that's a better plug because now you have the right information a little bit of course correction but you know there's so many things going on with this there's so much that's wrong with it and in the midst of it all is a movie that you didn't think was that great in the first place i don't think most people do like i read the few reviews that have been and most them were pretty mixed or the tending towards negative yeah um well so set the story you just saw this regular old sony screening room situation they want to get they wanted to get they wanted to get

they wanted to get buzz up I guess so they got the screening this movie needs it's a little more press so they made the press screening a while's way it was like two and a half weeks

before the movie actually opened which with bigger movies like this that's usually not what they do it's usually the week of week of sometimes days before yeah now I'm just imagining like some big esk like genie wish where like some press agents like oh man

if only this movie could just get a little bit of buzz behind it. I don't care if it's good. I don't care if it's bad. I just want people talking about it. And just like put a little a penny in a pond and here we are. Some huge fat genie comes out.

Be careful what you wish for. Oh no. Wishmaster. They got Wishmaster. Oh, they definitely, you're right. They totally got the evil gin to do the dirty work here. What if I could tell you that your movie can make profit? it's not though

it's absolutely not not yet anyway so you saw this movie was there any kind of like oh man because like even a couple weeks ago like there was the talk about it the threats were there

that was all happening well what I don't completely get I mean the movie is not first of all they botched the character of Kim Jong-un completely like he's not an even character they didn't really think through he wasn't the man you know

no no he's not but like and like Seth Rogen has said very openly like my point was to debase him that was what I wanted to do so they wanted to do to own what the South Park guys did to ill yeah like they wanted to really go at him

and like but even like the South Park guy like they had the intelligence to be like well we can't just do that you got to have a movie there's got to be some through line there's got to be something to it and like you can't just make a movie where you kill a dictator of perhaps the most like

famed current dictator out there most eccentric and And, like, and just kill him and then have the movie not really be about how much you dislike him. Like, he talks, Rogan talked a lot about how much he doesn't like the guy and just, like, this was a humanitarian thing to him a little bit. But, like, the movie isn't angry. The movie is very much like, well, he might be a person. So it's kind of the exact opposite of what they're at least saying they want to get. Yeah.

I think it's kind of weird that he is, like, so offended by Kim Jong-un, if anything, because weed is totally. illegal in North Korea. So you think he'd have some sort of warmth towards him. Well, you would think that you would just, like, because obviously what you're trying to do is you're trying to do a great dictator type of thing, I would assume. That's what, you know.

Right, but the genius about the chaplain film is that he inserted himself into the role of the dictator. Yes. You know, I guess it's one thing if it's like, oh, no, we accidentally kill Kim Jong-un, and then someone comes in and is like, it's a rule in North Korea. If you slay the dictator, now you rule the country.

now you rule the country. And then Seth Rogen's just run in North Korea. And I mean, there's the whole... It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of good movie. He's got like that movie castle or whatever he's got going on there. Oh, his dad's movie castle. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, is that like in the Great Dictator, you have him with the family and, like, they are living under the rule of Hitler. Right. This, like, there's nobody. You don't, you don't see the world of North Korea. They're in his castle most of the movie. So it's not any of like, here's how. horrible it is to live in this

incredibly backwards. They just talk about it. And like, what's the number one rule of movies? Show it. Don't say it. Right, right, right. And like, there's one joke about like, oh, he's got fake grocery stores. That's it. Like, that's really it. Is that like, oh, that's, like, that's

him showing like his veil over the country. And I'm like, you got to do more than that. You got work harder. One thing I read this week was that apparently the writer, the screenwriter who wrote For South Park and some other stuff. The Daily Show. Yeah. He originally pitched this as an Osama bin Laden movie. It was about, you know, he's going to, what if an interviewer tried to kill Osama bin Laden and then that Sasha Barrett Cohen movie that nobody saw came out? He's like, well, he's got that market covered. Yeah, the dictator. Yeah. Nobody saw that movie. I saw that. Did you have to review that one too? I did not have to review that one. But even that one, he's like an amalgamation. He's a cobbling together of like the eccentricities. I mean, that's close. And, and. And, and.

closer to the great dictator. And you're making this stance on the guy and on a series of guys too and like crafting a world around there. You know what I mean? Like that's more I mean, not that I've seen that movie, but I imagine Sasha Baron Cohen does things, right? Sasha Baron Cohen is a very

talented guy. So like if it's one thing he's really good at is building up the world of a character. And that's dark humor. Like the dictator is mostly dark humor. This movie it's all fucking boner jokes and like, and like it's the Rogan and Franco thing, which I usually

am just fine with. I laugh very hard of the movie, and there were parts of this movie I laughed at too. But my God, like when you're trying to do this shit and you're doing it poorly, it really shows. Like if you're going to, your eyes have to match your stomach

with this material. Right. And if it's not, you're in big trouble. So now we have this situation where you're one of the few people on the planet that may ever see this movie, right? So we all know what the sitch is with this, Right? So the whole hack thing happens. Our government is at least claiming that they can prove that it's North Korea that did the Sony hack that released a series of hilarious emails.

My favorite being the train of why do we keep giving Adam Sandler so much money? My God, isn't it beautiful to know that they're thinking that too? It's like we're all people, right? We all put our pants on one leg at a time. You know what, Steve? It just takes a village, man. Yeah. And so we're all just on the same wavelength. For those of you who don't know, the thing was, it was like a Sony, like, how's our company doing?

Like, self-evaluation thing. And it was all sorts of different issues that people were raising. But the hilarious thing that kept coming up, and I just kept popping up was essentially, why do we have this relationship with Happy Madison? Why do we keep giving Adam Sandler so much money for such abysmal movies? We thought we were Sony pictures. Shouldn't we be holding ourselves to a standard of some kind? I mean, all of these things are, yes, you should, totally. I don't know why you keep doing it. It's kind of, I mean, I don't usually, I never like to side with Aaron Sorkin, ever.

But his piece was pretty dead on about, like, we shouldn't be looking at these emails. No. That was the fact that we gave into that part alone and we all had that Schadenfreude. Now they took your interview away, you know what I mean? Not that that's the world's biggest crime, but it's a weird precedent to have, and we're all a bit complicit in this sort of the rubber knack. And I do feel like the bigger part of the choice to pull it is that I think they don't want more of these fucking emails coming out. Because some of, I mean, the obviously the racist Obama shit, which was horrific.

You're totally right. And it's the same thing with like the celebrity phone hacking thing that happened over the summer. Like, we should not be privy to this stuff. It's unfair. You can't report on it. It's not news. It's illegally obtained materials. Right. And I mean, and that's the shitty thing, right? It's like, I guess to a degree like, yeah, we're at fault for reading it. But if we didn't have it thrown in front of us, no one would be able to read it anyway. Like, media don't make a story about it. Yeah. That's how that should work. Well, I mean, the problem is that TMZ's always going to make a story about it. And if TMZ is making a story about it, CNN has to make a story about it. Exactly. You don't want to be duped by that Harvey whatever.

Levine. Harvey Levin. Yeah. Harvey Levin. You don't know. You don't want to be duped by the guy who used to work at the people's court. We're fucking CNN, God damn it. Can't have that happens. And, I mean, you have your audience model now. Like, you have to do it now. Like, you had to cover all of Jennifer Lawrence's naked pictures.

You had to do all of it. Exactly. So you're in there now with, you know, the slop and the hogs. So, you know, and again, this is for anyone who hasn't been doing, you know, following this or living under a rock or whatever you've been doing. But, you know, so then what happened was, you know, the next threat comes through. if you premiere this movie, if you play this movie, there's going to be a quote, 9-11-style attack

on something. The vaguest of whatever. No substantiated claim of any kind. It's just all you got to do is, it's the family guy joke. I don't like referencing family guy that much because I think it's a terrible show. Sure.

That joke when Lois is running for some sort of city council or whatever it is and she realizes all she has to do is say 9-11 and people will listen and prick up their ears. And that's all this is. All they had to do was say, say 9-11 style something or other, and all of a sudden we're shit in pants.

It's that weird thing, though, is like, do you... And I mean, like, they're in a tough spot. I mean, I do think that pulling it is a really bad precedent and all of that. But really, if people die during the interview, do you want... And you were warned about it? Do you want that on your hands?

Just so you can watch James Franco, look at Seth Rogen's boner or something? That happens. he knows for fact everybody we hate movies exclusive oh wait sorry Seth Rogan looks like James Franco's boner we gotta back we gotta get the information

of the boner gazing correct made sure I see what you're saying Steve but at the end of the day it comes down to someone just randomly saying something and forcing all of this to happen so they say this thing and then all of a sudden all the big chains

start pulling out so like your regals and your AMCs I don't think Lowe's pulled out which is interesting but All these big chains pull out. So then Sony just decides, well, we're not going to release the movie, which I think is a horrible idea. And it's a horrible precedent to set. And as I was having this discussion with coworkers today, because I work in an industry where all we talk about is movies getting released or not, that's a big part of what I do is following, you know, release trends and box office and shit like that. And as we're having this discussion, it's announced that Paramount is.

is blocking the Alamo draft house from playing Team America World Police. So that whole thing was they canceled the interview. So Alamo thought it would be funny or patriotic or whatever to announce that on the 27th of December, they were going to have screenings of Team America World Police. And then I think that, in my opinion, they kind of took it too far. They were like, we're going to be passing out all sorts of red, white, and blue, whatever.

Like, just play the fucking movie, okay? Like, I get it. You want your theater chain to be fun and jovial and whatnot. but playing the movies enough. To be fair, though, Paramount was threatened with being haunted. So that was a big problem. You really don't want the ghost of a dictator. No, that's the scariest guy.

Because they're following you home. They're not just staying at your business office. Has there been a Hitler ghost movie yet? And if so, why not? Like, you're, oh my God. So, you know, make it like Germany like 2929, right? And you just live in it? You're living in a big apartment building, and oh my God, it was built on the fucking bunker, dude.

Hitler Ghost. Hitler Ghost and Averbrot. Hitler Geist? Hitler Geist. And Aver Braun is, like, crying in the corner when you're trying to go to sleep. That's kind of eerie, right? That's scary. Oh, yeah.

Just let me tell you, the only thing's spookier than, like, bach ghosts are weeping ghosts. Oh, yeah. I will kill myself much faster if I stumble across a weeping ghost. Oh, my God. Craig D. Greg, D. Nelson's sleeping. He just hears this. He just hears.

He just hears. He keeps on waking up and he goes back to sleep and he can't stop it. They have to hire that tiny lady's German cousin and she's like walking around the house and she's just like, they're here. Oh man. This house is clearing. Oh, Hitlergeist. great idea. You know what, Steve, I don't want to do this, but could you take a leave of absence from the show

to write that screenplay? All right, all right, all right. Fully paid leave of absence. Of course. We can use the same graphics from Cloud Outlist, don't worry about it. The thing I don't know about, though, is I'm wondering if Alamo perhaps jumped the gun with

announcing that this was booked, because I'm wondering if, here's how it works. You send an email to a company that owns the rights to screen a film known as the distributor. So you send an email to Paramount and you say, hey Paramount, I want to play this movie in this format on this day.

And they say, okay, here are the terms. You usually pay like a guarantee up front, things like that. I'm wondering if they announced hey, we're going to play this movie before going to make the booking for the film. Right? So they're saying that Paramount pulled it. But

if they didn't check with Paramount, around first and they were like this is what we're going to do yeah and then paramount like they went like dear paramount we'd like to play team america world police to you know replace the lost shows of the interview that we have i mean you would hope that they're like PR people aren't that stupid because that would be a major club if you're the PR marketing guy and you pull something like that and they haven't secured it all right you've got the rights guy like who might be cool and he's like yeah that's an awesome idea and then this story comes out and his boss is like oh what the fucking runs down the hallway.

That's, I mean, that's the thing, right? I was thinking about it, because, like, I love working with Paramount. I've worked with Paramount a bunch of times on different things. They're super cool people and really helpful. Yeah. So I can only imagine that it was just like, yeah, why the hell not? You know, whatever. It's not the interview. No one's...

Who cares? That movie came out 10 years ago or whatever, you know? Like, what could that matter? And then you're right. I feel like it's a thing where some fat cat was oh, no, wait a minute. I have a lot of emails in my inbox that I don't want Just picturing some fat guy running down the hallway. Oh, you're like Hudsucker Proxy.

Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, I don't know which, you know, which came first if they agreed to it and then pulled it or draft has announced it. And then they were like, hang on a second. But still, like, as Paramount, you should know how that's going to look. Yeah. And, like, I understand you had to do it for your own interest. But, like, really, that looks like you're doing exactly what Sony's doing. And you're painting yourself in a not great light.

Even worse, because there's a specific threat that Sony is kind of reacting to, or is reacting to, and you're just sort of like going overboard the other way. And that was the thing that we were literally talking about this, like, today at work, and the pros and cons of what Sony did. And everybody was, you know, had different points and things like that. And then it comes across the, and I had been saying, like, it's a slippery slope because who knows what could happen, who knows what's going to pull what, this, that, and the other thing. anyone can make a generic threat and all of a sudden other movies aren't getting released. Like minutes after this conversation, it comes across the wire that this happens with Paramount. And I was like, my God, it's happening so much faster. And then that Corel movie got canned.

The Corel movie got canned, which is another just active cowardice. It's so insane that you're just, you're reacting this way to this kind of, like, don't stifle creativity, man. Don't do it. I don't care, you know, it's fine that you didn't like the interview. That's, but that's my right is to not like it or like it. Exactly. Like, you still have the right to see it. They still have the right to make that movie.

Well, what's so interesting to me is like, and I mean, it's, I know exactly what it is, so it's not that interesting. But, like, you have movies like Red Dawn and Olympus has fallen. Now, so wait a second. So to clarify the Red Dawn remake in where they replace Soviets with North Koreans invading America. Well, they, first they replaced Soviet paratroopers with, uh, Chinese paratroopers. And then right before release, because they were worried about the Chinese market.

Right. They switched it to North Korea. You're right. And in that movie, and in Olympus Has Fallen, they portray them as bloodthirsty, cruel lunatics. Olympus Has Fallen is one of the most violent films I've seen in recent memory. Like, the siege on the White House is nuts. It's carried out

by secret North Koreans pretending to be South Koreans, by the way. And they like wear different ties and change them? Exactly. No, we really like Bong Joon How. I mean, it's, it is brutal, that movie. The siege on the White House in that movie is disturbing.

No problems there. And there's like executions in red don't. Like North Koreans are bringing in like Americans out to like the canyons and blowing their heads off. Yeah. And this is what we're retreating with is boner jokes. But that's what I mean, it makes sense because the whole thing is that with if you're scared of them, yeah like that's fine that's fine if they're a bloody you know bloodthirsty we want to that's that's fine with him but if you're telling me that he's laughing out of boner and like he's having fun james franco and they're

playing grab ass that's something and like that's really going to make you look like a little fool we hate movies exclusive there is grab ass in this film there is grab ass confirmed grab ass rated r for several scenes of grab ass and allusions to other grab ass asses. So, I mean, to wrap this up, like, where does this leave us? Can I propose a protest? I'm a pretty politically minded guy, you know, you follow my Twitter

feed, you'll know you won't. It's all about comic books. We all have a sit-in, right? And we all watch interview with Steve Bouchemmy. Like, that is, that's like

a hunger strike times 12, right? Yeah, no, I'm not doing that. All day. day on Christmas. You lost me. You already lost me. Isn't that it's him and Michael Pitt? Is it that movie? No, it's him in Sienna Miller. Oh, yeah, you're right. And it's a remake of a Greek movie. Mm-hmm. Great actor that Steve Buscemi. Not a great director. Great actor, though. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so I just,

everybody's been throwing out, like, all sorts of things. Like, why don't they just put it on VOD? Like, I heard someone saying, like, even that, it takes a lot of preparation. The earliest they could do that is February. I don't know how substantiated that is. My thinking is someone at Sony needs to just leak the whole movie. That was my... People will watch it, you know, they will illegally torrent it and whatever. And, you know, it's fine. You're not planning on putting it out anyway, at least for now.

Like, I don't know how definitive they've been about it, but leak it yourselves. Get that buzz going. And six months from now, put that shit out on Blu-ray and watch the sales come in. No, but, you know, that's the difference, though, is if they just wait six months and then release it on Blu-ray, Nobody's even seen it except for a few Chris Cabins here and there. Then it's totally shrouded in mystery. If it gets leaked, people, there will be that critical consensus that it's like, oh, it's just kind of a comedy. You know what I mean?

And people will like it and people won't. But if it, the more they hold it is kind of to their benefit financially. So you're saying just wait a long time and just release it on DVD and everyone's going to be foaming at the mouth to see what this is. If you can keep it off torrent, which you probably can't because no, clearly Sony's. defense mechanism isn't exactly yeah sony's track record with getting things put on torrance is not that great yeah i mean i don't know what the answer is

but i do know that the incorrect answer is pulling bookings yeah oh yeah no they chose wrongly yeah it's it's bad it's bad and whether or not you're scared of more hacking or you're bummed out that a bunch of theater chains are pulling out and whatever like whatever it is it's wrong and you're sending an incredibly wrongheaded message

to the rest of the community. You're so many freaking pictures, man. You're one of the big guys. You are one of the big guys. And I mean, you're really like just throwing yourself in the mud doing this shit. Oh, here's the brainwave.

Will there be an awkward bit at the Academy Awards about this? There's going to be so many bad jokes. Oh, yeah. At the Golden Globes and at the Oscars. Oh, the globes are already right. They're furiously typing at the Globes right now. There's going to be at least 50 and they're all going to be awful. Absolutely. Oh, you're absolutely right.

Like, they went, who's hosting the Globes? Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. They went and they were like, scrap it. Scrap it all. Turn on the news and let's just create, baby. Or maybe there's good. Make jokes, good idea. Do a somber, we are artists and we are being hurt right now.

That's a problem. There's going to be a speech. Is somebody wearing tape on their mouth? I hope not. I really hope not because we're just making silly movies here. Definitely going to be Ed Harris. Oh, man. don't want Ed Harris giving him a microphone.

What is the thing? Oh, what is it? Is it, it's when, um, uh, uh, uh, on the waterfront director. Elya Kazan, that's Ed Harris. He does not stand. Oh, it's the greatest video of all time when Ilya Kazan gets the honorary Oscar and everyone says it Ed Harris is just arm folded. Him and Amy Madigan.

They were just stonewalling. Oh, man. Oh, it's uncomfortable. Oh, it's uncomfortable. If I ever had occasion to sit out a standing ovation, I would feel really good about myself. But it's so impossible to do. You just, you know what? You get wrapped up in it and it's like, my God, I don't want to look like that much of a jerk.

Maybe I'll stand but not clap, what you can do. I don't think, like, that's the thing is it really, it does depend on who wins the awards. Keaton's not making that speech. Unfortunately, probably not. Keaton wouldn't make that speech because, you know, he's a little classy, he doesn't want to be playing that. Oh, I thought you meant he's not going to make the speech because he's not going to win any. No, no, no, no, no. Like, he's not going to be, because he's a serious actor. He's not going to be like

artists or so, you know. Right. You don't need that. But like, one of the others, I mean, it depends. Who wins? Oh, wait. Here's one. Franco and Rogan come out to present an award. Yeah. They bring the actor who plays Oon with them in character.

That's, uh, Randall Park. Do you think they just drag him out? Like, oh, hey man. Oh, oh, I thought we weren't supposed to be seen together. Oh, this is weird. I wouldn't be surprised. That sounds like something, yeah. I would imagine.

Write your bad jokes now, guys. You run it down on a piece of paper and date it, and we'll see who wins. Exactly. I guess only time will tell what it happens with this movie. Hopefully it doesn't turn into the day the clown cried or the full cut of the devils, right? Like, we actually see this movie because I don't care whether or not it's good. I care that I should be able to see this movie. Sure. I mean, I don't think it's going to be like the nine-hour cut of greed where, like, it's just gone because the studio was like,

Fuck it. No, eventually it's going to come out. In one way. I mean, I don't know how, but it's going to come out. The ending part already leaked, so you've got to figure the rest of the movie isn't far behind. That is the most, I would say, like, yeah, that's the hot scene. That's WHM on screen with our quick chat about the interview. We'll see you on Tuesday for the final episode of 2014, which, by the way, the hint again was woof.

So until Tuesday, I'm Andrew Jupin. Steven said it. Chris Gapen. Take it easy. Thank you.