(Hackers suck – promoted by Colorado Pols)
“The Interview” was not a great movie. It appears to have been a fantasy ammosexual buddy movie, aimed at those panting, sweaty hordes who know what real he-man American foreign policy should be if that wuss Obama were not in charge. By Golly, North Korea would be sorry they went in the wrong mom’s basement, futhermucker.
That said, the swift withdrawal of the movie from scheduled Christmas theatre showings, in the total and complete capitulation of Sony pictures to the hacking of its servers, sets a chilling precedent for free speech.
Why did Sony make the movie in the first place? How would we react if a rival nuclear power attempted a holiday film about assassinating our President? Domestic white hate groups fantasize about this constantly, but usually not on widely distributed video. I have to think that a foreign, say, Bollywood, blockbuster on this topic would not be kindly received.
What were they thinking? Did Sony get what they deserved? Should we mourn that we will not see “The Interview” while Kim Jong Un is in charge? Did they do the right thing in cancelling all showings?
Here’s a link to Ari Melber and Lawrence O’Donnell’s discussion on MSNBC if you need background.
Most of youtube is also chilled – Hardly a trailer to be seen. ..all are now “private”. Over-reaction much? I haven’t seen mass freakout like this since 9/11.
Discuss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: JohnNorthofDenver
IN: I’m Gabe Evans, and This is the Worst Ad You’ve Seen in Years
BY: Conserv. Head Banger
IN: I’m Gabe Evans, and This is the Worst Ad You’ve Seen in Years
BY: davebarnes
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: harrydoby
IN: Get More Smarter on Friday (Oct. 4)
BY: MichaelBowman
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Gilpin Guy
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: JohnNorthofDenver
IN: Friday Open Thread
BY: spaceman2021
IN: I’m Gabe Evans, and This is the Worst Ad You’ve Seen in Years
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Friday Open Thread
BY: psyclone
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
Cowing to North Korea sets a terrible precedent. I hope we respond with some serious cyberwarfare of our own, and back up Sony not condemn them.
You say it's a terrible precedent and that we should not condemn Sony for setting it? How does that make any sense? You do realize it was their decision, not the government's? Oh wait. You probably don't.
Apparently it was a right wing billionaire who did the cowing. You and Koch brothers want to go have a little chat with him………
That's what Obama says! Just don't expect him to do it according to your schedule…
From the Telegraph:
that's the question: who "green lighted" this thing?
With this and Paramount's decision to not re-release "Team America" this is a replay of the Mohammed cartoons gutlessness. How many people, not corporations and not in North Korea, would care what Kim-Jong-Un thinks? Who thinks that he can damage anyone? Apparently only fainthearted corporations are scared of him.
Asking the government to "protect them" is just craven. Sony and Paramount are both bigger economic and media states than North Korea.
mapmaker, Sony and Paramount may be bigger economic and media states, but apparently North Korea is better at (anti) cyber-security. As far as "who cares what Kim Jong Un thinks", that was probably exactly the thinking of the producers of this film. They badly underestimated the probable response and their own vulnerability.
There's plenty to mock about North Korea's regime, and the international artistic world should be lining up to do so. But they'd better make sure that their glass houses can withstand the boulders lobbed their way by hackers.
It is the Department of Homeland Security's job to protect even incompetent and reckless fools on American soil.
It's seems to me that the fallout and reaction from all parties involved in this absurd stupidity is, and will be, infinitely more funny and entertaining to watch than the piece of crap movie itself . . .
. . . heyyyyy, I smell a screen play!
Have to agree. I agree that Sony allowing itself to be bullied is a bad idea but so are 95% of Hollywood comedies, including this one which looks pretty juvenile and stupid from the ads, so the non-release of this movie won't make the slightest dent in my lifestyle. The last three comedies I saw were the joyous, feel good Hundred Step Journey" and "Chef" and, most recently, the brilliant "Birdman". And, no, it wasn't about our former Nugget.
oops. "Hundred Foot Journey". Loved the book too.
Maybe Michael Moore will do "The Interview over the Interview"……..like Kramer's coffee-table table on Seinfeld.
I'm not sure Sony had much choice. In reality it was the major theaters that decided to cancel the showings, not in small part due to the potential liability issues currently Cinemark Century Theaters is being sued about (Holmes, J., July 2012).
For what it's worth,I believe they are discussing releasing it directly to consumers (online, dvd).
Still bad precedent but it's hard to blame the theaters after Aurora. On the bright side, it looked like a juvenile piece of crap movie. The principle is important but the film itself is no great loss.
I think we ought to insert Moddy and that other troll into Democratic People's Republic of Korea to get selfies in all sorts of awkward places and upload them to Instagram.
Retaliation without negatively impacting some of the hungriest people in the world is going to be tough. Not impossible, but tough
Lol. I think it’s comical that you accuse “right-wing” racists of fantasizing about the assassination of President Obama when you liberals were the ones that took your disgusting revenge murder-porn to the big screen with the anti-Bush movie “The Death of a President.”
Never heard of it. Probably as forgettable a flick as this one would have been, were it not now destined to live forever as a cult movie.
Bush had 3000 death threats per year, Obama gets more than 30 per day. What were we talking about again?
North Korea, freedom of the press, cyberwar. Got anything relevant to say on these topics?
Um, that film was made by Brits.
Yeah, but you can't deny they were liberal Brits . . .
. . . and, anyway, stop trying to confuse the moron's point — it's just cruel the way you people treat the simple-minded!
Netflix just released "The Interview" online, and I watched it. It was really stupid and unrealistic… an ammosexual buddy movie, as predicted, with plenty of bad bathroom and sex humor, and some sharp social satire. But really funny, in the tradition of Ghostbusters, and John Belushi movies. Worth all the fuss? Not really. So glad we didn't go to war over this.
It's sad that this "freedom of artistic expression" people are dying for seems to be limited, in modern pop culture, to caricatures of religious figures and sophomoric buddy movies.