“The Interview” Review: Streaming Politics

Remember "The Last Temptation of Christ?"

Probably not. If you do, it's likely because of the protests that turned a weakly reviewed 1988 movie into an "event" that a lot of people felt they had to go see.

Sometimes, people trying to keep you away from a movie inadvertently end up bringing lots of people to the movie. The same goes for books, a la "The Satanic Verses."

Without giving too much away, "The Interview" is no Salman Rushdie novel.

It's a movie, destined for pretty weak reviews, that became an event. Thanks to North Korean anger, hacking, and threats, "The Interview" got tweeted about, blogged about and now streamed much much more than it would have had it simply been released.

Basically, it's a Seth Rogen/James Franco movie, which, like you might expect, has lots of rapid dialogue, gross jokes, buddy humor, and yes, some laughs. It's likely to make a lot of money for Sony, even if it doesn't get wide distribution. At last check, lots of independent theatres were selling out of tickets. I ponied up the $5.99 to stream it today.

If nothing else, all the controversy and hype will propel "The Interview" to "let's watch it now" status, instead of "let's rent it later." If it turns out to be a big success, we might get a bit closer to studios being willing to release movies online as well as in theaters. Now that would be an event worth cheering for.