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You are here: Home / The Sony Hacking

The Sony Hacking

by John Cole|  December 17, 20149:55 pm| 80 Comments

This post is in: Clown Shoes, General Stupidity, Get off my grass you damned kids, Go Fuck Yourself, OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS

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First off, let me first disagree with the esteemed Cracker– I was fully looking forward to seeing the Interview, because I am hopelessly immature and I think Seth Rogen and James Franco are hysterical. I bet I have watched This is the End a dozen times. Say what you will, but I like a cheesy comedy every now and then.

Second, I find this over-reaction to be completely and totally absurd and yet entirely predictable after the American public has spent the last several decades being trained to be terrified of every damned thing. This is the logical conclusion of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror- a pants wetting population that soils it britches at the slightest hint of danger that even baseless threats will keep us from doing what we do best, which is sit on our fat asses eating candy and popcorn while watching tv. So ingrained is our newly created tradition of cowardice that corporate America, the sociopaths who will rob your pension and ship your jobs oversees while ignoring work safety issues and sell you faulty ignition systems for your car and processed food created in unsanitary conditions, all without so much as batting an eye in the chase of the almighty dollar, is now basically shutting down a sure money winner because they know when the cattle are truly spooked.

The hacking was embarrassing, as it exposed many of the people for exactly who we thought they were, but there was nothing really scary at all, and we have nothing to worry about as far as a bunch of hackers issuing menacing threats. The only scary thing about this is the fact that the Sony network is probably more secure than our power grid, but we all know we can’t do anything about that because austerity uber alles and the fact that it would be unseemly to make free market jeebus cry around his birfday.

So there is that, I guess.

Home of the free and land of the brave, my arse.

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Reader Interactions

80Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve

    December 17, 2014 at 10:01 pm

    Well said Grasshopper

  2. 2.

    BubbaDave

    December 17, 2014 at 10:04 pm

    Who is this Cole guy and why is he posting on Richard Mayhew’s blog?

  3. 3.

    Diana

    December 17, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    Gotta admit that this bout of hysteria does make me want to see the movie. I’m no Seth Rogen fan, and I figured it was probably stupid, but as they say in the industry, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

  4. 4.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 10:06 pm

    yeah, I understand the “principality”, but dude “proven moneymaker”…umm naw. The Hobbit, Annie and the 3rd Night At The Museum movie (which happens to be Robin Williams last appearance on film, and Mickey Rooney’s last role), “proven money maker” is too optimistic.

    It was a very crowded field even without the hacking to improve it’s profile.

  5. 5.

    Botsplainer

    December 17, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    Ishtar in East Asia. Sony should pay the hackers for saving me he day.

  6. 6.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 10:09 pm

    Posted this in last SONY thread, just tweaked it a litte.

    So my 2 cents on SONY’s decision to not release the film. I’m more convinced that this is about money more then ransom.

    I’d bet the other industry movie houses were pissed at SONY because if say they did show the film and people took this threat seriously and stayed away from any theatre that showed the movie then some pretty good movies (and some bad ones) would be shit out of luck.

    If no one goes to the movies, no one sees anything and therefore no one makes any money except maybe SONY if, I guess, maybe people would see it as some sort of protest screening or to see what all the hype was about.

    This way SONY pulls it they still crate instant buzz for it but the industry doesn’t lose the big holiday box office that some use to recoup yearly losses.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 17, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    Agreed, John.

    This is no longer the home of the brave.

    It’s the home of the frightened.

    Nothing more underlines this than that we allowed a deserting coward who ran with a draft dodger to be installed in the White House over a fucking actually in country Vietnam veteran.

  8. 8.

    Southern Beale

    December 17, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    This movie should never have been made in the first place, so I’m not shedding a tear over this one. Happy to let the terrorists win this one. I’m not a fan of the N. Korean regime by any means but I don’t think assassination is funny, even of someone like this, and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing his head explode. In light of the CIA torture report, a “comedy” about the CIA assassinating the leader of another country just seems very un-funny right now.

  9. 9.

    max

    December 17, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    The only scary thing about this is the fact that the Sony network is probably more secure than our power grid, but we all know we can’t do anything about that because austerity uber alles and the fact that it would be unseemly to make free market jeebus cry around his birfday.

    I am also reliably informed that Sony is a US Corporation and that an attack on it is an act of war. I’m not sure what that makes assorted NSA attacks on North Korea? (Point being – once Stuxnet went live, it make hack attacks just part of the game.)

    Home of the free and land of the brave, my arse.

    Sadistic AND whiny! What a great country!

    max
    [‘Games without frontiers.’]

  10. 10.

    Lavocat

    December 17, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    This is all too batshit crazy to be believed.

    I maintain that this is some sort of meta-publicity for this movie – possibly generated by those affiliated with the studio.

    Think Orson Welles and “War Of The Worlds” … but with behavior now criminalized as Terrorism in the 1st Degree.

    If Orson Welles tried that shit today, he’d find his fat ass in a Supermax.

  11. 11.

    TaMara (BHF)

    December 17, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    I thought the best way to handle it would have been to release it in theatres (limited?) and VOD at the same time. Just to say, fuck you, we’ll make it available on all platforms and you can suck it. But then I’m not a gutless Sony exec. IMO, this hack couldn’t have happened to a more deserving company.

  12. 12.

    srv

    December 17, 2014 at 10:13 pm

    Who is this ‘ brave’ you speak of, white man?

  13. 13.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 10:14 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Remember being in Germany in the 80s? If you walked a little too far from your bag on a train platform, the Polizei would mover closer while giving you the side-eye. That was it though. I was also in England during the Brighton bombing. No one panicked. Here, the Government encouraged panic, the MSM encouraged panic, and right wing bloggers did the same thing.

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    Also, too, the real damage was actually to another movie being released before The Interview. Annie was supposed to be SONY’s big holiday blockbuster. It had the biggest “buzz” of all the movies released by hackers the other movies leaked had either already been released, or just didn’t have the same buzz. I can see SONY hoping to recoup some loss for Annie since “family fare” tend to make money more than “stoner-fare”…IJS

    And prior to the hacking news, The Interview wouldn’t even come close to beating any of the family friendlier movies coming out.

  15. 15.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    December 17, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    I generally agree, but it does seem that Sony and Rogen didn’t think about what they were getting themselves into, what with the DPRK cult of personality abut the Kims:

    North Korean authorities have co-opted portions of Christianity and Buddhism,[17] and adopted them to their own uses, while greatly restricting all religions in general as they are seen as a threat to the regime.[18][19] An example of this can be seen in the description of Kim Il-sung as a god,[20] and Kim Jong-il as the son of a god or “Sun of the Nation”,[21] evoking the father-son imagery of Christianity.[20] According to author Victor Cha, during the first part of Kim Il-sung’s rule, the state destroyed over 2,000 Buddhist temples and Christian churches which might detract from fidelity to Kim.[22]:73 There is even widespread belief that Kim-il Sung “created the world” and that Kim Jong-il controlled the weather.[23] Korean society, traditionally Confucian, places a strong emphasis on paternal hierarchy and loyalty. The Kims have taken these deeply held traditions and removed their spiritual component, replacing them with loyalty to the state and the ruling family in order to control the population.[24] Despite the suppression of traditional religions, however, some have described Juche, sociologically, as the religion of the entire population of North Korea.[25]

    Kim isn’t just the country’s political leader, he’s their spiritual leader as well. The backlash is more understandable if you think about it in those (messed up) terms.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    geg6

    December 17, 2014 at 10:16 pm

    I agree with you 100%, Cole. This country is full of embarrassing cowards. I don’t go to the cineplex much and certainly not at this time of year, but if any theater around here would be brave enough to show this one, I’d go just to tell that tinpot dictator fuck him. This is completely ridiculous.

  17. 17.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    So does this constitute an “act of war” from N. Korea? New Gingrich sure thinks so…smh.

    @newtgingrich

    No one should kid themselves. With the Sony collapse America has lost its first cyberwar. This is a very very dangerous precedent.

    And in response to Rob Lowe’s tweet about everyone caving and how the hackers won…

    it wasn’t the hackers who won, it was the terrorists and almost certainly the North Korean dictatorship, this was an act of war

  18. 18.

    mapighimagick

    December 17, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    Sony’s security is horrible.

  19. 19.

    geg6

    December 17, 2014 at 10:22 pm

    @lamh36:

    All the reports say it isn’t Sony that has stopped distribution but theater corporations that have cancelled showings wholesale. I’m going to give Sony a partial pass here based on that. But they can still release it VOD and they totally should.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 17, 2014 at 10:23 pm

    I’m no expert on North Korea, though unlike Sarah Palin I knew there were two and why, but I have a hunch whoever took this from embarrassing Sony to the 9/11 threat overstepped the mission and is gonna be sentenced to hard labor

  21. 21.

    Violet

    December 17, 2014 at 10:25 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: English family and friends are completely rolling their eyes at our cowardice. Came up in conversations during the recent trip. They remember the IRA bombings where you just kept keeping on. Don’t let the terrorists keep you from living your life.

  22. 22.

    MochaDem

    December 17, 2014 at 10:26 pm

    Wait – this was a comedy?

  23. 23.

    Mike in NC

    December 17, 2014 at 10:27 pm

    “This is the End” was great, but trust me when I say the trailer to “The Interview” proved it to be an incredibly stupid, smutty, shitty movie.

  24. 24.

    Hal

    December 17, 2014 at 10:30 pm

    Meh. North Korea is a barely functioning country that can hardly keep their lights on. The panic level seems far more assured of North Korea’s capabilities than what seems warranted.

    10 bucks says Sony waits a few months, than releases the film during some slow weekend and it makes big bucks.

  25. 25.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    @Violet: There are reasonable precautions, and there is cowering. Some of us know the difference.

  26. 26.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 10:33 pm

    @geg6: SONY issued a statement saying that theatres can chose not to show the movie, so of course the theatres would do so. Last night SONY issued a statement saying they had cancelled the NYC premiere. Then SONY issued a release saying in response to largest theatre chain deciding not to show the movie, they decided not to release the film on Dec 25th and so far they have no plans for release on DVD or digital or streaming.

    So yeah, I’m not giving SONY much of a pass other than for being the target of the hackers.

  27. 27.

    gogol's wife

    December 17, 2014 at 10:34 pm

    @Lavocat:

    He wasn’t fat at the time.

  28. 28.

    Bill D.

    December 17, 2014 at 10:35 pm

    Other consequences of Sony’s poor cybersecurity: . Food for thought.

  29. 29.

    schrodinger's cat

    December 17, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    @Violet: Noticed the same thing in India too. I was at many of the places that were targeted during the November 2008 attacks in South Bombay and it was business as usual, they were as crowded as before the attacks.

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    @Bill D.: I am a largely analog guy in a digital world. Can you give me a tl;dr?

  31. 31.

    jl

    December 17, 2014 at 10:38 pm

    @MochaDem:

    ” Wait – this was a comedy? ”

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. I am with Southern Beale at comment 8 on this fiasco.

    Only good thing about it that I can think of is that is a cyberwar worthy of Lil’ Newtie.

  32. 32.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 10:38 pm

    ‏@Variety
    #TheHobbit: “The Battle of the Five Armies” took in $11.2 million at its Tuesday night opening http://bit.ly/13bJcvx

    Yeah, naw…The Interview was gonna get creamed before this hacking bidness.

  33. 33.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    December 17, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Have you seen Team America World Police? Kim Il Sung was made fun of and yet the last I heard the creators are making mad Bank off the Book Of Mormon.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 17, 2014 at 10:42 pm

    @Mr Stagger Lee: also, 30 Rock portrayed the Dear Leader as a deluded and desperately horny little man who IIRC resigned to follow Elizabeth Banks back to NYC. Played by Margaret Cho.

  35. 35.

    Anne Laurie

    December 17, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    @lamh36:

    I can see SONY hoping to recoup some loss for Annie since “family fare” tend to make money more than “stoner-fare”…IJS

    Yeah, the trailer had my infotainment-deaf Spousal Unit saying “I kinda wanna see that one.” He had no idea who any of the leads were, we’re too old to have seen the last version — it just seemed fun & upbeat, which he likes. Since we go out to maybe half-a-dozen movies every year (Goddess bless you, Netflix!) this was not at all what I expected.

    Maybe Sony can recoup by running ads telling people “You wanna patriotically punish those NK hackers? Go see Annie, opening weekend!”

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    @Mr Stagger Lee: Completely OT: Just about every time I see your ‘nym, it reminds me of one of my favorite Clash songs and it makes me happy. Then I read the substance of your comment and go from there.

  37. 37.

    Tree With Water

    December 17, 2014 at 10:48 pm

    Cole: What did you think when G.W. advised Americans to go shopping in response to 9/11? Or was it after he unleashed hell in Iraq? Anyway, he said it while you still supported him. How did you rationalize that one away? What did you say to yourself, knowing, as you must have, that something was really wrong? I don’t expect an answer, J.C., and I’m not being a wise guy. It’s just the path you (and others) took before seeing the political light is something I find very interesting. Haven taken bead on the same bastards at an much earlier date (is all), I honestly can’t imagine the journey you took to reach your epiphany. It must have been difficult.

  38. 38.

    Bill D.

    December 17, 2014 at 10:51 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ll try, but others who know this stuff better should chime in if I’m telling the story wrong.

    Sony’s security for potentially all of its software has been compromised. Digitally signed and supposedly safe ‘genuine Sony software’ could now be malware due to loss of encryption keys.

    When you run an update on your Sony camera’s software using Sony’s way of doing this, instead of passing a mere file on to your camera via your computer, you have to essentially offer the Sony software complete (“root-level”) access to your computer and everything on it. This means that now, compromised updates that look genuine (‘signed’ by Sony) could install malware on your computer. For instance, just updating your camera to resolve a software bug that the Sony has announced a fix for could compromise your whole system with a rootkit that would also download additional malware without detection.

  39. 39.

    Violet

    December 17, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    @Bill D.: That’s what I got from it too. Curious what sort of “Sony software” is out there. Would it be things like Playstation? You use the example of cameras–does Sony have cameras? I can’t think of any particular Sony software that I use, but maybe I’m not thinking hard enough.

  40. 40.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    @Variety
    “Team America: World Police” to replace “The Interview” at Alamo Drafthouse theater http://variety.com/2014/film/news/team-america-world-police-replaces-the-interview-at-dallas-theater-1201382348/ …

  41. 41.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 17, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Sony has repeatedly released software, written by themselves, that takes technically unnecessary shortcuts which are, in the security-centric world, kind of like walking around with “I’m too stupid to write good code” tattooed on your forehead. They were also responsible for releasing “copy-protected” audio CD’s which took very great liberties with the computers in which those CD’s were played, opening (or potentially opening) gaping (goatse-sized) holes in customers’ systems.

  42. 42.

    John Cole +0

    December 17, 2014 at 10:58 pm

    @Tree With Water: The substantive difference between the two was that Bush wanted us to go shopping and enjoy our tax cuts as we launched two wars.

    This is not the same thing at all.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 17, 2014 at 10:59 pm

    @Bill D.: You only have to give Sony software root access because they are too fucking incompetent to write software that will do the same function without requiring such access.

    Here’s a good and relatively brief rundown on the copy-protected CD fiasco.

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    @Tree With Water: I do still look a bit askance at people who realized that everything went too far and, holy fuck, the Republicans are not good people. Maybe it was 2004, 2006, etc. Maybe it was Schaivo, torture, or whatever… Thank you for waking the fuck up. I ain’t a convert. I welcome the new guys, but some of us have been here for a while now.*

    *From your previous comments, I know you aren’t a convert.

  45. 45.

    lamh36

    December 17, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    Oh and Into the Woods is also coming out over the Christmas weekend. IJS this hacking bidness has actually increased The Interview’s buzzworthiness.

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 11:02 pm

    @Bill D.: @Gin & Tonic: So my Panasonic camera isn’t a danger to me right now?

  47. 47.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 17, 2014 at 11:03 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Depends on what you point it at.

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 11:04 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Interesting thought.

  49. 49.

    Violet

    December 17, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    @lamh36: That’s hilarious. I love “Team America.”

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    @John Cole +0: The Bush Administration also pushed fear. Color alerts? Panics about the fucking shoe bomber? And so on… The whole WoT thing is a Bush Admin. construct. TWW’s question is apt, I think.

  51. 51.

    Drunken hausfrau

    December 17, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    Goddam,I love you, Cole! So thankful for you, this site, these folks… Too funny! Sony turned out to be huge pussies, but they will release film on streaming video… For big $$. Watch.

  52. 52.

    wasabi gasp

    December 17, 2014 at 11:14 pm

    @Southern Beale: Frightening comment. Ripe with ass burn from both the paddle and the slope.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 11:15 pm

    @Southern Beale: Comedy is frequently transgressive. It is in it’s nature.

  54. 54.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    December 17, 2014 at 11:29 pm

    @Mr Stagger Lee: I haven’t seen either. There are some differences:

    justmeantu 49 points 2 hours ago*

    Here are a few reasons Team America: World Police is different than The Interview.

    First, Team America used puppets. As simple or shallow as it seems, things are a little different when we’re talking about puppets.

    Second, The Interview is about assassinating a sitting head of state. There are plenty of movies about fictional Presidents being attacked or even historical assassinations, but the tone would be different if the movie was about assassinating President Obama.

    Third, if the reports about North Korea supporting the attackers/being behind the attacks are true, you can’t discount the fact that Sony is a Japanese company. And we know how much North Korea loves Japan.

    Finally, and I think most importantly, Team America was more about satirizing America and its foreign policy than it was about North Korea. I’m sure they weren’t too happy about Kim Jong-Il’s depiction, but compared to being about assassinating their Dear Leader The Interview is much, much more “threatening.”

    EDIT: I forgot to mention the fact that The Interview is about a different person than Team America.
    Per /u/soldierOf4Chan

    I’m sure the NK hackers have gotten better over time – maybe they didn’t have the capabilities to take Paramount Pictures on back then (2004) even if they had the thought to do so.

    There could be lots and lots of reasons why NK went nuts over this picture. It wouldn’t have been unwise for Sony and Rogen to think about the possibilities and maybe wonder whether changing the country to North Overshoe or something would have worked just as well.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who also figures that it will come out on DVD eventually, but not for a while.)

  55. 55.

    Keith P

    December 17, 2014 at 11:37 pm

    I agree with Cole – The Interview was gonna be an hour and a half of dick and weed jokes. Sounds like a great time.

  56. 56.

    Scott S.

    December 17, 2014 at 11:38 pm

    Y’all think this’ll end with “The Interview”? Fuck, they’ve just discovered they can make the Decadent Western Media flinch hard. They’ll start doing this to almost every blockbuster release. They’ll start doing it to Best Picture winners. They’ll do it to The Avengers and Star Wars and anything they think they’ll be able to, just to see if they can bankrupt some studios.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 17, 2014 at 11:51 pm

    @Scott S.: Who are they?

  58. 58.

    Bill D.

    December 18, 2014 at 12:15 am

    @Violet: Sony makes lots of cameras. I own one. I might just take an old, expendable PC and use it only for these updates, and only when all other systems are offline.

    @Gin & Tonic: Concur. I always thought that these updates to camera firmware just went straight to your camera via memory card, because that’s the way Nikon does it. Download the file and pass it on unopened to the camera. For an update to a peripheral to alter the foundation of your computer’s OS is just unbelievable.

    @Omnes Omnibus: Dunno. Would have to dig around to see if Panasonic does the same thing. Probably not. Most people never bother with firmware updates, so the only danger in that case would be if the original firmware was compromised right from the factory. That’s a risk we all take when we buy these electronic gadgets.

  59. 59.

    Citizen_X

    December 18, 2014 at 1:09 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Who are they?

    Our new North Korean overlords.

  60. 60.

    Joseph Nobles

    December 18, 2014 at 1:40 am

    @Mike in NC: This. I liked “This Is The End,” too, but I was not getting the same vibe from “The Interview” at all. If it had been half the movie “This Is The End” was, I don’t think they would have balked on it at all.

    A local theater is showing “Team America” instead. Matt and Trey should clean up.

  61. 61.

    Suffern ACE

    December 18, 2014 at 1:43 am

    @Scott S.: and after awhile we’ll just ignore them. And make it mandatory to show a dead Kim in every movie.

    In fact, I hope that Dead Kim becomes a common motif in all entertainment.

  62. 62.

    Mike E

    December 18, 2014 at 1:54 am

    @Joseph Nobles: Watching Team America, along with Young Frankenstein, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, the pilot of Ren and Stimpy as well as Dave Chapelle’s portrayal of Prince, are the handful of times that a media experience made me laugh until I cried.

  63. 63.

    Central Planning

    December 18, 2014 at 5:47 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    opening (or potentially opening) gaping (goatse-sized) holes in customers’ systems.

    10 points for using goatse in an appropriate and relevant way.

  64. 64.

    Lavocat

    December 18, 2014 at 6:27 am

    @gogol’s wife: Yeah, I know. But my memories of him are largely as being a shill for Gallo Wines (I think) w/ the wonderfully droll catchphrase: “We will sell you no wine … before you pay for it.”

  65. 65.

    sad

    December 18, 2014 at 7:20 am

    …the American public has spent the last several decades being trained to be terrified of every damned thing.

    Not me.

    Thanks… sad

  66. 66.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 18, 2014 at 7:48 am

    Sony is a Japanese company. The fact that no one has brought this up, considered why Sony being Japanese making a movie criticizing a Korean leader is an important point in this, is an excellent example of how this blog has gone to crap.

  67. 67.

    Josie

    December 18, 2014 at 8:01 am

    @Mike E: Haven’t seen the others, but I had the exact same reaction to Young Frankenstein and Ren and Stimpy.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    December 18, 2014 at 8:10 am

    As long as Obama’s in this really amazing “screw you” mode (immigration, Cuba, judges, and so on), I can almost see him ordering “The Interview” to be available for download from the White House website, gratis. Wingnuts wouldn’t know what to think: it’s a level of international bird-flipping they couldn’t even imagine.

  69. 69.

    lol

    December 18, 2014 at 8:49 am

    Writeup of The Interview from someone who went to the Alamo Drafthouse’s Numb-Butt-A-Thon:

    I don’t know what anyone is expecting from a movie like this. Obviously, it is not The Seventh Seal, by any means, nor does it want to be. What it wants to be is a very funny movie, and it succeeds mightily in that. James Franco and Seth Rogen are basically Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in North Korea. The satire on the media and media personalities is pretty great, and Franco’s character in particular is such a great send-up of vapid celebrity interviewers. But it’s Randall Park as Kim Jong-un who is the real star here.

    The basic plot, as I’m sure you already know if you’ve seen the trailers, is that Franco’s character, David Skylark, has his own talk show of sorts. Seth Rogen plays Aaron, his producer. In an attempt to be taken more seriously and start doing hard news, they score an interview with Kim Jong-un, who is a fan of Dave’s show. The CIA approaches them and asks them to use this opportunity to “take him out” (i.e., assassinate him, which it takes forever for Dave and Aaron to figure out). They vacillate between reluctance and enthusiasm for the task, even (or perhaps especially) once they arrive in North Korea. Things get even more complicated when Dave spends some time with the Supreme Leader, bonds with him and starts thinking he’s been unfairly maligned and wants to call off the assassination.

    The most important part of this movie for everyone, though, seemed to be that it introduced us to the term “honeydick.” A honeypot or honeytrap, where sexual seduction is used to get someone involved in espionage, is not a new concept, of course. It has the same meaning here (Aaron coins the term “honeydick” for seduction by a man, which he accuses the CIA of doing to him because they think he might be gay) but also takes on a more general meaning of seducing someone (not necessarily sexually) in order to get them to do something you want. Dave at one point realizes that Kim Jong-un has been “honeydicking” him — manipulating Dave into liking and sympathizing with him — so that he won’t ask tough questions. And of course “honeydick” became everyone’s favorite word for the rest of the weekend.

    Oh, and there is a joke in the movie about “getting fucked by RoboCop,” and I NEARLY DIED.

    I was glad that the movie didn’t take the tone of “Yay, assassination is awesome!” and that the ultimate plan relied more on making the people see their leader vulnerable. I think the movie is actually relatively generous in humanizing the man. After the movie, Seth and Evan came back and answered some questions. At the time, Seth and Evan were pretty confident that they were in no actual danger from all the Guardians of Peace saber-rattling. As I’m writing this, though, there have been threats made against theaters who plan to show the movie when it opens at Christmas, Sony Pictures is nixing all of Seth Rogen’s and James Franco’s public appearances and Sony has basically given their blessing to any theater that wants to pull the film for fear of attack.

  70. 70.

    Booger

    December 18, 2014 at 9:18 am

    Am I the only one who thinks this is the worst viral marketing effort ever?

    Studio Exec: “Hey…you guys remember that “Blair Witch thing..?”

  71. 71.

    RP

    December 18, 2014 at 10:01 am

    I couldn’t believe Betty was happy about this outcome. This is a horrible precedent and a victory for censorship.

  72. 72.

    John Cole +0

    December 18, 2014 at 10:17 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Wow, really? Sony is a Japanese company? Who knew! Thanks, man!

    /eyeroll

  73. 73.

    kindness

    December 18, 2014 at 10:45 am

    First they came for my juvenile comedy movies opening Christmas Day. But I wasn’t a fan so I didn’t say anything…..

    Jesus Christ people, look at all of you who are so politically correct that you fail to see humor in something that is juvenile, satire, politically incorrect and very likely hilarious. This place is becoming the image of GOS more and more (and I am a DKos fan). You should at least stand up for allowing others to make their own decisions, even bad ones. Now as for Sony…..don’t get me started. I can’t imagine they are actually scared of terrorist attacks at theaters. I (in my foggy conspiracy theory mind) have to think some of the stuff that was hacked is more ‘sensitive’ than any of us ever considered. And I mean embarrassing more than security risk there. Just what does Sony have hanging in their closets anyhow?

  74. 74.

    Full metal Wingnut

    December 18, 2014 at 10:56 am

    @Southern Beale: You’re a piece of shit. You don’t deserve to live in America.

  75. 75.

    Full metal Wingnut

    December 18, 2014 at 10:58 am

    @Mike in NC: It’s not about the content you nitwit. It’s the principle.

  76. 76.

    Paul in KY

    December 18, 2014 at 11:02 am

    I’m guessing it was the exec’s emails being hacked (presumably by PRC Cyber-monk spies in their hidden Fortress of Doom) that gave Sony the willies.

    Putin is probably laughing his ass off, as he will really do shit & now he knows he can troll Western companies in this manner.

  77. 77.

    EthylEster

    December 18, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    JC wrote:

    basically shutting down a sure money winner because they know when the cattle are truly spooked

    Exactly.
    Or maybe they really think this will spook the cattle.
    But it’s a great image of the thick citizen pants pissers.

    But I wish more people would emphasize that this is the decision of a Japanese corporation trying to minimize damage. In other words, a business decision.

  78. 78.

    EthylEster

    December 18, 2014 at 1:03 pm

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet wrote:

    …Rogen didn’t think

    That’s not his schtick.
    Infantile movies are.

  79. 79.

    Brutusettu

    December 18, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    North Overshoe Open Air Prison Camp of Northern Half Of Overshoe Peninsula.

    A Japanese owned company makes a film that has the CIA kill the leader of North Korea.

    A German owned company should totally think it’s a great idea to make a comedy where Russians take over part of Poland and just start executing all officers, highly educated persons etc. Or not.

  80. 80.

    Wlad Spany

    December 19, 2014 at 2:24 pm

    Aside from the fact that Sony is an injured party, I have noticed over the years that their approach to many problems is to take a very arrogant stance.

    Remember years ago when music CDs from Sony contained a rootkit that could harm your computer simply by you listening to the music on the computer instead of a stereo system?

    When I was an independent IT contractor, I worked on some Sony computers. Their design deliberately made the laptops difficult to work on, so that only people trained and certified by them could readily work on them.

    I’m sure that there are many other examples out there of their level of arrogance.

    Their stance in this issue reflects the same sort of arrogance. I’m buying as few Sony products myself as feasible http://tinyurl.com/qjgd49f

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