Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Movies / Open Thread: Sony Is Not Done Being Humiliated Yet

Open Thread: Sony Is Not Done Being Humiliated Yet

by | 84 Comments

This post is in: ,

Not while other media sources, like CBS, are around:

Cybersecurity experts are questioning the FBI’s claim that North Korea is responsible for the hack that crippled Sony Pictures. Kurt Stammberger, a senior vice president with cybersecurity firm Norse, told CBS News his company has data that doubts some of the FBI’s findings…

He says Norse data is pointing towards a woman who calls herself “Lena” and claims to be connected with the so-called “Guardians of Peace” hacking group. Norse believes it’s identified this woman as someone who worked at Sony in Los Angeles for ten years until leaving the company this past May…

It’s worth noting that the original demand of the hackers was for money from Sony in exchange for not releasing embarrassing information. There was no mention of the movie “The Interview”…

Back before watching the thing was proclaimed a patriotic duty, Gawker‘s Hollywood sub-blog Defamer claimed that “Sony executives were worried about the flick even before they got hacked“:

… A previous report by Bloomberg said Sony execs altered the gory finale of The Interview, toning down the extent to which Kim Jong Un’s head is exploded and set aflame. But the movie faced more problems than just Supreme Leader’s immolation scene—Sony executives and distribution partners around the world were worried that the movie was too offensive, “desperately unfunny,” and worst of all, starred James Franco.

Emails sent from UK Sony Pictures exec Peter Taylor to president of Sony Pictures Releasing International Steven O’Dell are particularly harsh, describing the comedy as a “misfire,” “unfunny and repetitive,” with “a level of realistic violence that would be shocking in a horror movie.” Taylor holds one of the film’s co-stars in particularly low regard: “James Franco proves once again that irritation is his strong suit which is a shame because the character could have been appealing and funny out of his hands.”…

The truth is, Sony’s been worried about this for a long time…

Sony’s international distribution partners—who saw the movie at a screening in London in June—show a lot of uncertainty that anyone, anyone in the world, will enjoy this movie…

The one bright spot, apparently, was that the Australians loved it. (Sorry, Australia.) Perhaps allowing the Guardians of Peace and/or the CIA to handle publicity and release was all for the best, after all…
*********

ETA: Hat tip to diligent commentor Corner Stone (comment #27)

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  1. 1.

    PurpleGirl

    Who gave this picture the green light to be produced? There must have been indications in the script that it was a dud.

  2. 2.

    Southern Beale

    Yeah I’ve been seeing people post all over FB and Twitter that this was all an elaborate marketing ploy by Sony to get people to watch what looked to be a terrible movie. I maintained that not even Sony is that smart but hey, whatever.

    Sony Truthers. It’s come to that.

  3. 3.

    lamh36

    Merry early Christmas everybody.

    I know it may not be the coolest thing nowadays, but it’s become a Christmas tradition of mine since after Katrina to watch It’s A Wonderful Life. Started it in DFW when I was all alone for Christmas.

    It’s not Christmas until I watch ole George and Mary, lil Susie and ole guardian angel Clarence.

    Really though, it because I remember when I was younger I just couldn’t wait to get away from my family, my crappy job and from what I considered my sad life in NOLA, I truly felt like I was somehow being held back by family, life, obligations, etc. In fact, right before Katrina, I had actually gone to. Houston for a job interview but the money wasn’t what I considered enough to move away from hime with no support.

    Well,not 2 months later Katrina hit, and had no choice but to leave NOLA. I got my wish, I left NOLA, and eventually my family ALL moved back to NOLA, so I got my wish to get away from my extended family. I enjoyed my life in DFW, but I can honestly say I was truly homesick for all 7 of those years there and especially during Christmas and New Year’s.

    So yeah, leaving aside the attempted suicide, the whole social contract plot line, and even the romance in the movie, it just always hit close to home the idea that sometimes getting what you wanted may not actually be what you need.

    It took me almost 10 years to get back to NOLA and now I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon. Now I satisfy the melancholy with a visit to my cousin, or talking with my mother, or just looking at whatever new pic I have of/with Maddie.

    So in a way, I guess I had my own little bit of my own kinda of “what if I left this old town”, type of revelation.

    So fuq yeah, I love It’s A Wonderful Life…so shoot me.

  4. 4.

    Major Major Major Major

    Nobody leaks 15,000 employee S0cial sec #’s as part of a goddamned viral marketing ploy. Sony Truthers. Sheesh.

    That said, I usually trust Bruce Schneier on such things, and his bet is “inside job that later pretended to be DPRK”.

  6. 6.

    mouse tolliver

    The trailers did look painfully unfunny. I hate that it’s now supposed to be a must-see event for anyone that believes in freedom of speech. All these platitudes about how the movie industry encourages freedom of expression make my eyes roll so far into the back of my head I’m afraid they’ll get stuck. When? When did Hollywood ever care about freedom of expression? Must’ve been before I was born.

  8. 8.

    lamh36

    @Major Major Major Major: if this does come out as inside job (which I can totally believe as well), I can already hear the BS from the usual suspects about how wrong “Obama’s FBI” was, as if that means anything.

    But the FBI will def have egg on it’s face and I could imagine the Obama admin being real pissed if the FBI directly informed the Prez that they were absolutely sure about the culprits before he went out during his press conference and name-checked NK

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    @mouse tolliver: I do plan to enjoy the fact that the NRC got behind the whole “SONY should show this” BS. I can imagein the NRC regulars paying their money and realized what a piece of shit the movie actually is…

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    @lamh36:

    But the FBI will def have egg on it’s face and I could imagine the Obama admin being real pissed if the FBI directly informed the Prez that they were absolutely sure about the culprits before he went out during his press conference and name-checked NK

    As I have previously asked, why NoKo? Why did this admin name check NK?
    This wasn’t like firing Shirley Sherrod on a whim.

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    It’s a freaking comedy. Some will enjoy it and some will not. It’s not an Oscar nom, fer Pete’s sake.
    It was always going to do $45M to $75M if lucky.

  13. 13.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Corner Stone: could be the FBI knows something private security experts don’t. Could be the FBI is a bunch of incompetent hacks. Could be the FBI is mad about the whole torture thing and is pranking obama on behalf of the Intel community. Could be it was actually North Korea.

  16. 16.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Southern Beale: If that were to be the case, that would be probably not go over well with the Feds-manufacturing a conspiracy would require that the execs involved would have to be meeting face-to-face and/or using an alternate email channel to carry this out.

    This still smells of a serious case of payback for being let go.

  18. 18.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    How could a cheesy comedy be that big of a deal to Sony they would inflict this kind of damage an humiliation upon themselves to make it a hit? Movies bomb all the time. That is just birther paranoid stupid thinking.

    As for the proof did the DPRK do it – who fucking cares? The DPRK is pack of dipshits who are upsetting the everyone in Asia. This hack is a convent stick to beat the DPRK with so the DPRK is being beaten with it. (and ya, sure the DPRK’s internet that goes threw China keeps on going down because of American hacking, right,…)

  21. 21.

    Joseph Nobles

    I just rented and watched the film from Google Play. I put it on the TV with my new Chromecast. It was funny! I laughed. I had a good time at the picture show. It’s the Rogen/Franco act, but that’s still a pretty decent act. Russell Park did a really subtle and edgy take on Kim. You will like it a lot if you like this kind of thing a lot.

    Yes, some of the violence was off-tone in the end sequences. But personally, I think it was meant to tamp down the audience a bit. “Yes, this is a nutty comedy about killing Kim Jong-Un, but this asshole with daddy issues has nuclear weapons, you know? We can’t just kill him.” The movie really wanted you to think about that. You don’t just get to watch us CGI his head blowing into bits. You don’t just get to pretend soldiers being run over by a tank disappear into the ground.

    All in all, the picture does its job. You have a good time and you walk away thinking, maybe we should find a way to deal with this guy sooner rather than later, and in a way that doesn’t wind up killing a whole bunch of people. Kim Jong-Un isn’t worth their lives.

  22. 22.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Corner Stone:

    As I have previously asked, why NoKo? Why did this admin name check NK?

    I suspect that a NoKo server was hacked and used as a distribution point for the malware or was used as a command/control point-and the NoKo cyber spooks didn’t know it. So when that address popped up, the Feds could rightly claim “There was a North Korean address in the malware used”-but hide the fact that it wasn’t a source of the attack but like other attacks, its infrastructure was possibly compromised and was hijacked and used as an unwilling participant.

  24. 24.

    Redshift

    To me, that stuff sounds like the kind of “worries” from studio execs that leak about every film that isn’t an unimaginative copy of whatever type is currently successful. It seems to have little relationship to a film’s eventual success. Makes you wonder how these clowns keep their jobs.

  28. 28.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    July 10, 2014, The Guardian:

    “To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war,” UN ambassador Ja Song Nam told UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in a letter, according to Reuters. “The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism.”

    North Korea has already expressed its displeasure with the movie on a couple of occasions. First of all, spokesperson Kim Myong-chol said the film “shows the desperation of the US government and American society – a film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.” North Korea’s official news agency then published statements from an unnamed government official, who like Ja called the film an “act of war”, as well as “reckless US provocative insanity”. Ja enclosed a copy of the statement with his UN letter.

    The DPRK has been upset, and vocal about, this movie for a long time.

    I don’t see any reason why the FBI and US-CERT would say other than what they have found. The armchair quarterbacking on this has given me no reason for me to change that view.

    YMMV, of course.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    RubberCrutch

    I don’t think I’ve seen any commentary yet about the acronym of the so-called DPRK outfit: GOP.

  30. 30.

    Corner Stone

    @Anne Laurie:

    The dog can’t complain, and if it could, nobody would care.

    That’s fine, but it doesn’t make any sense. And if we were still under a GWB crushing bootheel type situation I would say that shit’s fucked up and bullshit.
    But this admin is not supposed to be doing this bullshit and fucked upedness.
    Why are we punching down on this garbage bullshit? Maybe things all come back to sunflowers and lavender but wtf.

  32. 32.

    Anne Laurie

    @lamh36: Ah, the true spirit of modern Christmas… sweating to assemble the little ones’ toys, usually with one key tool or part missing. :)

    But the joy on their faces makes it worthwhile — in retrospect. At least if you’re at your own place, you could swear as loudly as the job required!

    And we get to enjoy imagining Maddy’s glee without even having to do the advance work.

  33. 33.

    srv

    The [insert Gov’t Agency here] claims [insert claim here]

    Protip: Assume claim is wrong. You will be right > 51% of the time.

    All this hate on Sony. You people should be grateful for your Trinitron and Walkman.

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    Release date was pushed back to Dec. 25* from August due to the general buzz within the industry that it was a real stinker. Intimated was that folks don’t particularly pay much attention to reviews and such during the Xmas/New Year’s week, so whatever it pulled in $$-wise then was about all that Sony could expect – once word got out, attendance would plummet.

    *Because nothing says “spirit of Christmas” more than a violent, graphic assassination, apparently

  36. 36.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @PurpleGirl: You mentioned annual Swarovski ornaments. Have you looked here for earlier years? I did that for my aunt & uncle for whom I got White House annual ornaments.

  37. 37.

    gwangung

    if this does come out as inside job (which I can totally believe as well), I can already hear the BS from the usual suspects about how wrong “Obama’s FBI” was, as if that means anything.

    Meh. Way too much unknown at this point. Being an inside job is not just a reason WHY, it can also be a reason HOW.

    Mind you, it doesn’t FEEL like a North Korean led job to me, but there;s a vast multitude of competing hypotheses that fit the facts. For all we know, North Korea played middle man, putting hackers with Sony insider.

  38. 38.

    srv

    Now here is something important.

    How Many G’s Did the Millennium Falcon Pull in Empire Strikes Back?

    You people need to get your priorities straight instead of ranting about some B movie.

  41. 41.

    Howard Beale IV

    @srv:

    All this hate on Sony. You people should be grateful for your Trinitron and Walkman.

    Wow-Trinitron hasn’t been used since the last CRT set was manufactured well over a decade ago. Walkman has been pretty much relegated to their Android cellphones as an app.

  45. 45.

    JPL

    I just want someone to top this…. Xmas eve I normally have family and friends. I’ve asked the ex’s relative to join me for the holidays, cuz she had no where else to go. My son just got engaged and she decided to let them know it would be better to register for gifts now, cuz of the January white sales.. They just got engaged after living together for years so who knows when they will get married. I mentioned that some guests are quite religious and might be republican so please not get into politics. Well of course that worked out well. The son who just got engaged found me to say that Aunt … is talking to…. ..
    Long story short my neighbors son who is nine, separated them by showing the awesome drawings he was doing. There was money involved.

    btw.. do I have to do this next year..

    also, too.. probably, cuz she has no where else to go and I’m a sucker.. I didn’t mention the part where i’ll put a movie in the dvd to watch and then doze off but she pokes me awake. Next year .. maybe she can come for three days instead of seven..

  47. 47.

    DivF

    @JPL: not topping this, but reporting back… Just got done singing Christmas carols at the senior apts. / assisted living facility with my inlaws. All of the residents got into the spirit of things, and a joyful noise was made.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    @DivF: That is special. In defense of the ex step sister in law, she did help me clean the kitchen. I don’t mean that to be flippant but when you explain to someone, not to pressure the newly engaged to register for gifts they don’t need or to talk about naral to evangelicals .. it’s just problematic.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @Howard Beale IV

    Forget if it was the election of ’68 or the one in ’72, but CBS was the technical trendsetter for coverage back then.

    Anyway, the producers wanted to include shots with the screen split into four equal quadrants. But the most the equipment at the time could manage was splitting the screen into three parts, either vertically or horizontally.

    The solution was to set up a 2 by 2 arrangement of Sony Trinitrons (each with its own video feed), which kinda, sorta mimicked a quad-split screen, and arrange a tight shot of the four pictures. They covered the words “Sony” and “Trinitron” with black electrician’s tape, fairly noticeable if one took the time to look closely.

  54. 54.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    Just finished watching on Netflix with my sons and 1 daughter-in-law (The Korean DIL doesn’t see anything funny about N. Korea or Kim Jung Un and didn’t care to join us). I expected to feel about it just as the UK Sony Pictures exec described, but I laughed throughout. It was a remarkably good effort for a couple of twelve-year-old boys. The DIL who watched pronounced it “a Christmas classic.” Of course, earlier she had referred to Diehard as a Christmas classic, so…

  55. 55.

    Carolinus

    @Corner Stone:

    As the blog’s chief ODS sufferer, it must be satisfying to get a front page hat-tip for your latest bit of concern trolling. A Christmas gift come early, from AL to you.

  56. 56.

    Howard Beale IV

    @NotMax: And most people probably forgot what the difference was between regular CRT’s and the Trinitron assembly’s were. The last CRT-based TV I had was a 36″ flat screen Sony that that did HD via component – damn thing weighed at least 150 lbs with all that thick flat glass-gorgeous picture in HD.

    Now, I have a Panasonic 50″ Plasma which will probably be the last TV I own. Killer display.

  57. 57.

    Carolinus

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Meh. The CBS reporter couldn’t even finish half their report before they started hedging on their speculative premise:

    Other experts in cybersecurity and private intelligence are also questioning the FBI’s claim that North Korea is solely to blame for the Sony hack.

    A journalist’s job shouldn’t simply be to provide fodder for click-bait headlines and pass on to the public what “some people say.” Pick a story, do the research and support it with hard evidence, and then make concrete claims of fact — none of these Fox-style question mark ledes.

  58. 58.

    Corner Stone

    @Carolinus: Yes, yes. This is at least twix today I have masturbated to the idea of the Obama admin completely selling out to some stupid fucking idea attached to a stoner movie.
    Face it, honey bones. There ain’t a gods damned point of fact that should be accredited in any region where we can say NoKo fucked SPE.
    It’s just flat stupid to say so out loud.
    Now, please proceed.

  59. 59.

    Corner Stone

    @Carolinus:

    also questioning the FBI’s claim that North Korea is solely to blame for the Sony hack.

    I keep waiting for Michael Jackson to grab his crotch and state loudly, “Tee-hee! Wooo!”

  60. 60.

    danielx

    Merry Christmas to all FSM-affiliated BJers of the Christian variety this evening morning and best wishes, good thoughts, health and happiness to those of other persuasions.

    Amounts to pretty much the same thing in the end….

  61. 61.

    samiam

    Once you all get finished sucking each other dicks…it’s worth nothing that all these hit pieces trying to cast doubt on the FBI’s claims are saying the movie is really bad. I watched it and it’s not that bad. In fact I think Franco did a pretty good job. Rogen just played the same character he always does so nothing new to say about that.

    So all it takes for me to become “minorly famous” is for someone on some obscure website to post one of my tweets. Really? I guess I am a superstar then. You people must live in really small worlds to think Cole the one man reactionary mob is someone who’s opinion matters.

  62. 62.

    Carolinus

    @Corner Stone:

    It’s amazing how confident you are based on conflicting theories from competing security firms, some who say their research supports the FBI’s NK claim, some who say their analysis suggests the Russians, and still others who suspect a Sony insider. Of the skeptics, many admit much of their wariness comes from having lived through the WMD claims and then the Snowden clown show.

    http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/24/new-study-adds-to-skepticism-among-security-experts-that-north-korea-was-behind-sony-hack/?_r=0

    Fueling their suspicions is the fact that the government based its findings, in large part, on evidence that it will not release, citing the “need to protect sensitive sources and methods.” The government has never publicly acknowledged doing so, but as The New York Times previously reported, the National Security Agency has had implants in North Korean computer networks dating back to 2009.

    …

    It is also worth noting that other private security researchers say their own research backs up the government’s claims. CrowdStrike, a California security firm that has been tracking the same group that attacked Sony since 2006, believes they are located in North Korea and have been hacking targets in South Korea for years.

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    Watching Alastair Sim on Fox Movie Channel in A Christmas Carol. 1951 B&W version. Excellent. Sim as Scrooge looks and sounds like Ayn Rand.

  64. 64.

    different-church-lady

    @Carolinus:

    A journalist’s job shouldn’t simply be to provide fodder for click-bait headlines and pass on to the public what “some people say.” Pick a story, do the research and support it with hard evidence, and then make concrete claims of fact

    Oh you poor 20th Century soul you… we’ve left that all behind for a Howard Beale Citizen Journalist Utopia dontchaknow.

  70. 70.

    Corner Stone

    @Carolinus: I’m sure you think some kind of something is being made here?
    Personally, I’m not much on the hunt against the jokeholes that are NK sponsored hackers.
    But, I understand you don’t have much choice now that you’ve been given your marching orders.

  73. 73.

    SRW1

    This was a good thread about a searing issue during the Xmas season of whether something is real or not.

    Ususally the issue is of whether the bearded fellow with the sleigh transportation is real, though, and the participants of the heated debate are about six yearish.

    But the level of passion in the debate was right on.

  74. 74.

    Marduk

    I like how some folk have gone from maybe possibly it wasn’t NK to the FBI and Obama are big lying liars and anyone who believes them is a fool based on no actual evidence whatsoever. Some security experts have speculated that it maybe wasn’t NK! The evidence the FBI released to the public was weak and we all JUST KNOW that they’re lying about the evidence they won’t release! Who needs proof when we have gut feelings?

  77. 77.

    Another Holocene Human

    @lamh36: Wow. I’m glad you found your own truth.

    My mother, OTOH, reminded me in detail of why I don’t call her yesterday.

    It’s all good though, kind of reminded the rest of my extended family that she’s a mean kook, too.

  80. 80.

    Another Holocene Human

    @lamh36: Lol, as a child of the 80’s that’s fine because I would definitely pick Mr. T-Claus! I wanna be on the A Team, if just for a day! Yeah! I guess Nancy did too. :)

  81. 81.

    Elie

    @lamh36:
    What a wonderful note about the complexities and mysteries of happiness in this life. Wishing you and my fellow juicers the best always

  82. 82.

    JWR

    Shortly after Obama’s presser, I thought the speed with which he blamed Dr. Evil, AKA Kim Jong Un, was just a ploy to keep the true culprits off of his or her guard to give the FBI time to track them down. I dunno, but that’s what I thought.

  83. 83.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @Corner Stone:

    Get back to us when we’re sending troops overseas over this. Until then, stay away. Deal?

    Otherwise stop with the stupid 9-11/iraq/Tonkin BS.

    It just makes you look meaner and dumber than usual…no small feat.

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