The Interview

Even the film's most ardent champions would likely concede that The Interview is a spectacularly weird film to end up at the center of a free speech brouhaha.

It's funny and strange, with an admirably gonzo sensibility, and it approaches the job of mocking Kim with the appropriate degree of joy-buzzer delight.

The suffocating level of redundancy on display kneecaps any legitimate chance the film had at embracing social satire.

The final third of the film, which is directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, degenerates into a humourless and violent Rambo pastiche.

Strangely misconceived, tasteless and only very intermittently funny.

I laughed more than I expected, spurred on by the fact that in doing so I was exercising a basic democratic right.

A funny, silly, stupid comedy that will make some people laugh, others not so much. Any response beyond that is an overreaction.

The Interview will impress many when the mood turns serious, but these faux-moments of shrewdness come only after the non-stop, over-the-top antics from James Franco.

If you want a real envelope-pushing, controversial, yet uproariously funny movie in your life right now, then go seek out (or revisit) the truly anarchic Team America: World Police.

The Interview's satire doesn't bite hard enough to justify the controversy, and it's too bloated to be a comedy classic. But its crude humour and playful performances should satisfy those wanting to discover what the fuss is about.