James Franco and his LIPS !!!

at least Clooney got to play sanctimonious patriot for the first time in weeks.

i don't think "hey this isn't the first time hackers have done this" and "hey this isn't the first time our government has been quick to point the finger at a convenient foreign target" are particularly tin-foil obsverations

― da croupier, Friday, December 19, 2014 9:29 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, i agree with you, but the 'western world's' view about asia is really off a lot of times, so it's hard to express an idea to canadians (or americans), for example, because they lack the asian history/politlcal knowledge. so, it all sounds too tin-foily. i've expressed these ideas before openly and have found this response to be fairly common.

but also, i happen to be very close to a north korean person and know of people who've been there. so, it's easy for me to get emotionally involved sometimes.

so what can the US realistically do as far as "retaliation", since military action (which would be massive overkill anyway) is off the table? Seems like NK is a country we've pretty much already used all of our leverage against

POTUS has gotten into the act:

"Or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended. That’s not who we are. That’s not what America is about.”

lol yes thank God for the full spectrum of aesthetic, ideological and philosophical grist offered by Hollywood studios

he was talking about your sensibilities, morbz

cant believe how much barack wanted to see this

as i'm guessing an insurance company would use presidential admonishments against you, i'm wondering how sony will eventually release the movie - if theaters allow they could pull a grinch and race it back into schedule for xmas? would it make more sense to slip in quietly or trumpet THE MOVIE THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE

bet sony's pissed they can't just bury it and haggle with lloyds of london or whoever instead

Sony has to have a warehouse full of portable DVD players. Drop them all in NK with this movie in them.

who bought a portable DVD player?

Everyone with kids before ipad

and while i'm being all wag the dog, let's just note that before peace with cuba and a stand-off with north korea the hot topic was massive public protests of domestic policy

? da croupier, Friday, December 19, 2014 2:02 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

people are ALWAYS mad at the administration, and there are may days in which intense opposition to public policy is front-page news; it would be very difficult for obama to pick a day on which doing something like normalizing relations with cuba would /not/ somehow be pushing some such news further down the page. would you have preferred that after eight months of secret negotiations, obama ask raul castro to "wait a few more months, let's let this whole 'people are angry at domestic policy' thing play out"?

i mean, i'm no obamastan, but this is one of those cases where he's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

on a generally unreleated note, i imagine it must be kind of weird to be seth rogen right now.

MANY days

So if Sony pulls a film, can they just write the whole thing off?

people are ALWAYS mad at the administration

i imagine it must be kind of weird to be seth rogen right now.

― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, December 19, 2014

minor tweaks.

obama is killing it recently. my views on this situation are well documented (the movie was irresponsible) but obama had to address this cyberterrorism issue and he HAD to defend american free speech against foreign blackmail, as this is the historical position of the united states. it's a good position too, ultimately.

also what protests of domestic policy? ferguson wasn't due to white house policy, and besides obama responded to that by opening an inquiry into demilitarizing the police.

full disclosure: i totally was going to see this movie

...

I need a minute.

I dug Pineapple Express I probably would hanged watched this on Crackle

Seems like a "Crackle Exclusive"

i love pineapple express

i would rather watch my father in law sit on the couch & floss his teeth than watch the interviee

interview even

what we've learnt from all this is that a lot of rich and powerful people are really stupid

FYI I said domestic policy not domestic White House policy. I'm sorry if the shorthand was confusing but it shouldn't be too confusing.

my views on this situation are well documented (the movie was irresponsible)

this is a compliment, right?

Tim League ‏@timalamo -- Breaking news: Sony has authorized screenings of THE INTERVIEW on Christmas Day. We are making shows available within the hour. #Victory

a #victory, for an unintentional(?) pr-campaign

some indie cinema folks have thoughts on that:

Screen Slate @ScreenSlate
Why in the fuck is the Art House convergence making a Sony movie a Cause? Meanwhile Sony conspires to resurrect SOPA/PIPA. This is absurd.

GrandIllusion Cinema @gicinema
@arthousenow Arthouses already do plenty to promote & give access to freedom of expression. No need to show #TheInterview.

Sony decides to release incredibly lucrative movie after all, shocker

It's a great day to be a cynic!

so maaaaybe the FBI told us an untruth

http://gawker.com/a-lot-of-smart-people-think-north-korea-didnt-hack-sony-1672899940

in a way it's smart (if not, you know, honest) for the FBI to claim certainty even if they're not sure.

Looking like YouTube will stream it tomorrow...

It's not surprising how many of these free speech freedom fighters I see crowing about censorship and this silly movie "finally" getting released a) actually thought there was any chance Sony was never going to release it (has any studio film flat-out never seen release?), and b) don't seem to realize how often studios cut films, limit releases, sit on finished films, move around release dates, dump flicks in the dead of winter and send things straight to video for the same dual motivations of cowardice and capitalism that affected "The Interview."

I mean, Harvey Weinstein does all of those things on a regular basis without the threat of North Korean retaliation hanging over him.

I half-watched this last night at my sister in law's house (everyone was talking and it was impossible to pay attention most of the time). It seemed alright and about exactly what you'd expect.

this movie seems critical of the two main characters, who plunge north korea into a civil war and take zero responsibility for it, all in a quest to gain "serious" creds in the media. it draws a parallel between them and kim, who similarly places his ego ahead of any kind of public interest or coherent ehtical-political standpoint. the satire is somewhat undermined by the fact that the film's creators were arrogant in the exact same way that the characters are.... or maybe that just adds another layer to it all.

B-

But there are poop jokes, so ... B?

Yeah I am getting pretty annoyed at all the people seeing this to "take a stand". Hope it blows over soon. Would also be nice if the hack and threats were proved to be from someone other than North Korea though I don't know how much it would curb the idiotic posturing around this thing. People sure seem to love believing it was NK though.

ilx's north korea thread is called "north korea: still hilarious" so we aren't so great either fyi. people in general seem to have an easy time making light of that horrific regime in a way they wouldn't with most other places.

i kind of think this whole "free speech" nonsense was good because it revealed just how shallow america's notion of freedom is these days. freedom is just the freedom to consume, or the freedom to satiate one's desires without frustration.

seems pretty similar, really, to the kim family. kim jong il kidnapped actors and directors from china so they could make him the exact films he desired to watch.

Yes those two things are clearly exactly alike

the film even draws a parallel between the infantile narcissism of the main characters and kim jong un's authoritarian temper tantrums. i don't think it's an outlandish claim. i also don't think that freedom, if it is going to mean anything, needs to mean more than the freedom to pursue one's whims.

i also don't think that freedom, if it is going to mean anything, needs to mean more than the freedom to pursue one's whims.

Jefferson thought so, especially if Sally Hemmings was involved.

Saw this movie, it was real funny. Better than "This is The End". The kind of movie an 80s Ghostbusters-and-Rambo-fed male kid would write on the way to school with his best friends while giggling about shooting rockets at a helicopter from tanks etc.

But yeah the hype and the "take a stand" stuff and praising this multinational corporation for it's bravery to sell us its products is eye-rolling. Especially just weeks after most of the same people were giving torture techniques a free pass.

Freedom/constitutional rights seem to be something to publicly celebrate only when it's the rights of the super rich and influential are involved.

everything is better than THis Is The End.

It certainly has almost the exact same ending: bullet exploding the bad guy in the slomo to ironic pop song.

Isn't that how Pineapple Express ended, too? It's like all those New Order songs that end with an explosion sound effect. "Well, I guess we need a way to end this."