Feeling under-appreciated as a television-news producer, Aaron (Rogen) goes looking for a story more serious than Eminem's sexuality or Rob Lowe's baldness. He discovers that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (Park) is a fan of his tabloid-style chat show fronted by Dave Skylark (Franco). Up for being interviewed, Kim is in the news for threatening America with nukes. So two CIA operatives (Caplan and Alexander) talk Aaron and Dave into assassinating Kim with a poisoned handshake. Then they arrive in Pyongyang, where Aaron falls for Kim's media director Sook (Bang) and Dave falls for Kim.

Yes, this is a brom-com in which Aaron and Dave find their relationship threatened by an unlikely interloper. Gay innuendo fills each scene, from witty double entendres and rude dialog to over-the-top physicality. But instead of letting a joke linger, the filmmakers repeat it over and over, beating it to death. For example, the first scene playing with Katy Perry's Firework is genuinely amusing, but by the time it's brought back for the fourth or fifth time, all comedy value has been drained out of it.

Franco gives one of his more gurning performances, although this one works simply because Dave is such an engagingly gung-ho poser. Rogen has more subtlety in his role, although he's also the focus of the majority of the gross-out gags, only a few of which raise a smile. While quite a few comedy bits are of the "you had to be there" variety, there's also an underlying stream of dead-on satire that pokes gleeful fun at both the media and politics.

So it's a shame the script isn't more robust, maintaining that satirical edge rather than abandoning all hope and slipping into yet more uninspired anal-themed jokes or hyper-violent Tarantino-style action. Putting some effort into the story's climactic section could have made this a minor gem that not only poked fun at the mindlessness of television but also at the way the American media so desperately needs a villain to hiss at.

themes, language, violence, sexuality

25.Dec.14