Ishtar Park On Ice?

Ishtar Park On Ice?

Of course I  viewed it, what with the proliferation of it's bits on every major pipe and the  ink spilled both in attack it and defending it, not to mention the meta ink spilled about the "real" reason for its problems. 

And of course I saw it exactly how you think I, your humble narrator , would see it. So was it worth the bits?

Years ago their was a film called Ishtar. Lots of hype  before release, lots of drama over production…and the film could never be as good as its hype. Le bombez. So am I saying the interview is like Ishtar in being a misguided On The Road  buddy flick? No. That would be an over reach.

So I might hit the go to of South Park, whose creators crafted an amazing bit of movie social satire that also poked fun at the Glorious Peoples Democracy of North Whateveristan. The Interview gets a lot of ink for being a political satire in the South park  style….and to this I also say… No…that would be an overreach. 

So  ok lets  pull it back a bit. Is the Interview more of an extended  set of clips that might have made it on to Funny Or Die , maybe College Humor? At its best, in those parts that were the gems in the dross…sort of.  As a whole? Again…No.

So what is The Interview. You know when you are with a group of very old friends who you have grown comfortable enough around such that when you get boofyblitzed and politics comes up you go for it with all out nuts to putz  quips and raunch? You find your self making jokes that combine bodily functions and social ideological methods in only that way that makes sense when in said boofyblitedness? The Interview is sort of like that only  instead of  forgetting most of it the next morning Rogan and co wrote it down, raised money and filmed it.

Which, heck, good on them for having a good time with it. They did seem genuinely happy in the film. Youtube is filled with such creations though on far less a budget and with far less drama.

Did I laugh at times. Yep. There is some funny bits in there. The overuse of the JRRisms is something I found funny. Some of it though was more  of that crotch level humor  that works great in small close groups but as a filmed work…not so much. Context is indeed everything.  

Do not read conspiracy into this but I think it  took a global political conspiracy, real, contrived or partially hijacked,  to get this film as much attention as it has gotten.  

In this time and place many people have gained a following for over analyzing works of pop culture to the point of contextual exhaustion . I am sure The Interview will have many a commentary  relating it to social dogmatism, extensional bankruptcy, #hatergate, socioeconomic  fallacies  of patriotism and Katy Perry fanisms. The junk sick need of subscriberholics and their content fills will make The Interview an All-You-Can-Spew Buffet  held at a dilapidated Algonquin. … but their base material is Dick Stink and bad Golem in jokes. so…yeah. Context is everything.

For me there are works of social commentary that are far far far(add a few more fars) better that have gotten much less attention. Black Mirror comes to mind.  Run, do not walk,  to Netflix or Google or your  preferred  way of getting bits (say no more, say no more) and experience  the episodes of Black Mirror if you have not already have. 

All of this is just my opinion. ymmv