The Interview

is one of the dumbest movies in a year filled with dumb movies.  Yes, obviously I watched it; I felt I had to know what the story was, and I will watch almost any film.  A small group of us viewed it using YouTube's pay service at my house, so the cost was minimal--and keeping the cost low was about the only smart choice I made involving this film. 

According to Variety, with data courtesy of the folks who hacked Sony, Sony paid Seth Rogen $8.4 million for his role in the film, and they gave James Franco $6.5 million.  So, basically, Rogen and Franco conned Sony into paying them a combined nearly $15 million dollars to film a mutual hand-job, a bromance love letter of epic proportions.  Good for them.  Sony, on the other hand, needs to find the exec who greenlighted this one and send him/her off for some sort of prolonged punishment, perhaps a hundred repeated viewings of this film.

I won't lie:  I did laugh at times during the movie.  It contains some funny bits, and even a few touching moments.  The vast majority of the time, however, I alternated between wincing and watching in stunned amazement as these two stars created this ode to each other. 

If, like me, you feel you simply must know what the fuss is all about, watch The Interview.  Otherwise, almost anything else you can do with your time is likely to be more productive and make you happier.