Sony, The Interview, and the No-Win situation

Zoso1701 wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Farscry wrote:

Looks like PSN is having problems tonight. Unknown if related.

Oh look PSN falling over on Christmas Eve, because that never ever happens each year ;)

Careful now, Nintendo network has a test coming soon...

Yup, and I'm sure it's going to fall right over like the last two years (there's a reason we tell people to setup the console prior to 12/24-12/25 in the Wii U thread)

Watched the movie with the family on Xbox Video; it's not the second coming of Life of Brian but I got several good chuckles out of it. Baby, you're a firework.

IMAGE(https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8406962176/h30CF4525/)

shoptroll wrote:
Zoso1701 wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Farscry wrote:

Looks like PSN is having problems tonight. Unknown if related.

Oh look PSN falling over on Christmas Eve, because that never ever happens each year ;)

Careful now, Nintendo network has a test coming soon...

Yup, and I'm sure it's going to fall right over like the last two years (there's a reason we tell people to setup the console prior to 12/24-12/25 in the Wii U thread)

Good point. It does look like Lizard Squad is claiming responsibility for the outages on PSN and XBL though.

Okay. Just watched it and it was a waste of time. If this turns out to have been a publicity stunt, I'm going to be pissed as sh1t.

From the damage caused by some of the internal emails alone, I'd say it would be the one of dumbest publicity stunts ever in the infinitely remote chance it was.

Nomad wrote:

From the damage caused by some of the internal emails alone, I'd say it would be the one of dumbest publicity stunts ever in the infinitely remote chance it was.

I can only imagine the meeting where the Sony marketing department convinced their senior executives and the BoD that leaking emails, financials, tens of thousands of employee Social Security numbers, and more would reap the company untold wealth on a comedy they're effectively putting out during a dump month, a time of year where studios release the sh*ttiest of movies they have produced.

Paleocon wrote:

Okay. Just watched it and it was a waste of time. If this turns out to have been a publicity stunt, I'm going to be pissed as sh1t.

What other people said above. No way was it a publicity stunt. I have to admit at laughing at most things Franco said. So sue me.

OG_slinger wrote:
Nomad wrote:

From the damage caused by some of the internal emails alone, I'd say it would be the one of dumbest publicity stunts ever in the infinitely remote chance it was.

I can only imagine the meeting where the Sony marketing department convinced their senior executives and the BoD that leaking emails, financials, tens of thousands of employee Social Security numbers, and more would reap the company untold wealth on a comedy they're effectively putting out during a dump month, a time of year where studios release the sh*ttiest of movies they have produced.

Or Oscar bait month.

DSGamer wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

Okay. Just watched it and it was a waste of time. If this turns out to have been a publicity stunt, I'm going to be pissed as sh1t.

What other people said above. No way was it a publicity stunt. I have to admit at laughing at most things Franco said. So sue me.

I cracked up quite a bit myself. It was exactly the kind of movie I was expecting it to be gross, dumb, and mediocre. I'll judge it on what it was, not what the controversy turned it into.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Or Oscar bait month.

I can only imagine the Vegas odds of a film released on Christmas Day winning an Oscar.

Wow, that movie was terribad.

OG_slinger wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Or Oscar bait month.

I can only imagine the Vegas odds of a film released on Christmas Day winning an Oscar.

Huh? A lot of excellent movies see wide release on Christmas day.

Thanks for that, Jayhawker. I felt like this was true, but I couldn't find anything. I vividly remember seeing "The Thin Red Line" on Christmas day because it's one of my favorite movies of all time. The same goes for "Django Unchained" and "Children of Men". I remembered seeing "Wolf of Wall Street" on or the day after Christmas, but that's because I hated it. Either way it seemed to me like I saw a lot of these on Christmas. My wife and I see a lot of movies around Christmas. We're up to 6 movies so far this season.

http://www.theverge.com/entertainment/2014/12/26/7450369/the-interview-youtube-google-play-most-popular

I think our hopes for new delivery methods are being scuppered by how tech {ableist slur} these companies who are supposedly tech companies are.

internet users have noticed that the DRM on Sony's official streaming site is woefully inadequate. Users who paid $5.99 to rent the film for 48 hours could simply copy and paste the site's URL to share the film with friends.

Not exactly the same topic but I'm honestly relishing the day that Netflix etc run some of these companies out of business.

Maybe I am too sensitive to this because it is my relatives that are likely to get vaporized in Seoul if things go significantly worse in North Korea. Maybe I have no sense of humor about it because I was one of the few people who saw the run up to the Iraq War for what it was (the gullible American public being railroaded into a clearly avoidable human tragedy on a massive scale by breastbeating jingoism). And maybe my point of view is aberrant because I have talked with too many folks whose families have been affected by American assassinations and dirty wars, but I found the entire premise of this movie not just in bad taste, but contrary to our own national interests.

It was like a buddy cop movie in which a pair of white cops accidentally shoots and kills too many innocent black people.

William Shakespeare wrote:

His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.

Paleocon wrote:

Maybe I am too sensitive to this because it is my relatives that are likely to get vaporized in Seoul if things go significantly worse in North Korea. Maybe I have no sense of humor about it because I was one of the few people who saw the run up to the Iraq War for what it was (the gullible American public being railroaded into a clearly avoidable human tragedy on a massive scale by breastbeating jingoism). And maybe my point of view is aberrant because I have talked with too many folks whose families have been affected by American assassinations and dirty wars, but I found the entire premise of this movie not just in bad taste, but contrary to our own national interests.

It was like a buddy cop movie in which a pair of white cops accidentally shoots and kills too many innocent black people.

You should never watch a Seth Rogan movie if you're looking for tasteful comedy (said as someone who likes Seth Rogan movies). I'm not sure where the idea that movies have to align with our national interest comes from.

Paleocon, I don't think you're wrong to feel the way you do. My perspective is that satire should be allowed to exist in a free world. I think what muddies this so much for me is that the US isn't a particularly free place right now. So it looks less like free expression and more like jingoism to the outside world, I imagine. Nevermind the fact that it's satire with real world ramifications. I think the second concern would bother me less if the US was on more sure footing with regards to freedom and human rights.

TLDR; If North Korea's Seth Rogan and James Franco make a buddy comedy about Ferguson I won't be angry nor insist the US retaliate.

DSGamer wrote:

Paleocon, I don't think you're wrong to feel the way you do. My perspective is that satire should be allowed to exist in a free world. I think what muddies this so much for me is that the US isn't a particularly free place right now. So it looks less like free expression and more like jingoism to the outside world, I imagine. Nevermind the fact that it's satire with real world ramifications. I think the second concern would bother me less if the US was on more sure footing with regards to freedom and human rights.

TLDR; If North Korea's Seth Rogan and James Franco make a buddy comedy about Ferguson I won't be angry nor insist the US retaliate.

To be clear, I am certainly not advocating it be censored. Hell, if someone wants to make a buddy cop comedy in the US in which white cops make racist jokes and shoot black teenagers, I will fight for their right to do so while I condemn the content in the same breath. That is hardly the point.

The point is that, much like the tasteless "Bad Bad Michael Brown" parody that surfaced at a police officer's benefit earlier this week, this movie says something very ugly about its audience. It is the perpetuation of a profound and, frankly, dangerous ignorance.

Paleocon wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Paleocon, I don't think you're wrong to feel the way you do. My perspective is that satire should be allowed to exist in a free world. I think what muddies this so much for me is that the US isn't a particularly free place right now. So it looks less like free expression and more like jingoism to the outside world, I imagine. Nevermind the fact that it's satire with real world ramifications. I think the second concern would bother me less if the US was on more sure footing with regards to freedom and human rights.

TLDR; If North Korea's Seth Rogan and James Franco make a buddy comedy about Ferguson I won't be angry nor insist the US retaliate.

To be clear, I am certainly not advocating it be censored. Hell, if someone wants to make a buddy cop comedy in the US in which white cops make racist jokes and shoot black teenagers, I will fight for their right to do so while I condemn the content in the same breath. That is hardly the point.

The point is that, much like the tasteless "Bad Bad Michael Brown" parody that surfaced at a police officer's benefit earlier this week, this movie says something very ugly about its audience. It is the perpetuation of a profound and, frankly, dangerous ignorance.

I'm with Paleo on this one. I think my main problem is the same - the movie makes a giggly joke out of parodying (but in no way mocking) horrible things the USA has done repeatedly. And then on top of that, adding the notion that seeing and embracing that is somehow a worthy expression of national identity is kinda ugly.

I'm not saying everyone who goes to see it is some brainwashed drone or something. There's just some extremely bad subtext here and that's soured me on the whole thing.

It also appears to be completely tone deaf to the fact that the CIA was very likely involved in the assassination of the first president of SOUTH Korea (Kim Koo) who they replaced with a Right Wing extremist who stocked the government full of Japanese collaborators who gleefully sent their own countrymen to concentration camps by the trainloads.

So, yeah, forgive me if I don't share the lulz.

Paleocon wrote:

Maybe I am too sensitive to this because it is my relatives that are likely to get vaporized in Seoul if things go significantly worse in North Korea. Maybe I have no sense of humor about it because I was one of the few people who saw the run up to the Iraq War for what it was (the gullible American public being railroaded into a clearly avoidable human tragedy on a massive scale by breastbeating jingoism). And maybe my point of view is aberrant because I have talked with too many folks whose families have been affected by American assassinations and dirty wars, but I found the entire premise of this movie not just in bad taste, but contrary to our own national interests.

It was like a buddy cop movie in which a pair of white cops accidentally shoots and kills too many innocent black people.

William Shakespeare wrote:

His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.

Actually, I am right there with you. But i really do think, based on previews, that the film seems to be more of a satire on the the evil, but incompetent, US spy network. The mocking of North Korea was just a by-product.

Just seen the movie. I thought it was pretty funny and in poor taste. I laughed at the ultra violent slapstick but was thinking to myself if that was right. I doubt this movie would have made a splash without the terrorist threat. The biggest issue I seen was parodying the death of a living leader of a country. They mention issues like starving people, US sanctions, why can only the US have nukes, godhood, free speech, what is being gay, and other stuff. The issues are just brought up for jokes. There wasn't a US good NK bad thing going on. More like here are some bad stuff the US and NK are doing.

The puppy was the star of the show. He put on a performance to end all performances. Benji and Lassie has nothing on him, mainly because they are dead.