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Boris Johnson reviews The Interview: 'It’s like an unavenged Pearl Harbour. It’s Team North Korea 1, Team America 0'

The Mayor of London calls for the US to remember the importance of freedom of speech

Ella Alexander
Monday 22 December 2014 07:36 EST
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Boris Johnson attempted to intervene in the incident
Boris Johnson attempted to intervene in the incident (Getty)

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In what could be a makeshift Christmas gift from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has delivered a fake review of the banned film The Interview, which Sony axed before its release date due to threats.

The Seth Rogen film is centred around the assassination of Kim Jong-Un and it has been speculated that North Korea are responsible for the much-publicised hacking, although the government have denied the claims and have called for a launch of an investigation.

Johnson writes in his Telegraph column that he has watched a “hilarious international espionage caper movie”, centred on a film called The Interview and “the global convulsions it causes”. He describes North Korea’s reaction:

“The communists are thoroughly cheesed off, and they warn the Americans that they will take punitive action. Which is ridiculous, of course,” he writes. “The Interview is just a comedy – a work of imagination. Think of all the American films that involve the killing of their own president, or the discovery that he is in fact an agent of a foreign power, or a big green lizard.”

However, he comments, “true to form, the North Koreans have a total sense of humour failure” and hack into Sony’s email accounts – with “side-splittingly funny” results, which cause so much “mayhem”, bosses decide to pull the film.

“Now the house lights are up, and we are all scratching our heads and feeling like Jaws has ended with the shark eating Quint,” continues Johnson, as if sitting in a cinema. “It’s like an unavenged Pearl Harbor. It’s Team North Korea 1, Team America 0.”

The Mayor calls for the US to, weirdly, “rediscover the spirit of John Wayne” and remember the importance of free speech.

“Come on Sony; come on America,” he concludes. “It’s time for everyone to come to their senses, get a grip, have some guts, rediscover the spirit of John Wayne, and give us the Hollywood ending that free speech demands.”

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