In case anyone wants to see it but gets a 404 (yeah, I watched it again) it's still at the top of the list on that website's homepage, but I'm not gonna do a resubmit because what's the point. I mainly put this as a reply so people who might have just clicked would know, in case they were curious.

As for my opinion, I said it below, but I was reminded of the scene in one of the Hot Shots movies where they drop a bomb on Saddam and he goes boom. If I recall, he survived, Looney Tunes style, but it's the same thing. And we were at war then. "9/11-style attacks" is a threatening statement, but what if they said it about a new Adam Sandler movie? Would Sony have had the same reaction because some people just didn't want it to exist?

That's what I've been saying all along! Glad to see my armchair philosophy somewhat vindicated.

They've got unnamed US intelligence operatives saying on deep background that trust us on this, it was North Korea, but who knows what the fuck that's supposed to mean

I really love the way Sony has stepped it up on this from "wow, we have a file named MasterPasswordList.xls" to "on behalf of the United States, we hereby surrender to the Juche idea" just to have a hope of abdicating responsibility, being a more compelling victim, with everyone in Congress leaping on the bandwagon to demand some undoubtedly fascist cybersecurity response

The true high point for me was the Alamo Drafthouse trying to stick it to them by scheduling Team America: World Police in the hole in their schedule and Paramount showing Sony professional courtesy by pulling Team America from circulation, in the process pre-emptively kowtowing to a threat the hackers who may not even be North Korean haven't even made and would not be able to carry out even if they were state-sponsored. No one may besmirch the royal line of Kim, masters of humanity.

Jesus Christ

Yeah, I'm also a fan of going from "holy shit did we fuck this up" to "North Korea is to blame." The emperor quickly put some clothes on there.

There's an alternate theory: Disney.

So basically the theory is that Disney wants the Fantastic Four/Spider-Man franchises so desperately that they were willing to play incredibly dirty to sink Sony's stock enough to sweep them up at a bargain price. Just push a little in the right direction, crash a Christmas opening, threaten the nips in charge, and bizanga-bizoola, they have Spidey and the Thing, and the CIA has a pleasant baddie to blame it all on to tighten things up a bit and distract us from the torture report.

That's an insane conspiracy theory.

Nobody wants the Fantastic Four franchise.

Looks like Sony itself thought the thing was a mistake and wouldn't make money overseas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/19/us-sony-cybersecurit y-unfunny-idUSKBN0JX0B020141219

The original hacks were definitely not staged, but now I wonder if the '9/11' threat was just to have an excuse to drop the film.

I'm assuming the hack is real, but I'm also assuming Sony was happy for any excuse to try and cash in the insurance policy on the film; all advance eyes on the movie and leaked emails suggest this was going to be a massive flop.

All movies have insurance, the 100-million-dollar question is whether or not terrorist threats stopping a movie from getting released will qualify for the insurance payout.

Wouldnt discount the notion China is doing the hack attacks on behalf of NK, considering china's record of cyberattacks on the US.

You think so too? That was my first impression before I saw this (I figured the movie ended with more of a botched attempt, like the WWII cartoons where Hitler gets hit on the head with an anvil, but never shot in the face.) I saw the trailer and thought "OK Pineapple Express Pt. 3?" Even though Your Highness was kinda funny, and This is the End was.. well let's face it, it was like watching a Friars Roast during the apocalypse: Just a bunch of hollywood friends jerking each other off. I can't think of ANYONE who actually wanted to go see this movie, but now they want to see what happens. If you're right, then it's pretty genius.

That's looking like an increasingly idiotic theory with each passing day.

The few reviews on RottenTomatoes appear to be mixed but not awful. North Korea is so absurd that it makes for a ripe setting for comedy, so I might have given it a chance.

I probably would not have ever heard of it or had any idea this was a movie unless this drama had spun up.

Wow you're lucky. It was pretty much every unskippable Youtube ad for me for at least a month.

At this point I've given up on jangbones and my theory; I'm pretty sure that faking threats like that, for a film promotion or otherwise, counts as domestic terrorism. Raising awareness like this is nothing new either. I still have some old Blair Witch swag, and whatever you thought of the movie you gotta admit it was a good example of viral advertising. And I think it was Hostel that claimed OMG A WOMAN HAD A HEART ATTACK AND THE FAMILY IS SUING IT WAS SO SCARY. Same thing. You were following your butt to the seat for another lame horror movie.

What sucks is I was listening to NPR earlier today, and someone who actually saw it was talking about how the saddest part is that the Kim Jong Un actor's peformance will go unseen. Unlike Hot Shots Part Deux (didn't we blow up Saddam in that movie and nobody had a problem?!?!) he wasn't just portrayed as that "Sodamn Insane" type of crazy dictator, but as a regular 30-something who grew up loving Michael Jordan, and apparently gets straight-up giddy like a little kid when he meets one of his heroes, i.e. the Interviewer. The actor said he based this on the Vice documentary where he gets the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman. It sounds very heartfelt, reminding us that although we might think he's a nut, he's also a human, and was once a child. The rest of the movie probably sucks, but I'm sad that I might never get to see that performance.

oh yeah then he blows up.

I'll bet it is! Thanks for the suggestion. I would watch Gregory Peck in about anything.

I would say that were it not for the many people there currently forced to live under the Kim family, North Korea would be the hallmark of tacky and probably the greatest kitsch theme park of all time. If all they did was open their doors, give their people a cut of the profits and let us see the wacky hijinks of Asia's craaaaaaaaaaaaaziest dictators, they would get themselves to a pretty reasonable economy in no time.

North Korea is basically the Divine of countries. So tacky it's compelling.

I'll bet they've made many movies where American presidents are killed.

I'm certain they've never made a movie where a real-life, sitting president was killed.

I'd bet part of the reason this movie got made is because someone at Sony thought N. Korea raging about it to the press would make for good free publicity.

Caminante - hate to tell you, your certainty is misplaced: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0853096/

Oh, I forgot about that one.

According to all sources I can find, there are no legitimate torrents of the movie.

oh, and I forgot Superfetus.

http://www.channel101.com/episode/648

And we can call them out on being idiots for it.

that may be but this is akin to apple not selling some shit in greece cause the weather is hostile. Calm the fuck down, ya'll

Considering that giving in to an act of hacking could embolden the perpetrators and encourage further hacking attacks in the future, I think that moral outrage is the proper response. You don't discourage crime by showing the criminals that it pays off in the end. To equate this as being similar to "apple not selling some shit in greece cause the weather is hostile" misses the point entirely.

Wouldn't the more appropriate analogy be "apple not selling some shit in the US cause the weather in GREECE is hostile" anyway? Which obviously makes no sense. I don't feel like arguing, so what rhombus said.

Yesss.

I thought the same thing. The actor selected to play Kim Jong Un is better looking than the real one.

*meant as a reply to Scrimmjob.