James Franco

You’ve got to hand it to Jonah Hill and James Franco, both of whom manage to effortlessly glide between comedic and dramatic roles. It’s not easy to be a popular goofball and an Oscar nominated “serious” actor, but somehow these two have managed to pull it off. Their latest film, ‘True Story’ is unique in that it is the first project to cast them together in dramatic roles. When you watch the first trailer for film, you can be forgiven for expecting them to drop the dramatic stare-downs and start riffing with each other at any moment.

It’s kind of a strange thing to write about ‘The Interview’ now, right? Its place in culture will always be defined by the Sony hacks that preceded the movie’s release. Is any other film defined so sharply by events that were out of that movie’s control?

By now it’s quite clear: Sony is not releasing ‘The Interview’ in theaters any time soon. In the wake of the terrorist threats made against theaters that planned to screen the controversial film, and in the subsequent wake of numerous theater chains (including AMC Entertainment, Regal Entertainment, and Cinemark) canceling their planned runs of the movie, Sony decided to cancel the film’s release outright. It will not be a very merry Christmas for Seth Rogen and James Franco.

The Sony hacking scandal has proven to be a massive headache for a company that’s already been having a rough few years. And now, this increasingly weird story has taken an even darker turn: the hackers are threatening to launch terrorist attacks against theaters showing ‘The Interview’ this Christmas. Seriously.

We’ve seen the green band trailer, we’ve seen the naughtier red band trailer, and now we have the final, ultimate trailer for the Seth Rogen and James Franco action comedy ‘The Interview,’ which features a whole lot more Kim Jong-Un. According to James Franco’s character, he’s not so bad—he does give an adorable puppy as a gift (if this year’s film trends are any indication, that puppy’s life may be in danger), and he really digs Katy Perry.

Set in St. Louis, the sketch starts with Beck Bennett as a news anchor for “News 4” (which is the CBS affiliate in St. Louis) relaying a serious presentation of current events, right before he hands it off to two morning show hosts (played by Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong) who have an obnoxious show with an obnoxious theme song called ‘Rise and Smile.’ First, there’s no way this sketch should have been cut, but that’s a pretty obvious position to take.

James Franco returned to host ‘SNL’ for the third time (though, it seems like more) and for the first time since 2009 (which doesn’t seem quite right either). A lot has happened in the two weeks that ‘SNL’ has been gone and the show certainly didn’t ignore what has happened, but did they do enough? It’s a tough call. This is a comedy show after all and has never been an all-encompassing current events show like, say, ‘The Daily Show.’ Even though he was the host, Franco kind of felt like a non-factor. On one hand, he blended in with the cast, which is always welcome, but musical guest Nicki Minaj seemed to have more of a presence. Anyway, off we go to this week’s Scorecard…

In many ways, NBC’s much-mocked ‘Peter Pan Live’ was already a parody of itself the moment it was conceived, making the thought of an ‘SNL’ riff feel completely and totally unnecessary. And yet the show’s take on the production has just enough good stuff to be worthy of your time, especially if the thought of guest host James Franco playing Christopher Walken playing Captain Hook sounds appealing to you.

‘SNL’ was off the week that the first ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ trailer broke the internet with its record-breaking release. However, like any comedy variety show worth its salt, it didn’t miss a beat when it returned this week, crafting a parody trailer that’s as hilariously mean-spirited as it is funny.

Since James Franco was around to host this week’s ‘SNL’ as part of promoting his upcoming comedy ‘The Interview,’ it was inevitable that his frequent collaborator and co-star and director, Seth Rogen, would pop in to say hello. And they couldn’t have picked a better way to bring him into things. Since ‘The Interview’ is causing all kinds of real-world mayhem, they did what any self-respecting funny people would do: they made fun of it.