Every movie review has an agenda, but never has a movie debut come more loaded with baggage and prejudgment than the torturous rout to the “The Interview” release. I’m not sure when it was decided in advance that “The Interview” would be a terrible movie. Maybe it was when Sony executive dissatisfaction with the movie came out in stolen emails. “Desperately unfunny” with a “level of realistic violence that would be shocking in a horror movie” were just two of the choice quotes (the second actually got me way more excited). In reality, judging “The Interview” comes down not to international diplomacy, free speech issues, or any one of the other poisons dumped in the well by the Guardians of Peace, but rather a single question:

'The Interview' Review: What Really Matters

What do you think of James Franco?

“The Interview” is a competent comedy, not as funny as “This Is the End,” but continues that movie’s combination of narcissistic pal-banter and genre conventions, swapping apocalyptic horror for international action-thriller. You know “The Interview” plot by now: James Franco (David Skylark) and Seth Rogen (Aaron Rapaport) are offered an exclusive interview with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un and are tasked with assassinating him by the CIA.

Knowing Seth Rogen and James Franco, this must be a loose framework for homosocial flirting leavened by sex with women, dirty language, and intentionally uncool pop references (Katy Perry and lots of “Lord of the Rings” in this case), right?

When it comes to “The Interview” you’d only be half-right. Sure, “The Interview” contains plenty of what you’d expect, but what’s surprising is that “The Interview” is also a tightly plotted action-comedy, with a thriller plot that ramps up fast, builds intrigue and spy flavor efficiently, then disgorges the whole mess in a final act orgy of violence and half-satisfying plot payoff. Despite Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s reputation for stoner laziness, “The Interview” is downright rigorous.

As a satire and a comedy, “The Interview” is less successful. There’s a lot that’s funny in “The Interview,” from the fine distinctions between a “honeypot” and a “honeydick,” to the surprising variety of scenarios involving ricin handshakes, but too much of movie’s humor falls on Seth and James riffing. And as catchy as “hate us cuz they ain’t us” may be, hearing five minutes of variation is less entertaining.

“The Interview” fares better with Randall Park’s Kim Jong Un onscreen. The “master manipulator” villain of “The Interview” is several orders of magnitude more fleshed out than the Kim Jong Il of “Team America: World Police,” and guessing at how much of his relationship with James Franco is real, or merely savvy despot media relations, finds satisfying closure in the actual interview of “The Interview.” The real duo at the center of “The Interview” isn’t Rogen and Franco (good on Rogen for playing the straight man, but did it have to be this straight?), but Kim Jong Un and Franco.

'The Interview' Trailer

The satire targets North Korea and American foreign policy alike, but never feels like more than a gloss. Still, it’s hardly irresponsible or misguided, as many critics of “The Interview” have asserted. “The Interview” is smart enough not to downplay the villainy of the North Korean regime, or even the blundering, expensive, slow-motion catastrophe of American foreign intervention, but it’s a light touch that refuses to burn like the more incendiary “Team America” (or much of “South Park” political commentary for that matter).

While “The Interview” already has a reputation for violence, none of it will be shocking to those familiar with Adult Swim, “This is the End” or Quentin Tarantino’s recent movies. One sequence in particular, with Seth Rogen and a North Korean television producer taking turns gnawing off each other’s fingers, is an especially good demonstration of the form.

Again, though, the only question that matters is: What do you think of James Franco?

I think James Franco is a good, not great, actor who has built a career as a trickster provocateur that actually embodies the life Shia Labeouf tries so hard to live. His simultaneous pursuit of acting, directing, writing, education, and art is downright inhuman in its ambition, though this often makes his output feel rushed, half-assed and partially baked. Because of this, I was perfectly okay with watching him dance around, make silly faces, and play possibly the dumbest character he has ever played in “The Interview.” It’s just too bad Dan Sterling didn’t write a couple more jokes for him to say.

Don't Pirate "The Interview"

“The Interview” is absolutely worth $6. Please don’t pirate “The Interview.” Separate it from all the hullabaloo and you have a competent comedy, situated in the Rogen oeuvre somewhere above “Paul” and beneath “Pineapple Express.”