Review – The Internship

Reunited for the first time since the 2005 comedy hit Wedding Crashers, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson team up for a comedy about a couple of middle-aged guys trying to make it in a young person’s business world.

Billy (Vaughn) and Nick (Wilson) are a couple of old-school salesmen, great at what they do, but suddenly out of a job as times are changing. There just isn’t a great need for watch salesmen anymore apparently. Who would have guessed. When they’re fired from their position by their boss (John Goodman who is showing up in just about everything it seems), they have two choices. Make a new start at life, or watch it crumble around them. When the opportunity for an internship at Google presents itself, the two bumbling friends decide to go for it.

Aasif Mandvi and Rose Byrn co-star and Will Ferrel makes a forgettable cameo.

In a scenario as unlikely as any presented on screen, Billy and Nick are granted acceptance into a highly competitive internship program at the tech giant. By the end of program, just one team will be given jobs. When our two geniuses end up on the team with all the other misfits, going against actual geniuses and savvy kids with fake British accents (Max Minghella), the outlook seems bleak. Fear not – underdogs always prevail as long as they have the right spirit. Right?

Billy, Nick, and the rest of the “Nooglers” are presented with challenges varying from a game of Quidditch (high amusing) to answering the Gmail support hotline (which I’m pretty sure doesn’t actually exist). Antics ensue, lessons are learned, wisdoms are imparted.

The thing about this movie is that it isn’t not funny. There are plenty of parts to laugh at, but overall it feels incredibly middle-of-the-road and generic. There are one or two memorable parts, but nothing that’s going to even start a facebook meme. Maybe the eyebrow bit. Maybe.

Worth mentioning, though I’m sure the idea has been pounded home by every film critic already – The Internship is really just one long commercial for Google. Really. It’s like this generation’s The Wizard. Everything about Google is shown to be pretty much super awesome. There’s free food! There are nap pods! Google just recently announced that they are able to predict a film’s box office revenues with 94% accuracy. You can bet they have already calculated how many people will be applying to work for them after this film hits theaters.

My prediction is that this movie has a half decent run just because comedy fans are trying to get the taste of The Hangover Part Three out of their mouths, and end up with a long life on cable tv. It’s relatively inoffensive (so very little to censor for the small screen), easy to follow, and features recognizable leads. Comedy Central, here we go.

Mrs. Hamster did not attend this screening

My Rating: Three out of Five Hats