(Download The Internship) More than anything, “The Internship” served as a swell reminder that it’s high-time to revisit “Wedding Crashers” again.
(Download The Internship) Both movies have at least two things in common, if not much else: both star Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, playing their usual ultra-hip slickster and laid-back surfer dude personas, respectively, (Download The Internship Movie) and both are comedies. But the similarities stop there. “Wedding Crashers” was lewd, crude and riotously funny, while “The Internship” is flat,(Watch The Internship Online) predictable and — perhaps most notably — achingly formulaic.
(Download The Internship) Give the movie props for this much, at least: the semi-amusing premise might have worked. Vaughn and Wilson play a couple of fast-talking salespeople who get sacked by their employer (John Goodman, in his second thankless role of the summer, following “The Hangover Part III”) at the outset.(Download The Internship Movie) Distraught but always looking forward, they shmooze their way into a summer internship at Google, where they’re forced to compete with a number of tech-savvy compu-nerds half their age for a full-time gig.
(Download The Internship) If the rumors surrounding “The Internship” are true, the filmmakers had the full support of Google to film inside their complex, which the movie makes look like a candy-colored playground for adults.(The Internship Download) Not surprisingly, that makes the film feel like a two-hour infomercial for the billion-dollar search engine, though it should be mentioned that “The Internship” also manages to poke a little fun at the idyllic nature of the Google compound,(Watch The Internship Online) where volleyball and napping appear to be mandatory.
(Download The Internship) It’s in the scripting where “The Internship” runs into the most trouble. Co-writers Vaughn and Jared Stern (“The Watch”) have muddied the movie’s good intentions with a run-of-the-mill plot that plays like a “Revenge of the Nerds”-style fantasy with the dorkiest kids in the intern program looking to triumph over the suck-uppy “cool” kids (led by Max Minghella, in a Magnificent Bastard role that is reminiscent of Bradley Cooper in “Crashers”).(Watch The Internship Online) It’s all incredibly familiar, made even worse by a couple of hateful cameos by Will Ferrell and Rob Riggle, playing the same loud, arrogant creeps they play in every movie.
(Download The Internship) When “The Internship” deviates from the script — which is to say when Vaughn and Wilson appear to be ad-libbing — the movie does muster up a couple of semi-decent chuckles. Anybody who babbles on as much as Vaughn does is sure to cough up one or two decent one-liners within the blathering.(Download The Internship Movie) But, even then, the laughs seem wrong because they usually make no sense within the context of the scene.
(Download The Internship) Maybe the film would have been funnier if Wilson and Vaughn weren’t restricted by the confines of the PG-13 rating (God bless comedies like “Wedding Crashers” and “Old School” that still have the cojones to go hard-R in this age of pandering to teenage moviegoers).(Watch The Internship Online) What we have, instead, is a moderately amusing movie that squanders its potential with lame jokes about Professor X and dated references to “Flashdance” and Quidditch.
If you love Vaughn and Wilson as much as I do, that’s all the more reason to take a pass on “The Internship.”
(Download The Internship) Part buddy comedy, part giant ad for Google, The Internship is a tepid story that tries so hard to re-team wedding crashers Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson while being earnest and wholesome.
(Download The Internship) Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are two brilliant salesmen and best buddies whose careers are outdated because of the digital age. After they've lost their jobs and ways of life,(Download The Internship Movie) Billy has a great idea? Why not change their careers to embrace the new world by becoming interns at one of the best technology companies in the world, Google?
(Download The Internship) By a stroke of luck and the sympathetic vote of Lyle (Josh Brener), a junior manager at Google, Billy and Nick successfully get into the summer internship program. But the competition is fierce; Billy and Nick feel immediately out of place among all the super-smart college students. Soon they team up with a group of "outliners" mentored by the kind and enthusiastic Lyle.
(Download The Internship) As their competitors and detractors such as the cocky Ivy-Leaguer Graham (Max Mingella), rigid Internship manager Mr. Chetty (Aasif Mandvi) or indifferent manager Dana (Rose Bryne) continue to dismiss them as losers, Billy and Nick must find their way to not only get assimilated the new technology world, but also teach these kids a few things about teamwork, self-esteem and being human.
(Download The Internship) Vince Vaughn (The Watch) and Owen Wilson (The Big Year) are a good team together. Not all of their movies worked -- the Wedding Crashers was a smash but Hall Pass was a mess. Here, they are somehow in the middle of the pack, thus in a way mediocre. They are engaging enough, but never really rise about their usual schticks.
(The Internship Download) Rose Bryne (The Place Beyond the Pines) looks smart enough to work for Google but sexy enough to be Wilson's love interest, but ultimately Bryne has nothing to do except being the latter.(The Internship Download) Aasif Mandvi (Premium Rush) has some fun playing a stiff corporate manager, but somehow I wonder how he ended up at Google? Max Mingella (The Social Network) twirls his proverbial mustache as the main villain but his portrayal of the bully is too over the top without any kind of humanity.
(Download The Internship) The teamsters fare much better. Josh Brener (The Big Bang Theory) is sweet and adorable as geek-master Lyle. Dylan O'Brien (The First Time) is affectingly aloof and guarded as Stuart. Tiya Sicar (The Domino Effect) is sexy and sweet as Neha. Tobit Raphael has one of the best roles in the movie as Yo-Yo Santos; we just want to give him a hug while laughing at him.
(Download The Internship) Vaughn and Jared Stern (Wreck-It Ralph) head the writing team. The script is a lukewarm hodgepodge of comical ideas that borrow heavily from other movies, including Vaughn's own. The buddy formula is familiar but a bit stale. The jokes also rely heavily on stereotypes and the inherit humor in the cultural difference between the tech-savvy young and the tech-phobic old.(The Internship Download) It is hard to believe that a bunch of 40-something men would be so out of touch -- what kind of men in their 40s don't have a smartphone or iPod, who still listen to mix tapes or make 80s pop references? Granted, Vaughn is trying to exaggerate the gap between his character and the "kids" but I think the parody is too extreme to be plausible.
(Download The Internship Movie) There are too many plot holes to mention as well. While I can take a leap of faith to believe that Google would actually accept them as interns, I just don't buy it that two seasoned salesmen can't find any job other than selling watches. Everywhere you turn there are sales forces,(The Internship Download) and clearly if they're as good as we're led to believe, they can find a sales job anywhere instead of taking an internship. Besides, since being an intern is unpaid, how are they making a living for the summer as we're led to believe both men lost everything. (The Internship Download)By pushing for the extremes for laughs,(Watch The Internship Online) the writers are also pushing for unbelievability.
(Download The Internship) Also, the construct of the story is as old-school as you can get, and the insistence of having a villain such as Graham cheapens the journey these men are taking to embrace the brave new world of technology. They really don't need this good vs. evil plot. Just to see them struggling through this brave new world would be amusing enough. And I kind of resist the notion that being a geek is boring and "missing out on life" and the only way one can learn to "live" is by partying and going to a strip club and getting drunk. What kind of message is that?
(Download The Internship) Granted,(The Internship Download) director Shawn Levy (Real Steel) has a breezy, friendly style that makes the movie enjoyable and engaging. The plot clips along just fine and the movie has enough chuckles to entertain. (Watch The Internship Online)As a comedy, though, The Internship is as mediocre as the lead characters are in life.
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