Film Review: The Internship, 'Not Just A 90 Minute Google Advert'

Film review by Tom Hunt

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

The Internship

The Internship reunites Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson to see if they can recreate the same magic from their 2005 classic, Wedding Crashers. Sadly, the same chemistry isn't there, but it's not as bad as it sounds. So where did it lose it? Wedding Crashers is about two a**holes – who begin to change for the better – but two a**holes none the less. While it's unfair to compare The Internship with Wedding Crashers – it's going to happen. I say it's unfair because you can do a lot more with a**holes than you can do with nice guys – which is what Vaughn and Wilson play in The Internship. It's a good recipe for entertainment with their morals being in the wrong place in Wedding Crashers. A lot of the humour comes from the outrageous situations these friends have gotten themselves into, and the obscene lengths they'll go to to achieve their goal. The Internship is just about two guys who are down on their luck after losing their jobs, they're just nice guys out of their comfort zone. The humour is completely different, it's not full of quotes that'll be said for years to come between friends, but it's by no means a bad film like some reviews would have you believe.

The film follows a very standard plot, with no real surprises to come, but apart from being a 90 minute advert for Google (really though, who cares, Google are awesome anyway, it's no surprise), it's also about self-belief; when life knocks you down you get back up and if needs be, reinvent yourself. It's a nice film with a positive message. There's also something to be said about the way the world is going, how there's less human connection and more technology-reliant zombies (he wrote as he typed this up on his phone).

So, now the obvious is out of the way, let's get on with talking about The Internship. Filmed quite a lot at the Google HQ (playground?), as if to make us insanely jealous that offices aren't all like that, the film follows Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) jumping into the deep end of an Internship at Google - a job they know nothing about - after being made redundant. They get put in a team of misfits/outcasts/the left overs made up of Lyle (Josh Brener), Neha (Tiya Sircar), Stuart (Dylan O'Brien) and Yo-Yo (Tobit Raphael), and it's up to the men who know the least about technology but the most about human connection, to bring the team together, all the while being watched intently by the head of the intern programme Mr Chetty (Aasif Mandvi), who should really have more cat and mouse scenes with Vince Vaughn's Billy, as the two seem to have excellent chemistry - a trick missed perhaps. Add in a bit of a nothing romance with Nick and Dana (Rose Bryne - who's talent is sadly wasted in this film) and some cameos from Googlees and we round off the film quite well.

It probably won't win any awards, and there's been funnier films out this year, but The Internship is worth a trip to the cinema for an enjoyable 90 minutes.

The Internship falls just short, as Vince Vaughn seems to be toned down and Owen Wilson not seeming as sharp.