Les stagiaires

Hello all and once again it's Robbie K reporting in with another movie. This time I'm coming at you with the Internship, the latest comedy starring that dynamic duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, who entertained us with Wedding Crashers. Well it seems eight years later the team who helped make that fun comedy have returned to make what many are calling a remake/ knock off of the "romantic" comedy. Is it true, or is there more to this movie than meets the eye? Please read on to hear my opinions.

I'll agree that there are many similarities to the plot of Wedding Crashers. The two smooth talkers seem to be living the dream, until something happens to derail their train and send them on a new path that is for the better. Instead of banging babes and finding true love though, this time it's more about taking a chance and bridging a gap between generations all the while addressing the trials within. This is where one of my strengths of this movie comes in, the relevance of the plot to me. The Internship addresses big problems that faces many today, the security and safety of a job and the challenge that our culture has become. Being a student currently going through similar trials, I found the production team did a good job showing the various struggles that the younger generation faces, and their accompanying Impressing parents, cynical approaches to problems, the substitution of technology for life, and many more issues are all well integrated into this movie to drive the point across. Lucky for the audience it's not done in too cheesy a manner that it makes you think it's an 80's/90's sitcom. Something else I liked was the fact that all of the characters in their intern group had a problem, which allowed for yes you guessed it BALANCE, which we all know I like. Of course it's not just solely a bunch of smart college kids pulling miracles out of the air, and complaining about their problems. No Vaughn and Wilson's characters have their own problems that they had to face as they get integrated into a new world that the younger generation seems to run. Now we've seen these problems before I won't lie, but there is some fresh chemistry between the older generation and newer generation that shows off a dual teacher-student relationship.

With limited space let's move on to the comedy. The Internship switches gears from odd/awkward sex scenarios that floods the dialog and bounces into the land of stereotypical nerds, generation gaps, and new experiences that go a different route. For me this allowed for some balance in humor, with many of the "inspirational" speeches and geek events making me laugh at points through the movie. Character references from star wars, insults using computer vernacular, and dressing up as literature with some pizazz await those who go to this movie, so be ready for this humor. I like the diversity, and some of the creativity these guys did, but from the responses of the other audience members that wasn't the same case. Don't worry though they still laughed, but more so on the sexual situations that still appear a good number of times. As for the older generation, the team also digs up some references from the previous decades, which although were sometimes over my head, still entertained the audience and me at points. However, this could have been due to the delivery of the lines and acting that went with it.

This brings me to my next point, the acting. Like Wedding Crashers Vaughn and Wilson are the same duo that entertained us years ago, delivering their lines in the same manner as they did back then. Vaughn delivers his lines at a rapid pace in a jumbled, hyper mess that has random words flying through the air. Wilson joins him in the stamped of words, but then brought sarcasm to the table to retaliate some of the quips thrown at him. Not one to be backed down, Vaughn would come right back with his spin on sarcastic dialog and usually throw in his natural, goofy face that brought the finishing punch to the humor. However, this is what these guys almost always do in their comedies, which means that if you are tired of this chemistry then you probably don't want to see this movie, because you might get annoyed with the brotherhood these two share. Yet there are other props due to some of the other cast members. The lovely Rose Byrne is a combination of beauty and good acting as she adds an Australian accent into mix and plays more of the love story part, yet her character is a step down from her previous parts. Josh Brener, the phone commercial guy, had a fun character as well, being the classic and hopeful nerd with a goal that seems impossible. As for the "bad" guy of this movie, Max Minghella did a nice job adding some British edge to the villain, but for the most part it was the same character with more bite and computer skills, than political bark. The rest of the group is fine, each doing a good job at the role they are playing and looking the part in every scene.

The Internship is a fun summer movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. While it is definitely not the most original movie, there are plenty of jokes to keep you laughing and having fun, no matter what generation you are from. However, there are a lot of similarities, primarily the acting, that this movie has and I will say is a somewhat knock off of Wedding Crashers. If you are looking for a fun group movie or just some mindless fun, well consider this film; otherwise wait for Redbox for this film. Scores: Comedy: 6-6.5 Movie Overall: 5.0-6.0

A comedy about two 70s born middle aged guys who recently lost their job due to the new culture called e-shopping. It tells how the old fellows struggling to get the jobs in todays computer world. After forced to retire from their positions as salesmen, Bill and Nick applies for an internship at Google. Now these two have to compete with the energetic, smart, young generation seeking employment who are just coming from their college graduation. With the lack of computer knowledge Bill and Nick have to successfully complete the series of tasks to get the jobs.

Kinda cool comedy from the director who gave us many fine comedy features. It was a good combo between Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, they were excelling in their respective roles. The lack of required knowledge in order to get the full employment at google make us to have fond on them. They really convinced us with their acting as innocence and middle aged strugglers. We can call it where the job hunting movie 'The Pursuit of Happiness' meets fun teen 'American Pie'.

It was a good comedy as well serious about getting jobs for old guys. I know it was not real, It won't happen in real life but a heartwarming drama with some good laughs. After 'The Social Network' and 'jOBS' we expected a movie about google and now here it is. Although it was not based on real but a fictional dramedy which can be thoroughly enjoyable.

7.5/10

This is a formula "back to school" type of comedy with lots of product placement and two aging stars going through the motions. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play the same roles they've played for most of the last decade -- themselves. If you are a big fan of them you can add a point or two to my score because they're the whole show here. The rest of the cast is made up of mostly unknowns playing various stereotypes that are familiar to anybody who has seen a high school or college comedy. They do fine and there are no standouts, good or bad, among them. John Goodman appears in a thankless supporting role. Will Ferrell does one of his usual cameos he does in the movies of his friends. He's worth a chuckle or two. Like I said, the movie is formulaic and predictable but it has a very pleasant upbeat tone throughout and quite a few amusing moments but nothing that will have you bowled over in laughter. There's a ton of product placement for Google. Literally the whole movie. So if that sort of thing bothers you, you might want to skip this one and save yourself the righteous indignation.

The Internship (2013)

** (out of 4)

Forty-something friends Billy and Nick (Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson) are out of a job when their company closes. Fearing they have nowhere else to go, they eventually try to get on at Google but first they must go through an internship. THE INTERNSHIP starts off incredibly annoying, grows more annoying but finally towards the last thirty-minutes it picks up but sadly it's way too late to make the thing worth sitting through. I must say that I was really shocked at how unfunny the picture was and it's almost like they didn't have a screenplay to work with. I say this because it really did seem like the director just yelled action and then let Vaughn and Wilson do whatever they wanted. It really does seem as if the two actors are just given the okay to do whatever and this usually includes being annoying and acting "old" and "out of date" with current times. Just take a look at the job interview, which is done through the computer. A lot of comedies are forceful in trying to make you laugh but this thing here pretty much hits you over the head, knocks you out and then drags you into a torture chamber where it begs and pleads with you to laugh. The forcing of the jokes is just tiresome and it's actually pretty boring. I'd say that the majority of the laughs are real duds and only towards the end does the film start to pick up. There's a funny sequence inside a strip joint and there are a couple funny scenes towards the end but the majority of the time the jokes are just flat. As for Vaughn and Wilson, I guess both are just so likable that even when they're in a bad movie you can't help but like them. There's a joke in the film about who would you rather sit at a bar with and the Vaughn and Wilson characters are mentioned. I feel the same way meaning if you have to sit through a bad comedy then perhaps it's best to do so with these two actors. The supporting players are also pretty good but sadly they're just not given anything to do. THE INTERNSHIP has a rather weak idea and does nothing with it.

With Bathroom Humor Comedies (Adam Sandler movies, The Hangover, etc) and RomComs being the usual comedic fair at the box office these days, it's refreshing to find a comedy that stands outside of that tiresome trend.

The Internship was a cute movie that certainly has its chuckles. Google is actually a very odd work environment, and the movie makes good points about the depressed state of our modern employment climate for young and old alike. I think the movie tried a little TOO hard to polarize a traditional salesman with the high tech digital age, and some of the Vince Vaughn joke sequences seemed to get a bit tedious. But he played it so seriously that the overall effect was still amusing.

The Vaughn / Wilson pair were VERY sufficiently embarrassing with their overzealous attempts at being team players in projects they didn't understand, and as I have worked deep in the internet business since 1996 I cringed harder than the Google interns who tried to cope with them. I was already a Director level manager in the internet when Google was just being founded, so I've watched the company grow from the ground up, and eventually sponge up the mega-companies that produced my primary worktools (such as Doubleclick). Having been interviewed for management level jobs at Google I can vouch that they can crawl up your ying-yang about your academic record, even if it's from the 80's and you have over a decade of real quality experience to replace it. I've been interviewed by Facebook, Yahoo and Amazon too, and only Facebook can take after Google in this way. It creates the perception of being the Mensa Society of the digital world - pretentious, exclusive, and only for IQ's higher than 170.

That is not really the case, strictly speaking, but there is a culture there of self-importance that the movie bounced our heroes off of, and it worked for some laughs.

All in all it was an enjoyable matinée break, but I probably won't be getting it on Blu-ray.