Review of The Internship (2013) by Moviemikereview — 06 Jun 2013

The Internship rejoins comedy giants Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson for the first time since 2005’s surprisingly successful film, “Wedding Crashers,” which grossed upwards of $200 million domestically. Unfortunately, The Internship falls short of the duo’s previous film, largely in part to the film’s PG-13 rating and its exceptionally predictable script.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play Billy and Nick, two aging salesmen who lose their jobs as reps for a watch manufacturing company when their boss (John Goodman) shuts down the company as he perceives watches becoming obsolete in a world dominated by technology where people would rather check the time on their smartphones. To make matters worse, Billy’s girlfriend walks out on him because she has had enough of Billy “talking a big game” and Nick is reduced to working for his sister’s uncouth husband (an uncredited Will Ferrell) as a mattress salesman.

Billy constructs a master plan to get the two out of their rut by enrolling in classes at the University of Phoenix, the Harvard of online schools, and applying for an internship at Google. Never mind that the two applying to Google is comparable to taking floaties off of a toddler and asking him to swim the English Channel. Despite Billy and Nick’s obvious lack of any technical qualifications, illustrated in a webcam interview that shows the two talking excessively loud and squeezing together like sardines in a can to fit within the webcam’s field of view, the two miraculously land the internship.

Billy and Nick arrive at Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley and are thrust into a world full of tech-savvy super nerds like fish out of water. Google’s internship director (Aasif Mandvi) tells the group of new Google interns, aptly named noogles, to separate into groups as the groups would compete in several competitions for a limited number of guaranteed full-time positions at Google. Used to a life of being chosen first in athletics, Nick and Billy are surprised to find themselves without a team. They join the leftovers led by the overenthusiastic junior Google mentor, Lyle (Josh Brener). Other group members include the cynical Stuart (Dylan O’Brien), the obvious Asian stereotype afraid of his mother, Yo-Yo Santos, (Tobit Raphael), and the token female, Neha (Tiya Sircar).

The leftovers are pitted against a group who, despite also being Google-caliber geniuses, seem to be several rungs above on the social ladder. The group is led by the smooth yet pompous Brit, Graham (Max Minghella). While at first being less than useful to the group, Nick and Billy’s limitation turn into assets as they help the kids break out of their shells and bring real-world experiences and people skills to compliment the other team member’s computer smarts. The transformation of the characters and the challenges offer some genuinely heart-felt moments and a smattering of laughs, but the outcome of the competition is never seriously in question.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are excellent, adding their signature fast-paced back-and-forth banter as they feed of each other in a manner similar to their performance in “Wedding Crashers.” The rest of the acting core is fairly solid as well, including Rose Byrne, who plays Dana, a work-obsessed Google employee and romantic interest of Nick. Unfortunately the great majority of the actors are limited in their roles by the rather one-dimensional characters created by writers Vince Vaughn and Jared Stern. Although the film has its share of laughs and a refreshingly optimistic take on life, it plays more as a tiresomely-long Google commercial rather than live up to its comedic potential.