Review of The Internship (2013) by Joanna B — 24 Oct 2016

When it comes to shameless product placement in filmmaking, I never thought anything would be more blatant than Tom Hank's feature length commercials of 1998's You've Got Mail for AOL and 2001's Castaway for Fed Ex, however somehow Google now seems to have taken the campaign throne, I do hope there product share doesn't disintegrate after the film's release as quickly as the aforementioned.

Cleverly marketed to target facebook addicted Y-gens who are attracted to the films plot and technological foundations as well as life savvy X-gens with its casting choice and comic sensibilities, The Internship attempts to capitalise on the sum of its disjointed parts as non-demanding escapist entertainment.

Deriving humour not only from its goofy yet infectiously witty leading men; Vince Vaughn (also one of the writers) and Owen Wilson, with their palpable camaraderie and out-dated 80's film references but the juxtaposition of modern societies disassociation with the 'real world' and 'old fashioned skills', things such as basic human interaction and communication come under a the proverbial microscope in a the cyber world where Googliness is holier than Godliness.

Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are gift-of-the-gab salesmen in the truest sense, employed to sell high end watches, their life experiences of wheeling and dealing bring new meaning to the term selling-ice-to-the-eskimos.

But when one of their favourite clients (not their boss) informs them that the digital revolution has seen their jobs go the way of the dinosaur, they are determined to prove their skills are not extinct just yet.

Getting "on-the-line" in a library, the duo exemplify old school but still manage to fast-talk their way into a coveted internship at San Francisco's fun park-cum-HQ Google, but gaining entrance into the child-like utopia is only the beginning.

Proving that necessity really is the mother of re-invention and their skills are worth just as much as book smarts, Billy and Nick mingle among a battalion of half-their-age ivy-league educated tech-savvy geniuses in hopes of securing two of five full-time positions that may offer a new career.

Their self-perception shattered from the get-go when relegated to the rejected 'left-overs' team; comprising of mama's boy Yo-Yo (Tobit Raphael), socially disinterested Stuart (Dylan O'Brien), life-experience lacking Neha (Tiya Sircar) and wanttabe cool dude instructor Lyle (Josh Brener), old dogs Billy and Nick learn new tricks whilst teaching team mates some old ones they would have simply missed in a life lived in cyberspace.

As in a lot of Vaughn's bromances, the themes of championing hope and self-belief is a driving plot force, add to that generation based culture clash and the idea of retribution for cocky brownnosers and you would assume a winning mix, but sadly it doesn't come together all that well. Padded thin and feeling all too much like hard comedic work, the trailer really does use up all the films best pieces to get you in leaving the full product lacking any extra texture, imagination or layers to really satisfy.

The verdict: There are some funny ideas and the concept is nothing short of perfect, but if people are looking down at smart technology no amount of pole dancers and red suspenders will grab their attention (perhaps one of the most apt scenes in describing the widening generation gap).

Published: The Queanbeyan Age.

Date of Publication: 28/06/2013.