Review: The Internship

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play a couple of salesmen whose failure to adapt to the digital age sees them out of work in their mid-40s, no less. Somehow they get it into their heads to apply for an internship at Google, despite not having much of a clue about computers or the internet. After miraculously bluffing their way through a Skype interview, they venture to Google HQ where things are decided via team-based challenges somewhere in between “Harry Potter” and “Revenge of the Nerds”. The winning team get the jobs. Being that they are two old farts who are way beyond out of touch (they don’t even understand “X-Men” references, rather improbably), Vaughn and Wilson get stuck in the leftovers/misfits team, and frequently mocked by snooty rival Max Minghella, as well as the head of the internship program (Aasif Mandvi). Meanwhile, Wilson tries to strike up a relationship with pretty but workaholic Google employee Rose Byrne (who, like Brit Minghella is allowed to keep her natural Australian accent). Josh Brener plays the nerdy Google employee assigned to help the misfit team, whilst Josh Gad (as a somewhat mysteriously silent Google employee), Will Ferrell (as the neck-tattooed mattress salesman boyfriend of Wilson’s sister), and John Goodman (as their former boss) have small roles.

 

The “Wedding Crashers” strike out with this lazy, largely unfunny 2013 comedy from director Shawn Levy (the disappointing “Date Night” and likeable “Night at the Museum” flicks) and writers Vince Vaughn and Jared Stern. The fact that Mr. Stern previously worked on Vaughn’s awful and astoundingly lazy “The Watch” is of no surprise to me. Even comedies need to have some kind of reality to them, even if it’s confined to an internal logic. But this film is just stupid, and makes everyone involved seem really out of touch. That said, I learned in this film that everyone tells the time by their phones now, so I’m even more out of touch than anyone here, being that I wear a watch and don’t own a mobile phone. There’s a cute gag here as our protagonists are fired from their watch salesman gig because no one wears watches anymore. They are given watches as presents on their way out, which is far more ironic than anything in the un-ironic Alanis Morrisette song that a very desperate and unfunny Vaughn opens the film singing.

 

But humorous moments are a rare breed here in a film where Vince Vaughn plays Vince Vaughn far past the point of my interest or patience. I’m sick to death of his speed-talking, ad-libbing crap. It was funny in “Dodgeball” and “Wedding Crashers”, but it’s past the time to do something different, Vince. We know you can do it, you showed that in “The Locusts”. His verbal diarrhoea rants seem less improvised than in “The Watch”, but insanely annoying just the same. Nerdy Josh Brener proves even more insufferably annoying than Vaughn if that’s at all possible. Meanwhile, Will Ferrell turns up with a neck tattoo and a douche goatee. I think this is meant to be funny in and of itself, but it’s not an actual joke. That would require effort, and no one here knows what that word means.

 

As I said, this film just doesn’t convince, even on the level of a comedy. The idea of two old farts who know nothing about computers and modern technology and don’t bother to educate themselves before applying for an internship at Google isn’t funny because it isn’t remotely plausible. And I refuse to believe that Google employees would play Quidditch. That’s stupid and somewhat insulting, to be honest. And don’t even get me started on Google having their own tech support, and hiring non-Indians for said tech support. Uh-huh. I also feel sorry for poor Max Minghella, having gone from “The Social Network” to this in just a few short years. Wow. He does make for an acceptably smug villain, however.

 

Aside from a dead-on vocal impersonation of Patrick Stewart (don’t ask), and an amusing performance by the dry Aasif Mandvi, this is a mostly unfunny, and extremely irritating film. Everyone just babbles on and on to both tedium and aggravation, aside from maybe Rose Byrne who gets to keep her accent and looks absolutely stunning in a dull role.

 

The rambling monologues just became too much for me after a short while. I hated this film. Not every film has to be realistic, but comedy or not, this is a film involving Google, a real company…that Vince Vaughn and his cronies uses as the backdrop to their tired old shtick that is really wearing thin now. Oh, and the plot is a rip-off of “Monsters University” as well, so there’s that. 

 

Rating: D+