Film Review: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson Lack Brass in ‘The Internship’

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CHICAGO – Dang, dang, dang. C’mon, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, how about a little anarchy? “The Internship” is a perfectly nice little comedy about old dudes trying to break into the new world of Google employment. But this new world is just another empire, and nobody wants to topple it.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

The problem is that because the film uses the actual Google name, they couldn’t comment negatively on the product itself. The old school versus new, in a technology sense, would be ripe for a good old fashion take down, but instead it becomes a nice two hour commercial for the workplace of the search engine product. Apparently this is a utopia of the 9-5 grind, where a playground slide “awesomely” substitutes for a stairwell, and free food (yes, free food!) is the lifeblood of all that is holy, without any actual work being crushed, trapped in an airless cube. It seems that Google is big enough to take a bit more of a spanking, or couldn’t the screenwriters – which includes star Vince Vaughn – had made up their own search engine name (Gaggle?) and put in some old fashion butt kicking about the current tech society? This was a strange touchy-feely scenario created for the movie partnership of Vaughn and Wilson, who made their reputation by being the fly in the ointment, not the ointment itself.

Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are ace sales reps for a product – wristwatches, ha, ha – that no longer have a place in the modern market. They are summarily laid off from their jobs, and Billy’s house is put into foreclosure. After several days of Nick doing a wacky job (mattress store clerk), Billy suggests applying for an internship at the utopian main headquarters of Google. The company itself is “seeking diversity,” so with no tech qualifications at all, the forty-something duo are brought into the intern program.

But there is a catch. They have to qualify for a job by completing a series of challenges by teaming up with other interns, and since Billy and Nick are two non-techies, they end up with the less-than-cool kids, who are actually cool, but for movie purposes are not cool. This leads to a classic (or ripped off) snob vs. slob face-off, and as every movie fan knows, the snobs don’t have a chance. Oh yeah, and Nick hits on Dana (Rose Byrne), a Google executive.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Internship”

New Kids: Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) at Headquarters in ‘The Internship’ Photo credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Internship”