The most overlooked movie of 2013 may have been Shawn Levy’s (Date Night, Night at the Museum) The Internship. The film reunited Vince Vaughn (Dodgeball, Old School) and Owen Wilson (Hall Pass, Midnight in Paris) for the first time since 2005’s box office mega-hit Wedding Crashers. Fans had been asking for the two to reunite for a movie. Many were calling for a Wedding Crashers 2. It was one of those scenarios where no matter what the pair decided to do, it was destined for failure because it would not be able to live up to the hype. In a way, it’s as if The Internship never got its fair chance, and I include putting myself in that lump sum. I remember when I first saw the trailer for the movie. I was utterly disappointed at the end of the trailer when I saw that the film was only PG-13. I was ready for some R-rated comedy between the duo. I wanted it to be as raunchy as Wedding Crashers. Unless the reviews for the movie were incredible, I knew I was unlikely to see the film in the theater, if at all, because of a rating that I deemed unacceptable for a Vaughn/Wilson comedy. However, I did decide to give it a go when it came on HBO, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a comic gem.
Billy (Vaughn) and Nick (Wilson) are watch salesmen whose company (run by John Goodman – Flight, Argo) has closed because, as Sam (Goodman) says, “Nobody buys watches anymore. They just look at their cell phones to find out the time.” Forty-five years old, freshly unemployed, and depressed, Billy and Nick each wonder what is next for them. Nick works for his sister’s boyfriend Kevin (Will Ferrell – The Other Guys, The Campaign) in a mattress store while Billy searches for jobs on Google. Finally, Billy locates an internship program at, of all places, Google. Though it seems impractical to Nick, he is able to lure his best friend to a video interview with the intern coordinators at Google. The guys somehow manage to pass the video interview and get flown out to Google’s headquarters in California to be part of the summer Internship program. After they are at first mistaken for company executives by the other interns in the program, they are quickly dismissed as nobodies. They want to succeed in their internship as much as their young 20-something counterparts, but they are outmatched in every sense of the word, especially when it comes to online technology, the whole existence of Google. I won’t go into the specifics of how Nick and Billy make fools out of themselves. Still, multiple instances and timely references to today’s technological advancements make the duo look like dinosaurs. Nonetheless, they both were successful salesmen and use this to their advantage in trying to use their persuasion techniques to win others over.
So the internship program’s goal is for the interns to form teams of five. They are then given challenges throughout their time on campus, and point values are awarded based on how well they do against the other teams. The winning team is guaranteed jobs at Google a year later (after their senior year in college). Did I mention that Billy enrolled him and Nick at the University of Phoenix’s online school (one of many timely culture references perfectly incorporated in this movie)? Billy and Nick don’t make a positive impression on anyone in their first couple of days, and nobody wants them on their team. As a result, they find themselves on a team with three other people who are unwanted as well. It’s not quite the dream team, but they know they have to do their best to make it work. The challenges are funny and demonstrate that Billy and Nick are way over their heads. However, they are passionate about wanting to succeed. This results in some flat-out hilarious scenes.
Like many excellent comedies, the story has just enough sentimental parts. These, of course, help tie everything together as a movie rather than just a bunch of funny clips or scenes. First, there is the life mentoring that Billy and Nick provide the others on the team. The “don’t judge a book by its cover” theme shows that just because Billy and Nick are old, it doesn’t mean that they are completely obsolete. Finally, there is a small love interest for Nick in Dana (Rose Byrne – Bridesmaids, Insidious) that is just sweet enough to be not mushy and certainly doesn’t take away, or at the same time, really add to the storyline.
If you are skeptical about this movie, I recommend giving it a chance. You might not like it as much as I did, but you could do far, far worse.
Plot 9/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 10/10
Acting 9.5/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 8.5/10 (Google’s headquarters is pretty cool)
Sound 7.5/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 9/10
88%
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie
- Office Space
- The Intern
- Wedding Crashers
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Horrible Bosses