"The Internship" Review

                Opening two weeks ago was Shawn Levy’s latest (attempt at) comedy, “The Internship.”  With a brilliant premise and the dynamic duo of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, you would think that the film is foolproof.  You would be wrong.  The director of “Date Night” and the “Night at the Museum” films has failed to make “The Internship” worth seeing. 

                A set of salesmen who feel past their prime lose their job, and contemplate if their careers will ever pick up again.  Billy McMahon and Nick Campbell (Vaughn and Wilson) search for an opportunity to get them back in the work field.  They land an interview for Google, and once they are voted in they are given the opportunity to compete for a highly-coveted internship.  Throughout the remainder of the films, Campbell and McMahon experience the trials and tribulations of competing against technologically-geared college kids.  With highs and lows along the way, they figure out where their skillset can truly be utilized and work their way back up into the world. 

I particularly loved the movie “Wedding Crashers;” it’s in my top ten of best comedies.  Vaughn and Wilson balanced out each other perfectly, as not a line between them was wasted.  However, in “The Internship” some of their attempts at humour were failures.  I would even say at a couple points their roles were more obnoxious than funny.  I found it hard to identify with them and felt little sympathy for them.  At certain moments, I even rooted against them. 

The band of misfits they collaborate with throughout the film seem to work well, cast-wise and as far as their performance is concerned.  The lack of chemistry however made little room for sympathizing with their situation at hand. 

The plot line to the movie was a very interesting concept.  How would it work if college kids competing for internships at Google had a couple of salesmen about twenty years older than them in the mix? A clashing of mentalities and ways of life, and an eventual harmony between the age gap would be the result.  In “The Internship,” it was difficult for that to fully develop.  Maybe it did, but it was hard to notice as I found the soundtrack very distracting and took away from most of the movie.

What really bothered me about “The Internship” was the fact that in the middle of the movie, there was a ten minute interlude where McMahon and Campbell took their fellow Google team members out to a California night club.  It was very out of place, and little of it made a difference to advance the plot.  I could understand a short two-minute clip that gets its purpose across and moves onto the next scene, but dragging it out took away from what the premise was there to suggest. 

Overall, I was very disappointed.  Watching the trailer will give you as much comic relief as though you watched the entire movie.  If you are looking for a laugh-out-loud summer flick, I’m sure you can Google “good summer films” and “The Internship” won’t be anywhere within sight.