The Internship - Movie review

Earning over $30 million in profit, this $58-million dollar comedy film from director Shawn Levy reunited the Wedding Crashers duo for more raunchy hi-jinks when it premiered on June 7th of 2013. This time around, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are unemployed middle-aged salesmen who seek out redemption, and an opportunity for a new job, by competing in a series of bizarre games for an internship at Google. Playing in roles identical to every other movie they've ever done, Wilson is once again featured as the southern charmer with a crooked nose, alongside Vaughn as the fast-talking hell-raiser, who brags about his own remarkable sales abilities, "I'm pretty terrific on the phones. I could sell prosciutto to a rabbi. And I have." While this PG-13-rated picture often feels like a shameless advertorial for the giant multinational internet-services corporation, and its unique employee-selection process, it does so with enough earnest enthusiasm and charm that I generally didn't mind. I can't help but reference The Onion's humorous take on the film, the satirical news organization jokingly predicted this film would was "Poised To Be Biggest Comedy Of 2005". And that about summarizes my issues with this film in a nutshell: nothing here is inherently bad, uninteresting, or even boring... it's just so all so old and familiar, feeling like a piece of summer fluff from eight years ago. These two guys make an incredible pair on-screen... able to effortlessly bounce off one another in many of the seemingly improvised scenes, but they feel like a couple of Dad's crashing their daughter's sleepover party; awkward and out of place. That said, some of the unsubtle jokes are still decently funny, and the characters are fun to root for. Speaking of which, the large cast features performances from Rose Byrne, Josh Brener, John Goodman, Max Minghella, Aasif Mandvi, Rob Riggle, and a short cameo by Will Ferrell -- who all do a redeemable job with the hackneyed, and stale material, which includes frequent and irreverent references to the movie "Flashdance". I almost never comment on a film's titles or credits, but the cast and crew are listed with a very inventive internet-inspired sequence that is honestly the only impressive part about the entire movie; which is so predictable, you could time a watch to it. The contemporary pop-soundtrack, occasionally used a punchline, is effective at moving along the slowly-paced 119-minute film. Visually and thematically unchallenging, but still enjoyable for a few laughs, this might be worth a watch on home media, but I have little desire to see it again myself. "The Internship", "Marginally satisfying, if unashamedly trite." Now let's hear what you had to say in the YouTube comments. Our scores now for "The Internship", a SIX and a FIVE. Some of you were comfortable dismissing the obvious faults here, while still admitting this filmhardly special... you thought it was GOOD. Like a piece of stale bread... this movie will still satisfy an empty stomach... it just isn't that appetizing. I thought it was ALRIGHT.