द इंटर्नशिप

Typical comedy following the usual format so it's very predictable. Maybe I enjoyed it more than I should and gave it one star too many because I work in the tech industry and live in San Francisco. If you want a better, more realistic comedic take on the tech world though the show Silicon Valley is a lot better overall.

Let me preface this by saying I love Vince Vaughn. Its impossible for me to watch any of his comedies without laughing, and I think he's nothing short of a brilliant comic actor. That's why it pains me to write this review.

This movie has funny parts. Nothing that will make you lose control of your bladder, and despite what some people have been writing, this AIN'T no Wedding Crashers. This movie is more like an e mail you got 4 years ago that was hilarious, and someone sent it to you again. You forgot about it, opened it, and remembered how funny it was, but no joke is as funny the second time around. Big lack of originality here and Will Ferrel's character was not remotely funny. Unlike Wedding Crashers "Chaz" this character was more like the Starsky and Hutch cameo. Wasn't impressed with that, wasn't impressed with this.

When you get the same group of actors together for ANOTHER comedy, you better have some seriously different writing. This movie badly needs some situational / physical comedy. Charles Xavier and the antagonist punching people is weak and lazy writing.

There was one Mr. Bean quality situational comic scene in the movie that was brilliant featuring one of the supporting interns at a strip club, and you'll instantly recognize it when you see it. Other than that it relies heavily on jokes in dialog - which aren't bad. They are witty, and Vaugh's delivery is great. It's just that I feel like I've been there and done that. Wilson's love interest felt totally scripted to me - I'm not buying any of that, not for a dime. Waaay too rushed into instant love - kind of like, but even worse than, Wedding Crashers.

If you choose to see this in the theater, go to a matinée. It isn't worth full price. I'd definitely watch it once it hits RedBox or Netflix. Well worth a couple bucks - $30+ at a theater, not so much.

I never know what to think of viewer reviews of a film. It SHOULD be that the viewers, the actual audience, are the REAL people, the average person on the street who's opinion SHOULD coincide much more closely to my own than some faceless Professional Critic. But on IMDb that doesn't seem to be the case. I never believe the hype, whether it's a movie or a CD or some book like 50 shades of gray. I wait until the hoopla dies down and then I go see for myself - or not. In the same way I usually skip to the middle of the pile of user reviews. That's where the truth is. That's where the REAL people are. But who the heck are these other people? Are they paid by the studio to post rave reviews with their FUNNIEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR and all that? Maybe it has something to do with taste. I guess, for example, if you had only tasted mud pies all your life you might develop an acquired taste for mud pies. In that case you'd be the expert - what do I know about mud pies? Also, in all fairness, comedy IS subjective. What's funny to you might strike me as stupid. For example, if you think ANYTHING from Will Ferrell is funny, well...then, I guess we won't have a lot in common, will we? I guess the only thing to do is to keep skipping the hype, to wait out the storm and the crowds, to listen to ALL the reviews and make an informed decision as to whether or not a movie is for me. As for you, if you think Johnny Depp will make a convincing Tonto, if you think Will Ferrell IS actually funny, if you think Nicolas Cage is actually an actor and is not just pretending to be, then go for it. I think I'll skip this one.

This is a formula "back to school" type of comedy with lots of product placement and two aging stars going through the motions. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play the same roles they've played for most of the last decade -- themselves. If you are a big fan of them you can add a point or two to my score because they're the whole show here. The rest of the cast is made up of mostly unknowns playing various stereotypes that are familiar to anybody who has seen a high school or college comedy. They do fine and there are no standouts, good or bad, among them. John Goodman appears in a thankless supporting role. Will Ferrell does one of his usual cameos he does in the movies of his friends. He's worth a chuckle or two. Like I said, the movie is formulaic and predictable but it has a very pleasant upbeat tone throughout and quite a few amusing moments but nothing that will have you bowled over in laughter. There's a ton of product placement for Google. Literally the whole movie. So if that sort of thing bothers you, you might want to skip this one and save yourself the righteous indignation.

With Bathroom Humor Comedies (Adam Sandler movies, The Hangover, etc) and RomComs being the usual comedic fair at the box office these days, it's refreshing to find a comedy that stands outside of that tiresome trend.

The Internship was a cute movie that certainly has its chuckles. Google is actually a very odd work environment, and the movie makes good points about the depressed state of our modern employment climate for young and old alike. I think the movie tried a little TOO hard to polarize a traditional salesman with the high tech digital age, and some of the Vince Vaughn joke sequences seemed to get a bit tedious. But he played it so seriously that the overall effect was still amusing.

The Vaughn / Wilson pair were VERY sufficiently embarrassing with their overzealous attempts at being team players in projects they didn't understand, and as I have worked deep in the internet business since 1996 I cringed harder than the Google interns who tried to cope with them. I was already a Director level manager in the internet when Google was just being founded, so I've watched the company grow from the ground up, and eventually sponge up the mega-companies that produced my primary worktools (such as Doubleclick). Having been interviewed for management level jobs at Google I can vouch that they can crawl up your ying-yang about your academic record, even if it's from the 80's and you have over a decade of real quality experience to replace it. I've been interviewed by Facebook, Yahoo and Amazon too, and only Facebook can take after Google in this way. It creates the perception of being the Mensa Society of the digital world - pretentious, exclusive, and only for IQ's higher than 170.

That is not really the case, strictly speaking, but there is a culture there of self-importance that the movie bounced our heroes off of, and it worked for some laughs.

All in all it was an enjoyable matinée break, but I probably won't be getting it on Blu-ray.