Review - The Internship (2013)

Starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Dylan O'Brien.
Directed by Shawn Levy.

Synopsis: Two recently laid-off men in their 40s try to make it as interns at a successful Internet company where their managers are in their 20s.

I expected The Internship to suck but I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. The poor reviews and lame trailer didn't help its case at first but I decided to give it a watch anyways. What I got was a fair amount of laughs from a likable cast in a predictable storyline but at no point did I find myself cringing or what not.

If you have watched college films, The Internship is really not much different in terms of characterizations and premise. The only difference is, instead of a college setting, this movie takes place at the Google headquarter. Here we meet the super cool nerds, and then we meet the not so super cool nerds and at some point they clash. The not so super cool nerdy crew is spearheaded by Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson). Both men vie for a spot in the organization while facing stiff competition along the way. We have seen this storyline a million times before in other movies but in this case, Google decides to step in and for two hours, we are also reminded of how awesome, useful and innovative they are. Yes The Internship is practically an extended Google advertisement.

At first I was annoyed by Vince Vaughn's character but as the movie went on, he sort of levelled out, thankfully), and he and Owen made a great duo. What drives this movie is the chemistry between the characters, especially between Nick, Billy and their crew. The cast was solid; Owen and Vince provided much of the humor and they did a solid job in being the odd men out as well. As I said, I expected this movie to suck but you could really tell they put some actual effort into it. As in, the acting did not suck and it didn't try to force its humor down my throat. Yeah there are a few corny moments here and there but not to a point where it affected my enjoyment of this movie. Usually comedies of this nature are like 90 minutes long, but the film's 2hour runtime was not an issue because I was thoroughly entertained. The Internship isn't the funniest movie of the year but I had fun watching it.

Rating: 7/10