It’s a fantastic excuse for large-scale product placement when Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) sign up for an internship with Google. After they’re rendered obsolete in their jobs as watch salesmen, they find themselves in competition for guaranteed employment at the end of the summer. But although they’re in the Shangri-La of search engine companies, they’ll have to prove their worth in a series of competitions to get to the top.
It’s implausible, to say the least. Don’t worry, seeing the movie doesn’t make this plot seem any more believable or less predictable than the premise sounds. It’s basically what you’d expect from a Vaughn and Wilson comedy, set to the backdrop of the funhouse Google headquarters and toned down for a PG-13 rating.
“The Internship” is certainly funny; it’s the same wacky friendship dynamic Vaughn and Wilson brought to “Wedding Crashers” back in the day but a bit more tailored to a workplace. The film relies on their banter to bring the fun and to unite their team of eclectic nerds, and they deliver what you’d expect — and so do the band of techies.
Their team, which consists of whiz kids who just want the dinosaurs to stop blocking their path to success, manages a number of solid subplots for the movie, and each gets their own moment to shine. It’s hard to not fall in love with a lovable band of coding misfits that bond over a game of Quidditch.
Their Google overlords are also well cast, led by Aasif Mandvi as the boss who refuses to warm up to the duo’s charms, and rounded out by Josh Brener as the nerdy manager with some heart.
When it comes to bro movies like “The Internship,” the dynamic between the actors is everything. These types of movies rely on innovative humor over innovative plot devices, and it falls on the players to give the film relatability. Here, the actors bring some life to what is otherwise a fairly uninspired comedy. It’s clear from the get-go what’s going to happen, but it’s nice to have some laughs along the way.
Though it’s not the funniest comedy of all time (nor is it the funniest from Vaughn or Wilson), it manages to deliver on the laughs and wields a multitude of characters stronger than most films of this genre. For all the constant predictability and occasional hokiness in “The Internship,” it does manage a few scenes of realism, particularly in regard to the job market and what it means these days for young people.
It’s tough to say this movie is a failure, but against the quirky backdrop of the Google offices, there’s a sense that if “The Internship” had more ambition, it could be a well-crafted satire or even just a hilarious and raunchy comedy. It may be one of the better comedies of 2013 so far, but here’s hoping that we’re still just paying our dues.
The verdict: It’s a toned down “Wedding Crashers” but with computers and topical job market references.
Pulp Diction 