Guest Review from robhendy95: The Internship

RELEASED: June 2013
CERTIFICATE: 12A
DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy
CAST: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rose Byrne, Aasif Mandvi, Josh Brener.
PLOT: ‘Two salesman whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital age find their way into a coveted internship at Google, where they must compete with a group of young, tech-savvy geniuses for a shot at employment’.

‘Hiring them was a brilliant mistake’, an appropriate quote for Shawn Levy’s 2013 feature that see’s Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson re-united for the first time since The Wedding Crashers. Released last year it promised a light-hearted watch that would give viewers a delightful insight to one of cinema’s funniest and charming duos. Levy (Night at the Museum) is familiar with the genre but his input is almost totally absent as the film initially seems to spiral into a huge advert for the Microsoft firm. Despite this and more impressively, Vaughn and Wilson have an abundance of on-screen chemistry that prevails over the obvious pot-holes littering the narrative path that really lacks any twist and is formulaic at best. Often criticised for playing same old roles, the pair show their critics they still have what it takes to be genuinely funny.

The pair must move with the times and overcome their impending unemployment. Along with an amusing webcam interview the duo manage to seal a prestigious internship with search engine giants, Google; a relatable career goal for many viewers of this generation. Along the journey, Wilson (Nick) falls for stubborn Dana that develops into a predictable ‘hard-to-get’ scenario; whilst Vaughn (Billy) tries his best to keep heads above water. Inevitably Billy and Nick prevail against the odds and seal a job for Google, not too bad for two old guys.

Rose Byrne (Dana) is as delightful as ever but suffers from underwritten scenes and her appearance is bordering on near-cameo. Josh Brener is inevitability the conforming nerd stereotype that you’d expect with any-film that features the search engine giant, trying to fit in with the crowd and of course, ends up dating a stripper. However, there is an undeniable allure to this feature; it may be the completely magnetic appeal of seeing what goes on behind Google’s firmly shut doors and despite most of the scenes being a huge commercial nod towards the firm, you can’t help but admire how well the environment is captured. Nevertheless the credit must be placed firmly on the shoulders of the two leads who, at times are limited, but show just why they’ve been such favourites for feel-good features over the past decade.

Genuinely witty. The Internship, although a massive commercial nod towards the Microsoft firm, has moments of real charm and humour. Despite the storyline being predictable and generic there’s enough here to get you feeling lucky. Worth a watch.

Rental Verdict: 6.8/10.

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