Movie Reaction: The Internship

Formula: The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest + Google sponsorship

Why I Saw It: I wanted context for the [unfavorable] reviews I'd been reading and Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are always fun to watch playing off one another.

Cast: Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn together can go one of two ways: charming and affable or jabbering and exhausting. Sadly, this falls into the latter category. They might actually be fish too far out of water for this one. I like Josh Brener's nervous guy thing he has going on but it's a little too much in this case. Regardless of how effective her character was, it was so refreshing to hear her real accent. Max Minghella, Tiya Sircar, and Tobit Raphael, sadly were interchangeable parts, although I'm not sure the fault is totally theirs. Max Minghella is a really one dimensional villain. Aasif Mandvi plays soft of like his participation in the film is all part of one big Daily Show sketch that has yet to be revealed to us.

Plot: A rag tag group of rejects interns saves the day gets the jobs. That's it. This is a movie without a home. PG-13 is a total compromise. You know that feeling when you are in a group of small children that makes you want to start yelling "fuck" over and over again (It can't just be me, right?). That's what this movie is. It's a PG movie that wants to be vulgar but doesn't know how. The plotting, story points, conflicts, character development, inspiration speeches all scream "Family Feature", which is fine. I'm not sure I need Wilson and Vaughn on board for the movie, but whatever. The situations, dialogue, and stars lead me the think it wanted to be something edgier, hit some jokes that they couldn't with the PG-13 rating. Then, of course, there's the fact that this movie was written thinking it was 2003, not 2013. There's no excuse for that. I simply cannot believe that Wilson and Vaughn's characters know as little about technology as this movie needs me to believe.

Elephant in the Room: What about Google? Here's the thing, having Google's name attached to this legitimizes the premise to some degree, more than making a fake company that is basically Google. It grounds the movie and avoids the urge to go over the top to cartoonish degrees. The downside is that, no matter how "cool" Google is about things, it's going to look like a recruiting video for Google. For god's sake, they talk about "Googliness" as a serious thing.

To Sum Things Up:
Simply put, this movie is too afraid to offend. I'm not sure why Vaughn and Wilson signed on to this (I know Vaughn is a writer on this, but looking as his history as a writer so far, I'd be fine if he stuck to just acting, which disappoints me to say). I really don't want to call it bad, because it is ok. This movie is Small Soldiers: perfect as a movie for the kids or the family, but for some reason targeted to an older crowd. More than anything, this movie is another reminder of how pointless the PG-13 rating is for comedy.  

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend