Story
If you're one of the many victims of The Internship's vigorous marketing campaign, you're probably aware of the premise of this movie (and you've also probably seen that clip where Vince Vaughn says "On the line" a Bazillion times) but I'll go over it here anyway for all you rock-dwellers. So Billy and Nick, seasoned watch salesmen, find out their company has gone bust, and in the process realise that they have the same amount of experience with technology as a cat. Later on, Vince Vaughn manages to find them an application for an Internship at google. Apparently wanting to jump in and work for a technology company before they learn to understand what "coding" is, the pair head off to California after being accepted for the job.
The first thing I want to say about the story is that there was some lazy writing going on here. A lot of the plot points don't even make sense. For example, early on in the movie (this could be a spoiler, probably not) have an interview with the managers at Google to determine whether they are fit to compete for The Internship via Google Hangout (just one of the many great Google product placements that appear in this movie). In the course of the interview, it is glaringly obvious that neither of the men have any experience nor skill when it comes to technology. Even I would be able to see that. Yet somehow, even though it's risky enough anyway, the two interviewers convince the other managers that they should let Billy and Nick compete in the job for the internship, in a less than minute long conversation. It's this kind of "now come on" absurdity that pops up throughout the movie. But I'm not done yet.
Let me get this out of the way. This movie has a lot of Google product placement, which makes sense because the movie is about Google, and primarily funded by, you guessed it, Google.
In the movies' Google Offices setting, their logo is EVERYWHERE. It was on the coffee machines, on the laundry bags (Oh yeah, there's a Laundrette in the Google Offices apparently) and on one occasion, stapled on the side of a bus. I get it movie, it's about google.
Although the whole premise of the movie was "we're competing for the best job in the world," I wasn't too bothered by the product placement. There was a lot of talk about all the different Google services, but I thought that was good. We're familiar with things like Google Play and Translate, and it was cool to see them turn up in the movie.
Okay, here's my worst problem with the story: It is the most cliche, predictable thing I have ever watched. It literally follows a generic comedy movie template, with "Insert piano ballad here," and "Insert villain entry here" moments aplenty. The painstakingly long film (It is waay too long) works towards a stupid final scene, with absolutely cringeworthy and predictable ending, and trust me when I say this: It is theeeeeeee WORST.
Oh yeah, I was going to talk about the "Emotion" in this movie (I will be referring to it as "Emotion" for reasons I'm about to explain). Well, I think they call it "Emotion". What it really is is a sulky piano melody playing while a character says something that sounds like it belongs in a bold font with a picture of some teenagers behind the quote.
Story- 3/10
Characters/Acting
Let me talk about Acting first, as I have much more to say about the characters. Most of the cast are pretty tepid, but I suppose that could be down to the bad characters. All I can say is that I found most of the acting to be pretty darn wooden, and in a few cases, especially scenes with the villain, who was played by Max Minghella, cringeworthy. However, Vince Vaughn and Chris Owen were great in this movie, and they did make it a tad more enjoyable for me. They had a lot of chemistry and portrayed their characters really well. Whenever they had to do any "Emotion" though, it got cringy again. Oh yeah, Will Ferell and Josh Gad were great in their brief cameos.
The characters are much like the acting. Everyone but Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's characters were just bland and, again, clichè. The competitors split up into groups to compete for the internship, and, of course, Billy and Nick end up with all the "quirky" ones. This is where Vince Vaughn and Jared Stern (The writers) dipped into their book of quirky inner conflicts, and the main characters were born. Except there isn't a wide range of these stereotypes. We've got the smart-mouthed, phone toting kid who needs to learn to get off of the internet and learn to live, the charismatic girl who needs to gain confidence and learn to live, the Asian kid with a controlling mother who needs to, well, learn to live. Toss in a few annoying managers with zero personality, a really annoying pothead, and you've got liftoff. I almost laughed at all the scenes with the villain. I expected the movie to pause on a close up of his face and for a voice to announce "Just so you know, this guy is a total jerk."
I almost forgot Owen Wilson's love interest, who was completely insufferable. She, in an original twist, needs to learn that work isn't everything, and, yup, to live.
Characters 2/10
Comedy
Okay, so the story is predictable, the characters are samey and annoying, but the movie at least has a few laughs, right?
Nope.
When I first saw the trailer for this film, I was thinking it would be packed with lots of The Big Bang Theory style humour which only a select few would fully understand, but obviously they had to dumb it down in fear that they actually would be catering to a nichè. So what we get is innuendo, toilet humour and fat jokes. Example: A big recurring joke in this movie is how much the villain abuses the morbidly obese member of his team. Funny, right?
There are a few moments when you think you're going to get some clever humour, but then it just kind of fizzles. Sometimes Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's characters made me chuckle, mostly at their well delivered lines and totally ineptitude when it comes to anything on a computer.
Comedy- 4/10
Cinematography-
It's a comedy. There's nothing special here. I would give it a 1/10 or something but it doesn't seem like the kind of movie that needs to have good Cinematography, so I'm giving it an N/A
Cinematography- N/A
Le Verdict
Meh. Stupid plot, predictable ending, insufferable and boring characters, some toilet humour and innuendo, and some good acting from Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. There were a few times when I was enjoying the movie, but that faded after a while. I wouldn't say it's terrible, but I wouldn't say it's exactly good. If you need to kill a few hours on a rainy day, give it a try.The Internship- 5/10
picture credit- http://y-o-l-o-quotes.tumblr.com/
