Culture

Rating: 2/5

Start of the U.S. summer? Check. An assorted cast of misfits with the odds stacked against them? Check. A worrying lack of originality in the plot? Check. Welcome to The Internship, your regular Hollywood light comedy.

The film seems to benefit from director Shawn Levy’s magic ability to make commercially successful films, and Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson team up to repeat their antics from Wedding Crashers – except this time they’re crashing Google as laid-off salesmen who have been offered internships. While their skills are mocked as obsolescent, they quickly set about proving their value to the company. The two mature gents get teamed up with other social outcasts and have to compete against a swarm of highly-educated young people for the Holy Grail – a job offer.

Google is the best place to work ever, if you agree with the somewhat sanctimonious preaching of the Google higher-ups. The commercial overtone of endorsing Google is unavoidable, but overpowering. Like a ten-dollar bottle of wine, you don’t taste the “spicy oak with a sweet finish,” you just get your mouth bleached with alcohol.

However, the Google headquarters provides a nice backdrop to the movie. We are treated to a game of Quidditch (although not even Google has figured out how to make the brooms fly), and the fun vibe that employees probably exhibit is easily picked up. There are plenty of romantic sub-plots, such as Owen Wilson chasing the glamorous yet apparently unavailable executive (Rose Byrne). They even have a drunken night out and venture to a strip club for “team bonding,” hoping it will change their fortunes.

After a variety of team challenges, the usual English d-bag antagonist (Max Minghella) hurting their feeling, and surmounting obstacles put in front of them, we see a resolution of sorts. But it’s predictable. Everything is all too predictable.

So all in all, The Internship is your standard Hollywood comedy. It’ll make you laugh but you know what will happen by the end … just like that ten-dollar bottle of wine.