If Twentieth Century Fox expects to earn Wedding Crashers success by simply re-teaming Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in another comedy, then they have a harsh reality ahead of them. Vaughn has rambled his way through too many movies since then and Wilson simply isn’t the charmer that he used to be. Pair up their non-existent star power, a ridiculously unfunny screenplay, relentless product placement and only a few worthy laughs, and – Bing! – you’ve got one of the most embarrassingly bad comedies of all time.
Vaughn and Wilson play a duo of salesmen who find themselves futureless when they’re laid off due to corporations favoring online purchasing. Trying to adapt with the times, instead of seeking actual jobs, they attempt to land internships together at Google’s headquarters. Suspend your disbelief because these two non-stop ranters somehow land the internships and make the cross-country move to The Bay Area. Once there, they don’t fit in with the genius and tech-savvy youth of the 21st century, but are added to a team of fellow misfits that just might work well together.
The gag-filled story that follows is so dumb that if I was an executive at Google, I never would have approved the use of my brand in this movie solely because of how stupid the movie makes Google look. The Internship is forcefully injected with unfun angles of Google’s culture that make it look more like a cult than a corporation. The comedy during these Google-based devices is stagnant and unsharp. With a 119-minute runtime, the movie drags. Like most SNL sketches, nearly every scene feels too long. If any scene actually earns a laugh, the joke runs on for three additional minutes that beat the dead horse.
Hidden within this two-hour borefest is a single scene that’s genuine, entertaining and likeable – Owen Wilson and his mostly unused co-star Rose Byrne on a charming date. Despite digging into cliche territory, had the movie itself revolved around this one scene, carrying the same whismical tone and vibe, then The Internship may very well have been a fantastic movie – but it not. The final product is like watching Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson ramble and flail around in a pit of quicksand. No matter what they do, all of their struggling only causes them to sink deeper.
Photo credit: Twentieth Century Fox
