I once joked that Vince Vaughn was going to play a party animal into his ‘60s. Around the time of Old School and Wedding Crashers it was already almost 10 years past Swingers so I thought ha ha, what if he keeps playing a party animal? Well, now it looks like he’s really going for it. After the success of Crashers, both Vaughn and Owen Wilson struggled to apply their comedic personas in separate vehicles. The Internship has the great idea to reunite them, but it seems like they’re forcing it just as much as they have forced it in their mediocre solo movies. And I’m not even including Fred Claus in that. Fred Claus is great!
After their jobs become obsolete, Billy (Vaughn) sees an opportunity for him and Nick (Wilson) to become interns at Google and train in new technologies. Vaughn and Wilson hanging out with postgrads should be comedy gold. They can teach the geeks how to party and the smart kids can make fun of them for being old losers who don’t know computers. Even the very ‘80s setup of a team competition and a ridiculously evil overachiever (Max Minghella) would be fine as a loose setup for jokes, but there’s a deep problem here. I’m going to give some major spoilers here. Theoretically, plot spoilers won’t ruin a comedy because the jokes should be funny, but fair is fair and here is the SPOILER WARNING.
Wedding Crashers got going right away. We could all relate to it because everyone knows what a wedding is, even if you’ve never been to one. They could start their schtick and we all knew it was sleazy but kind of endearing. The problem with a Google internship is they have to spend so much time explaining what Google is. No matter how technologically advanced we are, there will be some people in the audience who don’t know what a search engine is, how Google Calendar works, or why the company intranet doesn’t work like the regular internet. These all become plot points. Plus they first have to explain that Nick and Billy were salesmen before, and the product they sell is outdated and the company they work for goes under and they don’t really know how to use Skype (or Google Hangout here). That takes about 22 minutes.
Then when the kids make fun of them, the movie has to explain what they’re doing too. Half the audience won’t know what Cosplay is or that Charles Xavier is a character from the popular comic book and movie X-Men. The movie has set up its own generation gap that holds it back from organically having fun with the concept. Billy also has a girlfriend (Joanna Garcia Swisher) who leaves him and explains that he’s all talk. Like we don’t know the Vince Vaughn persona yet? But hey, I’m glad Garcia Swisher got a day’s work to shoot that exposition.
Billy and Nick aren’t fish out of water as much as they are just troublemakers. They miss social cues. They can’t figure out that the boss is giving a lecture about what behavior is forbidden at the company, so they keep answering wrong. Billy babbles about nonsense while the kids are really working on a formula. The Wedding Crashers were masters. As interns, they’re just buffoons. Nick keeps saying “on the line” instead of “online,” because he’s so old he hasn’t heard people referring to online for the past 15 years?
Nick’s love interest (Rose Byrne) totally reinforces an attitude that single corporate women really just want to have kids. The dance teacher Marielena (Jessica Szohr) that one of the intern team leaders has a crush on is ridiculously objectified. I mean, it’s one thing to admire a lovely physical specimen who’s well trained in movement. They could leave it at that, but the bulk of her scenes make a really troubling assumption about dancers. Marielena moonlights as a stripper, which is both demeaning to nonerotic dancers and erotic dancers alike. It’s as if taking a stripping job is a naughty secret she needs to hide, and something she is forced to do, yet it also fulfills her (very wrong) role as a sex object for geeky Google interns.
THEATRICAL REVIEW: William Bibbiani calls The Internship “Comedy Movie: The Movie.”
The strip club scene is well edited. It’s one of the only times the film gets the timing right. The joke about repressed intellectuals being exposed to debauchery is pretty base, but it’s well constructed. I have to point out though that getting a stripper to let you buy her a drink is not an accomplishment. They have to say yes. It’s their deal with the club. Sorry to shatter your illusions, but I went to a dark place after my divorce so I know this. I’m much better now.
The younger cast comes off better than Vaughn and Wilson, if only because their generic character arcs are empowering. The kid attached to his phone learns to be present in real life. The home schooled kid lets loose. Interestingly, the happy ending has all the interns who didn’t get the job cheer for the winner. I suppose it fits since they were never even characterized in the film.
If The Internship is one long recruitment ad for Google, the Blu-ray makes that recruitment ad look beautiful. In this crisp, clear, high definition presentation, the campus looks like a bright, shiny place of inspiration. It’s decorated with vibrant colors and outdoor campus full of sunlight. Scenes around San Francisco look fantastic too.
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Watch the behind the scenes Quidditch video from The Internship‘s Blu-ray.
The unrated version of the film is most noticeable in the strip club scene. They’ve added some boobies back into the sequence. Not Marielena’s boobies, only anonymous boobies, probably women who can’t make ends meet as legitimate dancers according to this movie’s worldview. Deleted scenes show some more unfunny improv and a cameo from Missy Franklin. She seems to be having fun at least.
The only behind the scenes feature focuses on the Quidditch sequence, which is pretty indicative of the well-intentioned but misguided aims of the movie. Director Shawn Levy is open and encouraging of improv, but is shown laughing at mediocre ad libs, apparently ruining the take, let alone still using it for the final cut. They shot a lot of coverage and saved it for post, and it suffers for not having a strong vision from the start.
The Internship didn’t do well so it’s not like I’m trying to call out the Emperor’s clothes here or anything. While most of the theatrical reviews focused on how outdated the movie was, I hope I illuminated some of the other troubling aspects of The Internship. And if you’re wondering why I liked the oft-maligned Fred Claus, it’s because that movie used a fantasy scenario to address a real theme about sibling rivalry, an easily digestible metaphor. Plus, Vince Vaughn screwing up the North Pole assembly line is actually funny. Plagiarizing Instagram is not funny.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
