A Return to the Old School for Vaughn in The Internship

Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to see a screening of a film a few weeks before it hits theaters. The staff at the AMC Theater in Las Vegas’ City Center informed us we were among the first people to see The Internship, starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, in theaters.

Here’s my review.

A Return to the Old School for Vaughn in The Internship

Mark E. Ortega

Freelance

May 23, 2013

It had looked for awhile like Vince Vaughn’s career was going the way of Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy. While those two are still big names, they haven’t been involved in a hit film in a lead role since the early 2000s.

After revitalizing his career with a run of films that included Old School (2003), Dodgeball (2004), and Wedding Crashers (2005), Vaughn’s career took a bit of a downturn. It seems as, while audiences that were fans of those films grew up, Vaughn didn’t.

The Internship, which hits theaters June 7, stars Vaughn and Wedding Crashers co-star Owen Wilson in a respectable return to what made Vaughn one of the more sought after comedic actors for a short stretch.

Vaughn and Wilson play a couple of old workhorse salesmen who have lost their jobs and are forced to acclimate to the new age of technology with outdated resumes.

Vaughn’s character Billy gets the idea to try and intern at Google, and the two relocate to Mountain View, Calif., home of their headquarters.

What ensues is a run of hilarious ageist humor as Vaughn and Wilson, who plays Nick, try and assimilate amongst a group of college-aged interns all vying for the same limited amount of jobs.

What the two lack, in terms of knowledge, they more than make up for in spirit and creativity, and unlike many tech-geeks, actually have the ability to interact with other human beings in a way that isn’t awkward.

 Though it is a bit hard to believe that they are able to navigate the difficult tech world while possessing a kindergarten aged understanding of what that entails, the film still manages to ground itself in reality.

A number of hilarious and memorable scenes take place throughout, including where the two are able to talk themselves into the internship through a Google Hangout interview conducted at the library, with children running around in the background.

The young cast of secondary characters play their parts well, beginning with a scene where they trick Vaughn and Wilson into going to nearby Stanford in search of a Dr. Charles Xavier, not knowing that he is an X-Men character and not a real life person.

While at times the ageist humor gets a bit stale, the chemistry between Vaughn and Wilson prove again why Wedding Crashers was such a big hit. Though this film features much less of the raunchiness that the initial hit did, it is made up for in terms of heart.

Overall, it is a rather enjoyable film, though not quite on the level of those previous Vaughn hits. Still a very respectable ***.