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technology with outdated resumes.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 ***.
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