It’s been almost a decade since Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson teamed up for “Wedding Crashers,” but the duo is finally back with a follow-up, “The Internship.” Chronicling the misadventures of two watch salesmen who attempt to catch up to the Internet age by applying for jobs at Google, the movie follows Vaughn and Wilson as they try to recapture the anarchic energy of their previous collaboration. But have they succeeded in doing more than making a feature-length advertisement for the search-engine company?
MTV News rounded up a cross section of reviews of the film, many of which suggest that “The Internship” isn’t good enough for long-term entertainment.
How Good Is It At Using Google To Tell A Great Story?
“This is not so much product placement in a movie as movie placement in a product. For two hours, viewers are treated to a series of bright, high-energy sales pitches for the San Francisco search engine and its vast array of products and services… plus, occasional attempts at comedy from Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson while they stand in front of giant Google logos. Shameless? Absolutely. But that wouldn’t be such a problem if ‘The Internship’ wasn’t so mirthless, as well.” — Matt Singer, Screencrush
How Are Vaughn And Wilson?
“For whatever reason, it’s taken the raucous duo eight years to reunite, and for whatever reason, they’ve agreed to do so in a Google commercial disguised as every other campus comedy ever made, albeit with party-hearty nonsense and fish-out-of-water antics tempered down to PG-13 levels for maximum mediocrity.” — William Goss, Film.com
Are The Guys As Appealing Now As They Were In 2005?
“Vaughn’s charm serves him sporadically (he also co-wrote the script) and Wilson is blandly affable. But sometimes their garrulous riffing is just plain annoying. ‘You’re saying a lot of words really fast that don’t mean anything,’ one of their fellow interns accurately snarls.” — Claudia Puig, USA Today
What’s The Theme Behind The Laughs?
“The setup is rife for milking the generation gap to score easy points and easier yuks. But while the divide between Billy and Nick and their younger counterparts does indeed provide the film with its narrative and thematic thrust, Levy and screenwriters Vaughn and Jared Stern show a broader and more sensitive understanding of the cultural differences between the two groups of characters.” — Andrew Schenker, Slant
So Is It A Pass Or Fail?
” ‘Google Crashers,’ I mean, ‘The Internship’ is kind of a terrible movie and perhaps it’s sad to think it exists while some struggling would-be genius filmmaker can’t get his project made due to lack of resources, but all things are relative and taken on its own, “The Internship” might be the best worst comedy of the year thus far.” — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
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