The Internship

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star as Billy and Nick – two high end watch salesmen who lose their jobs when the company shuts down. Left with mounting bills, and the desire to do something better with their lives, Billy is inspired to apply for an internship with Google. Why not get into a job and a field with a future?

They aren’t the typical Google interns, and barely know anything about the Internet and apps, but Billy and Nick think they can make this one work, even when they are teamed up with a group of outcastes much younger and smarter than them.

Are Billy and Nick Google material?

Written by Vaughn and Jared Stern, The Internship kind of hits all of the typical notes you expect, and only succeeds in making us laugh and care because Vaughn and Wilson are in it.

All of the clichés and ingredients in the formula are here.

They are on the team of underdogs who have no chance of winning the jobs, but find inspiration in teamwork and friendship.

Nick thinks he has found true love with the sexy, but stern Google exec (Rose Byrne) who is cold as ice and needs his sexy charms to melt her (so the Butterscotch Stallion rides again).

There’s an overachieving bully (Max Minghella) who makes all of us hate him to the core.

And, we get to watch some competition swinging the gang between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Yet, some stuff just isn’t plausible enough. As written by Jared Stern and co-writer Vaughn, Nick and Billy are supposed to be completely out of touch with modern technology, but they aren’t old enough to be this out of touch. I can believe they don’t know how to write code for an app, but some of the jargon and ideas are universal, even for people much older than these two.

Sure, it is hilarious to watch Billy spouting out 80’s nostalgia and references, but the guy was adept enough to be on his laptop using Google early in the movie, so I don’t think he can be as helpless and behind the times as they want us to believe.

However, Vaughn and Wilson do what they do best to make us laugh.

Vaughn is talking a mile a minute like a 5-year old who drank 3 diet cokes, ate a pound of chocolate, and washed it all down with a Red Bull (and we love him for it, so we roll with it).

Wilson plays the laid back, earnest romantic who plays the amused straight guy to Vaughn (why can’t Vaughn’s character find love? Frankenstein needs love, too)

Sadly, the movie comes to a sputtering conclusion as the big, shocking, rousing ending just isn’t big enough, rousing enough or crazy enough to really befit what it should have been. Like the rest of The Internship, it’s not memorable. It’s just OK enough.

The Internship is rated PG-13 for sexuality, some crude humor, partying and language.