The Internship (2013)

Just a quick one. The Internship, or Wedding Crashers 2, is quite clearly a massive 90 minute advert for Google with the chirpy/pseudo-serious double-act of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as vaunted groupies.

And it is Wedding Crashers pretty much: precisely the same chemistry is transferred almost a decade later - including, of course, a Will Ferrell cameo. The chemistry is still kind of present in their underdog story, so in the most numbsculling, mindmelting way, this isn't actually a complete waste of time (also I've always had a soft spot for Wilson's charming Texan drawl) - you just have to watch something from McQueen or Von Trier or Haneke or someone else either side to redress the intellectual equilibrium.

It's not as if writers Vaughn and Shawn Levy haven't attempted to sneak to genuine social commentary in either. When Vaughn and Wilson are down in the dumps are being made redundant from their simple salesman jobs (sacked by John Goodman no less) they wistfully denounce the 'college dream' their generation had been sold by the governmental suits: get a degree and you WILL have a comfortable, monied life. I'm not from that generation but that idea seems like it probably rings true. Then a bit later on when they make friends with younger interns they find the 20 year old kids cynical and realistic: the college dream has burst, they aren't enough jobs, life is hard - this is something I can relate to. Those are prescient social observations in a society long ravaged by post-modern cynicism, resigned to the fact that their fates will be decided by outside factors. It's clumsily introduced but Vaughn and Levy TRIED.

For synopsis, see Wedding Crashers. And the antagonist is English of course. Talk about reversion to standard American heart-warming comedy characteristics. There are actually a couple of genuinely laughable scenes and the ending is so corny one can't help but smile languidly, relinquished from the cares of the world, minds thrust back into the cosy folds of high school/university nostalgia. Not quite The Internshit then.