Review: 'The Internship', starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson

A lot has changed in the eight years since Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn crashed their last wedding.  It's pretty amazing that they've waited this long to get back together, considering the way that film barreled its way into the cultural zeitgeist (remember when wedding crashing was a serious thing for a while?) and set a new standard for R-rated comedy. But now the duo is back, and they're no longer the young, hip dudes who swept bridesmaids off their feet with a slick line or Wilson's "Aw shucks" charm. They're older, less cool, and much less raunchy in the PG-13 rated The Internship, a comfortable and surprisingly funny workplace comedy that succeeds only on the charms of its two stars.

Let's not mince words here, though: You know every single thing that is going to happen. There are no surprises to be found here, and it's clear that's never really the intent. Anyone looking for a rational exploration of today's job market on the older generation should probably go rent The Company Men. But to say this is Wedding Crashers isn't really correct, either. Its familiar "losers triumph over all" mantra is more akin to Old School, Drillbit Taylor, and Dodgeball, only now it’s set at Google headquarters, which looks like it was designed by Willy Wonka and P.T. Barnum.

When motor mouth Billy (Vaughn) and his buddy Nick (Wilson) lose their archaic jobs as wristwatch salesman, a dying industry if there ever was one, they find themselves in a tanking job market especially unforgiving to men of their age. Billy's girlfriend leaves him because he's a constant failure, and Nick is apparently someone who has lived a life full of regret or something. It's a character Wilson isn't especially adept at playing, so he just sort of doesn't. While Nick dabbles in mattress sales, Billy is busy googling jobs for people with no skills, until he's hit with the epiphany that they should just work at Google. Good thing he wasn't using Bing at the time. Using their salesman skills, they miraculously ace an unfunny video interview with Google reps, and land an internship at their campus.

Even though they're complete luddites incapable of competing with the young, technically savvy upstarts also vying for jobs at the Internet giant, Nick and Billy resolve to give it their best shot. They're immediately pegged as losers by an arrogant douche (Max Minghella, overselling the Brit accent), who mistakes them for someone important. When the candidates are forced to break up into teams, they're matched up with an oddball group of social misfits: the stuck-up Stewart (Dylan O'Brien), pretty cosplayer Neha (Tiya Sircar), and weird, self-mutilating Asian Yo-Yo Santos (Tobit Raphael). Mr. Chetty (Aasif Mandvi) doesn't believe they stand a chance, but their slang-killing group leader Lyle (Josh Brener) has faith.

While the youngsters initially scoff at their ancient teammates, it isn't long before Billy and Nick start to wear them down with an endless stream confidence-building Flashdance references. They show their mettle in physical competitions, including a real live game of Quidditch, and dispense sage real world advice, proving that even a futuristic place like Google needs regular folks every now and then. Yeah, it's an easy lesson delivered quite easily, but it's sufficient for a comedy like this. We get the requisite club scene, where the nerds are given the chance to experience life rather than watching it from a computer screen. It's a tad overlong, but does a decent job of exploring the generation gap in a fun way. Nick flirts with a presumably high-ranking Google employee (she's always at meetings) played by Rose Byrne, although she doesn't get much to do but be a bland love interest.

Google must adore the script, which paints them as an altruistic entity that does everything for the betterment of the entire world. Those who are inclined to follow all of Google's behind-the-scenes actions may choke on their popcorn at some of the outrageous claims made, but it's important to understand that this is essentially a 2-hour ad buy for them. Even so, there are more big laughs to be found than many were probably expecting, and a few moments of genuine heart. The Internship is like someone punched “default Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn comedy" in a search engine, and the results are exactly what their fans were hoping for.