2.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, and somewhat generously, for profanity, sexual content and considerable crude humor
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.7.13
Fans hoping that a reunion with
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson means another hilarious raunch-fest — along the
lines of Wedding Crashers — are in for a major disappointment.
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| Having forsaken IQ-busting challenges for one evening, Billy and Nick (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, far right) take their young colleagues — from left, Yo-Yo (Tobit Raphael), Stuart (Dylan O'Brien), Lyle (Josh Brener) and Marielena (Jessica Szohr) — out for an evening of merriment at (where else?) a local strip club. But because this is a PG-13 film, nobody actually strips... |
The Internship is a sweet,
gooey, insubstantial and totally forgettable little fairy tale ... with just
enough coarse humor to stretch the boundaries of its PG-13 rating, while also compromising
the story’s otherwise fluffy tone. Director Shawn Levy clearly doesn’t know how
to approach this project; he’s obviously much more comfortable with overly
broad slapstick such as Night at the Museum and Date Night.
Levy flails amid this film’s
mostly gentle tone, and he further exacerbates the clumsy pacing by
s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g this minor giggle far beyond what the material can support.
Seriously, two hours? Since when do lightweight comedies need anything beyond
95 minutes?
Yes, Vaughn and Wilson riff each other
reasonably well, although I frequently had the impression — glancing at their
eyes, and how their lips seemed primed to twitch — that they desperately wanted
more profane dialogue. They deliver well-timed rat-a-tat exchanges, although
the script — credited to Vaughn and Jared Stern — is both unimaginative and
quite redundant.
Indeed, this story delivers at
least two “Let’s win this one, kids!” speeches too many.
Additionally — and this is a
major problem with many such films — Levy & Co. beat their thin material
into submission, vainly trying to turn minor chuckles (at best) into major
belly-laughs. All concerned seem to believe that if a scene lingers another
minute, or two, or three, that we dense audience members finally will “get” the
joke and laugh harder.
Doesn’t work that way. As the old
saying goes, Levy and his cast repeatedly flog a dead horse. And, frequently,
one that’s already smelling very, very bad.
We meet Billy (Vaughn) and Nick
(Wilson) — glib, silver-tongued salesmen who could offload sand on desert
sheikhs — just as they learn that their company has folded. Out of work, and
for some reason unable (unwilling?) to investigate other sales jobs, they
ponder their fate as dinosaurs in an environment where even whip-smart college
grads aren’t guaranteed employment.
Nick gets minor sympathy from his
sister; Billy gets none from a wife/girlfriend who lingers onscreen only long
enough to dump him. Neither actress is seen again, leading us to wonder why we
met them at all.
