Movie review: The Internship

Google is great! That's pretty much the key message of Vince Vaughn's new comedy The Internship.

Internship

MOVIE REVIEW: Google is great!

For about 30 minutes or so, The Internship tip-toes that fine line between semi-shameless product placement and full-on feature-length advertisement.

Then it just turns those toes up and gives up. All The Internship has to offer in return for your time, money and attention is one simple message.

Google is great!

Sure, you can laugh all you want at the wacky antics of stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as they try and land a job with the highest-horse-powered search engine in the world.

But don't you ever go forgetting that there's no place like Google. No place at all. You become an employee there, and you've gone straight to heaven without having had to die.

You can eat all you want in the staff cafeteria! And never have to pay! There are fussball tables as far as the eye can see! There's supersonic high-speed wi-fi! Pimped-out gyms! Wandering masseuses!

Next-gen technology right here right now! Don't want to take a lift down from your office on the third floor? Just jump on a slide instead!

Google is great! You got that?

The Internship? Not so great. The vibe in the air is nearly always genial, but the stuff on the screen is consistently feeble.

Vaughn and Wilson go looking for some of the crazy, unpredictable chemistry from their Wedding Crashers days. Instead of anything goes, all they find is nothing doing.

The pair play former wristwatch salesmen attempting to ward off long-term unemployment by competing for an entry-level posting at Google, Inc.

Naturally, with the guys being on the wrong side of 40, most of the jokes told here are themed around how a digital world has no place for these analog dinosaurs.

They also get to take some of their young nerdy new friends to a strip club, and later, learn that it is incorrect to pronounce the word online as "on the line".

Not so funny? Not the point. Just remember there is yet to be a Bing movie. And there will never be a Yahoo one either.

And that is why ... all together now ... Google is great!

> The Internship [M]
Rating: 2/5
Director: Shawn Levy (The Pink Panther)
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rose Byrne, Max Minghella, Josh Brener

"Your search for a movie that is one big fat commercial has returned 1 result"