The Internship is the newest film to appear in theaters from director Shawn Levy. Levy has been around the block wearing more than one hat: director, producer, writer, actor. He is the man behind many features, and television series, which have been rather successful: the Night at the Museum franchise, Pink Panther, Date Night, Real Steel, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Animorphs (the last two were television shows). It is a safe conjecture that Shawn Levy is no stranger to the world of entertainment and in fact seems to have a pretty successful formula under his brain's belt, so to speak.
The Internship, is about an internship. How sophisticated is that title? For those of you who don't know, an internship is a relatively accepted form of slavery. The idea is that after you intern for a while (not always a set duration) you will be worthy of a job at that respective company. The idea is that you learn the trade/craft/job specifics and thus have been trained for little to no pay. Think of apprenticeships, basically the same thing. In this film, long time buddies and co-workers Nick (Owen Wilson) and Billy (Vince Vaughn) find themselves on the wrong end of the current work environment. These two "foot soldiers" were the last of a dying breed of "door-to-door" salesmen; they would go to expensive businesses trying to sell watches. As most of you are aware, after all you are reading these words on some form of computer (yes, I am including tablets and phones as computers, they are after all) Nick and Billy's sales job is rather archaic and these characters are most certainly out-dated. Enter, The Internship. These dino-salesmen find themselves applying for and ultimately being accepted into Google's summer intern program where one group of 6-7 will be offered a job.
Their hats say "NOOGLE", you get it? They are new at Google, NOOGLE! Hilarious!!
Question: Have you ever tried to teach or have witnessed technologically out of date individuals learn how to work modern gadgets? Do you know how to make the VCR stop blinking "12:00...12:00...12:00...12:00" over and over? Do you even know what a VCR is?
Sweet VHS bro! You don't know what that is either??!! Sheesh!
Well for those of you older than 15 I'm sure you are following my diatribe. My point is that Nick and Billy were fish out of water, men at the mall, a film reviewer without readers, PLEASE KEEP READING! These two protagonists were adventuring into the modern world where they had little to no business being. Funny stuff. Watch your grandparents work an iPhone for a while and you'll understand my meanings.
Behind all the comedy existed a very real and uncomfortable plot. I know what you're thinking, you thought the internship was the plot. Well the internship was the vehicle for the comedy driven by the plot. What I mean by this is that the pulse of this film really existed in the fact that it is tough today to get a job, even in the movies. That's the reason there is a film about internships. These two guys lost everything and had to start over. We've all been there, writing a paper for school and your computer shuts off and you forgot to save it, or you just got to the next world in Mario and your console dies.
It's a scary situation, and no matter how many times you've experienced it, you'll never be prepared. Well, Nick and Billy had no other option than to take this internship, and to be honest their adventure was inspiring! It was a breath of fresh air to see this predicament through someone else's eyes, and I laud them and their efforts.
One of the things I found the most interesting was the locations in which they filmed The Internship. As one would expect from a film based around the Google Internship program, most of this film was shot in or around the Google buildings and campus. For those who have never been to Google, I am one of those except I've seen the film, what's your excuse?, the Google campus and building is like the modern version of Disneyland, or at least it is the Techy Version of Disneyland.
I feel your pain young one, I feel your pain
It's a scary situation, and no matter how many times you've experienced it, you'll never be prepared. Well, Nick and Billy had no other option than to take this internship, and to be honest their adventure was inspiring! It was a breath of fresh air to see this predicament through someone else's eyes, and I laud them and their efforts.
One of the things I found the most interesting was the locations in which they filmed The Internship. As one would expect from a film based around the Google Internship program, most of this film was shot in or around the Google buildings and campus. For those who have never been to Google, I am one of those except I've seen the film, what's your excuse?, the Google campus and building is like the modern version of Disneyland, or at least it is the Techy Version of Disneyland.
What's even more impressive than the outside is the inside!
Slide and themed offices/shared space, not to mention the Nap Pods area. Google is a very fun and interesting location to shoot, but it has nothing on my favorite location of the film: San Francisco! Not much of this film was set within the city limits, but there were a couple sequences which ventured beyond Frisco's southernly neighbor and into locations like: Fisherman's Wharf, and the Marin Headlands looking south over the foggy bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. These were the scenes which rang true to my heart, after all I only live in LA, but I left my heart in San Francisco Bay!
Final Words: Large Popcorn.
The Internship is a wild ride from start to finish. It offers a very funny shell to a very really "dilemma" of sorts. Work is tough and starting over is even tougher, but when your discomfort has a candy coating shell of comedy, it's totally worth the feeling. This film will make you want to celebrate... once you've stopped crying from all the hearty laughter! Do yourselves a favor and go see this one!
Until next time, happy viewing!
Review Rating : Based on popcorn sizes; small, medium, large, extra-large
When films get a snore zzz... worth skipping
No comments:
Post a Comment