The Internship

It has been eight years since Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn last starred together in 2005's Wedding Crashers. At the time, I didn't find that film too funny as it did not appeal to me for I was too young and/or naive to get the jokes. The Internship on the other hand appealed to me a lot more. As a member of the Internet Generation, I got all the jokes presented in this smart and funny fish out of water comedy.

Vaughn and Wilson are playing Billy and Nick, two grown man-children, who find themselves out of a job when they discover that their boss (John Goodman) has folded the company they work for as sales reps, without telling them. Down on their luck, Billy manages to finagle an internship at Google over the summer. They are teamed up with a group of young university students and through a set of gruelling challenges, have the opportunity to win full time positions at the company.

This movie is fantastically funny. To see these middle aged men try to navigate around computer based problems from a generation that they are not native to. But to be fair, I am also from the aforementioned generation and I would have difficulty with some of their challenges. It is filled with humourous references that transcend the generation gap for audiences. Everything from music and allusions to things from the 80s, right down the guys participating in a game of Quidditch are involved.

Vaughn and Wilson also have a chemistry that makes them a believable partnership within the world of the film. Vaughn's tough no-nonsense Billy is right out of Old School and Wilson really does have a great chemistry with his fellow actors, particularly Rose Byrne (Two Hands).

A great part of this comedy comes however, from the young actors playing the university students and how each of them play well known (to me, anyway) archetypes of young people in today's world. There is the hardworking, over-achieving Asian, Yo-Yo (Tobit Raphael), the detached, self-involved hipster, Stuart (Dylan O'Brien), the excitable, enthusiastic girl, Neha (Tiya Sircar) and the awkward white guy Lyle (Josh Brener)(definitely me). There is also the cool yet douchey guy, Graham (Max Minghella) and the boss/hard-ass head teacher, Mr Chetty (Assif Mandvi).

For a younger audience, all these characters are relatable. As for an older audience, they fill the shoes of Nick and Billy, and provide an insight into the younger generation.

Verdict: A hilarious comedy that will please both younger and older audiences and will be super relatable in this modern technological world.