The Internship: Review

The dynamic duo from Wedding Crashers intern at Google. Sounds like a blast right?

Directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Date Night), The Internship centers around Billy McMahon (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Campbell (Owen Wilson), two washed up salesmen who lose their jobs because the sales market just isn't what it used to be. All the kids of today use electronics, and for some reason our protagonists have never learned how to use something as simple as Skype. The two fall into a depression, Billy's house is foreclosed upon, and Nick goes to work for his sister's boyfriend (Will Ferrell) at a Mattress and Bedding store. Lucky for them, Billy is able to procure them an internship at Google, and they are forced into a whole new world, with brighter, younger individuals  surrounding them. The two are teamed up with the "losers" of a large internship group at Google, and are put in random competitions to show their talents and why they should be hired by Google. The catch is that only one team is hired, meaning 95% of the Google wanna-be's won't become a part of the Google family. After this, the movie becomes one competition after the next, ranging from funny to flat out boring.

Now before I go into this review, let me start off by saying that Wedding Crashers is one of my favorite comedies of all time, and solidified in my mind that Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson make a hysterical team. This holds true in the Internship as well, but not nearly to the extent as their prior film. Like Wedding Crashers, in which the two learn that they are being selfish crashing weddings, and should instead think about the people they love most, The Internship too tries to have good life lessons in the story. This time however, it's about loving yourself, and being happy with who you are. It also focuses in on the idea that kids of today use too much social media, and need to look out and enjoy the world in real life. 

The film has some young talent, including Max Minghella, most famous for playing the Winklevoss twins bottom bitch in the Social Network, and one of the guys from that show Teen Wolf. Okay, I do know his name, it's Dylan O'Brian. Anyways, these characters (and the many other younger characters) played their parts well, and provided a few laughs here and there.

Rose Byrne stars as Dana, Nick's love interest in the film. She is one of the highlights of the film, and is as adorable as ever. I really think she's proven herself as a versatile actress, starring in everything from Insidious to Get Him to the Greek. She adds a subtle sexiness to The Internship, which gives it a few more points in my book.

I told you. Adorable. 

SPOILERS AHEAD!

High Points: 

- A particularly funny scene in which Billy and Nick take the rest of the team out to their first strip club, and one of the teammates, Yo-Yo Santos (Tobit Raphael), goes against his overprotective mother's wishes and gets drunk for the first time. The scene goes on a little too long, but is still one of the funniest scenes of the movie.

- The Google interns all have to play a game of Quidditch, which results in some hilarious slap-stick humor and a particularly funny Vince Vaughn rant about the movie Flashdance. 

- All the scenes with Rose Byrne.

- A scene in which Billy explains his new app idea, which turns out to be a direct copy of the popular app Instagram.

Low points: 

- Most of the scenes with the opposing team. These scenes try and add funny dialogue, but fall flat.

- Towards the end of the film, Billy quits, and decides to go back to being a salesmen. He joins up with a motorized scooter salesmen named Randy (Rob Riggle) for one of the most eye-roll inducing scenes of the movie.

- Will Ferrell even being in the film. His cameo is weak in this one. Wasted talent.

The Internship is worth watching, but keep in mind, it's not comedic gold in any sense. I enjoyed it, but there's nothing too special here. 

Overall, I give the film a 3/5.

This Is the End: Review

Cannibals, giant demonic penises and a coked out Michael Cera are but a glimpse of what you will find in the new comedy, This Is the End.

This Is the End is written and directed by Seth Rogan (who also stars) and Evan Goldberg (The guy who wrote Pineapple Express & Superbad). It also happens to be the first film either of them have directed, and is an impressive directoral debut, if I do say so myself.

The film centers around Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel, who decide to attend a party at James Franco's house. When they arrive, the festivities are already underway, and many a celebrity are getting their party on. This includes the likes of Michael Cera, Rihanna, Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Emma Watson...you get the point. A lot of familiar faces. As the night goes on, Jay decides that he wants to leave, but is rudely interrupted by the end of the world.

After light beams from Heaven and sink holes from Hell appear, all of L.A. becomes a frenzy of random violence, and fire. TONS OF FIRE. Many of our favorite celebs are killed, leaving the main ensemble to fend for themselves inside Franco's mansion. This includes Jay, Seth, Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride. The group decides to fortify Franco's house and survive the apocalypse, together. I won't ruin everything that happens next, but I will say that it's a drug fueled, violent, demon infested tale complete with the actors snuggling like fearful children.

The thing about This Is the End that I really enjoyed was how the actors played off of one another. The movies has a runtime of 107 minutes, and at least 85% of it takes place within Franco's house, so the film relies heavily on the small group of comedians like-ability and ridiculousness to bring about laughs. In my opinion, it worked perfectly. The actors all seem to really like each other, and you can tell by how well they all played off of one another that they had a blast making this movie. One problem that I could see however is if you aren't a big fan of the lead actors, you probably won't like this movie. Over half of the jokes are about their work as actors, or about their relationships with one another.

One of the strongest aspects of a film about real life actors is that you can throw in cameos right and left, and boy does This Is the End do a great job of that. I won't ruin anything for you, but the cameos in This is the End are on par with Bill Murray making an appearance in Zombieland (2009). If you haven't seen Zombieland, then you're behind on the times and I feel no shame for ruining that cameo. But I digress.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

High Points:

There are so many funny gimmicks in this film that it's hard to pick and choose, but one of the funniest moments would have to be James Franco's weird obsession with Seth Rogan throughout the film. He's even gone so far as to hang paintings on his wall that read "James Franco" and "Seth Rogan," and when the paintings are taken down to help fortify the house, Franco replies, "Take mine, leave the Rogan."

Another great point is when the group decides to do all of the drugs that they have in the house (and oh boy is it a lot).

Then there is the hysterical scene in which Emma Watson breaks into the house, only to confuse the groups conversation as them wanting to take turns raping her. She ends up beating the crap out of them and stealing all of their food and drink, even after they try explaining that it was a misunderstanding.

At the end of the film, Jay, Seth and Craig make it to Heaven. There, they learn that they can wish for anything, and Jay wishes up the greatest cameo of the film, the Backstreet Boys. They come in dancing in full angel garb, and the entire Heaven sequence that follows is hysterical, and a perfect ending to the film.

There really are too many to high points to list here, but see the film for yourself and decide which scenes are your favorites.

A coked out Michael Cera provides a hilarious cameo.

Low Points:

I've always thought that Danny McBride was the weak link to this hilarious group, and it holds true in this film as well. He's hysterical when they first introduce him, but his character quickly wears thin, and he becomes incredibly annoying. As time goes on, he begins to alienate himself from the rest of the group, and his rants become almost unbearable to listen to at points. The problem here is that they let his rants drag on far too long, and jokes that started out funny become stale.

He finally leaves the house, and when the rest of the group leaves too, they run into him again, only this time he's the leader of a Mad Max styled cannibalistic troupe.  This entire scene was unfunny to me, as he takes a joke about having anal intercourse with Channing Tatum way too far,  to the point where I was cringing at what he was saying instead of laughing.

Besides Danny, the rest of the film runs incredibly smooth. It does drag a bit at parts in the house, but is otherwise very entertaining. It's certainly looking like one of the best comedies of the summer, and is absolutely worth a viewing in the theatre.

Overall, I give the film a 4/5 stars.