roundup quandary: Review: It had to be Google

Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn play a pair of out-of-work salesmen who somehow, as Hollywood does, they land internships at the mothership of the Internet, Google Inc.

Photograph by: Phil Bray , The Associated Press

The Internship

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rose Byrne, John Goodman, Aasif Mandvi, Josh Brener

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Duration: 119 minutes

Parental guidance: Language

Playing at: Angrignon, Brossard, Cavendish, Cin?ma Carnaval, Colossus, C?te-des-Neiges, Forum, Kirkland, Lacordaire, March? Central, Sources, Sph?retech and Taschereau cinemas

MONTREAL?- Filmmakers generally take a more subtle approach in placing real-life beers, sodas, cars and clothing lines in their oeuvres. Nothing quite so subtle in The Internship. It could almost pass for a Google training film. Save for the presence of the Wedding Crashers.

Still, talk about product placement. The boys at Bing may be steamed enough to singe their search-engine circuit boards. Then again, Google execs must have contemplated long and hard before granting permission to the makers of The Internship to allow the use of their company as a backdrop for a buddy comedy, featuring a couple of middle-aged goofs for whom hell would likely have to freeze before they would ever be granted internships.

The goofs would be none other than Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, the same lovable slugs who created havoc in Wedding Crashers eight years ago and who helped generate nearly $300 million in box-office revenues as a consequence.

Vaughn and Owen may not be mistaken for Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, but there is no denying the chemistry between the two. And there is no denying that they will likely induce ? intentionally ? some of the biggest laughs at the multiplex this summer, and not at the expense of Google, either.

No fool Vaughn, author and co-screenwriter of The Internship, for incorporating Google into the mix. And no fool Shawn Levy (two Night at the Museums, The Pink Panther, Date Night), the film?s Montreal-born director who cuts his stars much slack and offers them endless opportunities to ham it up.

Billy (Vaughn) and Nick (Wilson) play a pair of charming watch salesmen who are the last to learn their employer (John Goodman) has gone belly-up. Seems that in this techno age, watches are obsolete ? replaced by cellphones. Also apparently obsolete are Billy and Nick. Grinders and dinosaurs, not generals, says their reptilian former boss.

Nick next takes a job as a mattress salesman with his sister?s slimy beau (Will Ferrell in a hilarious cameo), while the downcast Billy, whose life is blowing up, does what any desperate unemployed person does: he Googles ?jobs for people with few skills.? He comes up empty in that search but does learn that Google is interviewing people to become interns at their facility in California?s Silicon Valley. And among the lucky few who get the internships, the best of the bunch will be hired for full-time positions.

Needless to say, the boys are long shots. They are also Luddites and will be competing against the most savvy young minds in the digital world; recent grads from distinguished universities who will go to great lengths to land a gig at one of the planet?s most successful conglomerates.

Somehow, Billy and Nick land internships, mostly because they bamboozle their interviewers with their bafflegab. But once they surface at Google central, the competition becomes cutthroat, and they become targets for some particularly diabolical life forms also interning.

Ah, but this is Hollywood-conceived, where the little guys with the big dreams in hard times sometimes manage to rise to the top. The film takes on a Frank Capra-like turn at times as the boys get fed up, being forever shackled with their loser images.

What transpires is often hysterical and, dare we say, even rousing at times, as Billy ? or Big Tree, as he is referred to ? and Nick rally their ragtag group of interns, if not necessarily to greatness, to a tawdry strip joint where they all get blitzed and bond. And you?ve got to love Billy spouting underdog philosophy ? he has picked up entirely from the film Flashdance ? to try to spur his gang on to glory.

Vaughn and Wilson, so brash on the surface but so soft and tender in the middle, bring it all off effortlessly. They?ve got the touch. They are also aided and abetted by a gaggle of techno-nerds led by Rose Byrne, as comely Australian Google exec Dana who puts career ahead of heart, Aasif Mandvi, as the no-nonsense instructor Mr. Chetty, and Josh Brener, as the nonsensical intern leader who is so tragically un-hip he is hip.

Point is: it?s not only hip to be square these days, it?s also lucrative ? be it online or onscreen.

Without Google as the backdrop, however, director Levy had quickly concluded he would have been hard-pressed to make the same kind of splash.

?Vince had this great movie idea, but I always told him that if we don?t get the real Google, I?m not sure I want to do it,? says Levy, 44, on a break from shooting his latest film, This Is Where I Leave You, in New York City. ?There was something really cool to me about going inside this mythical workplace, that is consistently at the top of the list of places to work. It has this mystique as a quirky, wacky, wildly unconventional workplace, and yet they are clearly doing something right.?

Levy boldly went to Google headquarters, not only outlining his plans for the film but also advising company brass that he would need full creative autonomy. ?But I promised them it would be funny and it would be good-hearted,? he recalls.

Google also liked the fact that Levy had done two films at very famous museums ? Night at the Museum at the American Museum of Natural History and its sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ? without trashing the places and destroying their brands, yet bringing in much wackiness in the process.

?Google had a really impressive willingness to make fun of themselves,? Levy notes. And he was only too willing to oblige. ?Amazingly, most of the stuff depicted in the movie really exists there. And Google was really happy how the film turned out.?

Regardless of the genre, Levy?s credo is that his films be ?uncynical, optimistic and hopeful.? So far that strategy has worked out just fine for the St-George?s School grad, who went on to get degrees from Yale and the University of Southern California film school. Levy is viewed as one of the most consistently bankable directors in the business. His eight previous films have earned in excess of $2 billion at the box office. The Internship will more than likely nudge that sum up significantly.

That lack of cynicism clearly hasn?t deterred some of the funniest actors in the business from working with him: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Steve Martin, Ricky Gervais, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest, Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Ferrell, Wilson and Vaughn.

?Pretty much all the comedians I?ve worked with are writers as well,? he points out. ?I love directing and the authority that comes with it, but what I really love is collaborating with creative people whom I respect. I view my comedic stars as collaborators all the way through, from pre-production to shooting. We are constantly honing and modifying the script together. Owen and Vince have a rare gift for finding super material that?s not even on the page. They like each other a lot, and even more they love to make each other laugh. I?m sure this won?t be the last time we?ll see them together.?

And back together again with Levy is his Date Night star, Tina Fey, in This Is Where I Leave You, based on the Jonathan Tropper bestseller and also featuring Jason Bateman, Jane Fonda and Adam Driver.

?I?ve been waiting nine movies to do a smaller, more heartfelt film. It?s an amazing dramedy about a family sitting shiva (mourning). It?s funny, heartbreaking and Silver Linings Playbook in tone. It?s low-budget (only in Hollywood is $20 million considered paltry), and I?m loving it.?

Future plans could include a much more costly third and final instalment of Night of the Museum, with Stiller, to be shot in Montreal. The first Night at the Museum had been slated to shoot here, but went to Vancouver. ?We?ve been in discussion with the studio about different cities, but Montreal is a possibility, and I would love to come back home.?

bbrownstein@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: billbrownstein

? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Google/8488808/story.html

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