Why So Blu?

The Internship (Blu-ray Review)

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson team up to crash the digital world in this laugh-out-loud buddy comedy you’ve been searching for! Trying to reboot their obsolete careers, old-school salesmen Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) talk their way into an internship program at the state-of-the-art Google campus, vying for a handful of spots among tech-savvy college students who are half their age and twice as smart. The competition is fiercely funny as Billy and Nick break all the rules in a hilarious quest to land their dream jobs!

 

Film  

Billy McMahon (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Campbell (Owen Wilson) are watch salesman who are at a big client meeting, only to find out (from the client himself) that their company has been closed.  Owner (John Goodman) has failed to mention that very important detail to his two best salesman.  Watches are “over” as even the older secretary in the office checks her phone when asked the time.  Billy’s house is soon being foreclosed on and his girlfriend leaves him. Nick soon takes a job as a mattress salesman working for highly inappropriate manager (Will Ferrell).  The one part of the movie that made me laugh out loud happened when Billy barges into Nick’s job to tell him to quit because they are going to be interns for Google.

The funny part of that exchange comes when Will Ferrell’s character insults Billy’s height although the fact that the very same conversation includes a reference to Marfan Syndrome probably made a lot of people really unhappy.  It would have been slightly more tasteful to make fun of freakishly tall people without associating that with a specific syndrome. However, I do think that it’s funny that a neck tattooed Will Farrell points out that there’s normal tall and then Vince Vaughn tall.  When Billy convinces Nick to do an online interview with Google it’s clear that these “old guys” don’t know much about technology – and most things relevant to the job. While Google appears to be an awesome place to work with free food, bright colors, an indoor slide and nap pods – the other prospective interns are computer nerds fluent in the language of Google and the guys are out of their league.

It doesn’t take a writer to figure out where this is going. Billy and Vince are salesman – seen as a dying breed. At some point, someone will need to really sell an idea to a client – in person with good old fashioned charm and the pair are going to finally be in their element. Further, I correctly guessed that the other interns would ignore and shun Billy and Nick but the outcasts would bond and become a winning team.  Whether or not you can guess the entire movie before it starts is not actually that big of a deal to me. With this type of movie I expect the best jokes to be included in the previews – but it’s still worth watching. And that’s what The Internship turned out to be.  It was definitely worth watching but not the kind of film that all comedy lovers need to add to their Blu-ray collections.

Video  

The Internship is presented on Blu-ray in 1080p with a 2.35:1 ratio.  Google is a colorful place and the array of bright colors in this film truly jump off the screen.  When it’s not all primary colors and sunshine the video quality doesn’t falter in an excellent presentation from 20th Century Fox.  The black levels are solid and dark and the contrast is spot on.  There’s no real digital defects or blemishes to complain about.

Audio  

The Internship is presented with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and is primarily dialogue driven.  You might want to use this film to show off the picture quality on your new HDTV but the audio doesn’t have the same opportunities to impress for this kind of comedy film.   That being said, there’s a lot of nice ambiance here and you can feel the volume of a crowd of interns or strip club patrons.  The dialogue is also very clear as is the score for the film.  All in all, this is a solid audio presentation for this type of film.

Extras  

The Blu-ray contains both theatrical and unrated versions of the film and the special features listed below. Amazingly there is no gag/blooper reel which I would expect on any Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy.

• Audio Commentary (Theatrical Cut) – Director Shawn Levy discusses the film and talks in detail about using the real Google and a character and location for the film.
• Deleted Scenes – Over eight minutes of deleted scenes.
• Any Given Monday A lengthy “documentary” about the Google Quidditch Match (filmed in the heat) with behind the scenes footage and interviews, primarily focused on Director Shawn Levy.
• Theatrical Trailer

Summary  

The Internship proves that Google is a fun but demanding workplace. We learn that a college degree no longer guarantees employment to the youth of today and that muggles can play Quidditch. This film is not nearly as funny as Wedding Crashers, but if you are a fan of Vaughn and Wilson – you will probably enjoy this too. Aside from a trip to a strip club, the unrated version of this film is very tame. The special features could have used a gag reel and actors on the commentary but overall it was an average comedy, that I found entertaining.

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