The Internship (2013) or, Two Dopes at Google

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Two familiar comedy stars in jeans look lost in a Google-inspired blank page on this neat poster for Shawn Levy's The Internship

Two grown men, who work together for a company which now goes bankrupt, go searching for a new future for themselves through an internship at the search engine giant Google in Silicon Valley.

 

The Internship is written by co-writer/co-producer/co-star Vince Vaughn (The Break-Up (2006)) and Jared Stern (Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)) and directed by co-producer/director Shawn Levy (Address Unknown (1997)).

Nothing much happen to the two men in their new situation, and none of them have anything in their lives of weight, interest or meaning to really pitch in with. This leaves the affair an empty experience, and as an attempt at office situation comedy, The Internship feels like the beginning of a very long TV-series, you absolutely would want to miss, more so than an actual movie. 

Vaughn and Owen Wilson (Marmaduke (2010)) play immature, mind-zapped, endlessly yapping idiots, and they are surrounded by caricature figures in Google land. You will be minimally amused by this stinker, which is also likely to make you tired of the likes of Rose Byrne (Annie (2014)), Max Minghella (Babylon (2022)) and Silicon Valley.

 

Related posts:

 

Shawn Levy: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Date Night (2010) - Carell and Fey bring out the big laugh guns 

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) or, Museum Night: Sequel Time 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

The Pink Panther (2006) - Martin's Sellers imitation is a trial to sit through

Night at the Museum (2006) - Levy and Stiller bring the family fun 

 

  

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 58 mil. $

Box office: 93.4 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.61 times its cost)

[The Internship premiered 29 May (California) and runs 119 minutes. Vaughn got the idea for the film after seeing a 60 Minutes segment on working at Google. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia and in California, including in San Francisco. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release The Purge and holdover hits Fast & Furious 6 and Now You See Me, to a 17.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 44.6 mil. $ (47.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 7.1 mil. $ (7.6 %) and the UK with 5.3 mil. $ (5.7 %). The film also made more than 13.3 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. Levy returned with This Is Where I Leave You (2014). Vaughn returned in Delivery Man (2013); Wilson in Drunk History (2013, TV-series) and theatrically in Are You Here (2013). The Internship is rotten at 25 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Internship?

Art School Confidential (2006) or, World of Phoney

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+ Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year

Perspiration springs from the young man's face, who is apparently tasked with nude croquis painting on this part-drawn poster for Terry Zwigoff's Art School Confidential

 

Art School Confidential is Wisconsinite master filmmaker Terry Zwigoff's (Louie Bluie (1985, documentary)) second adaptation of a comic book by Daniel Clowes (Wilson (2017)) following the brilliant Ghost World (2001). Clowes adapted his own comic story. It is Zwigoff's second fiction feature.

 
The film is a darkly humorous exposé of the art school world and world of art in general as seen through the eyes of a young, hopeful art school student and prospective artist, alternately strongly convinced and in great doubt as to his own talent.

 
Art School Confidential deserves four small hearts, because it satisfies with many wry laughs, but neglects any major emotions, despite its pretty guilty pleasure lead (Max Minghella (Not Safe for Work (2014))) spending most of the film in a perpetual heartache.
John Malkovich (Penguins of Madagascar (2014)) is in his ace as a failed artist become teacher, and he also co-produced the film. Photographically, there's nothing much to commend in Art School Confidential, which regrettably set back its original, quirky filmmaker's career.

Related posts: 

Terry Zwigoff: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Bad Santa (2003) - Zwigoff sticks dynamite under Christmas in this modern dark comedy classic 

2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Ghost World (2001) - Zwigoff's adaptation is a flawless coming-of-age masterpiece 
Crumb (1994, documentary) or, The Artist As a Cartoonist

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 3.3 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.66 times its cost)

[Art School Confidential premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California and in New York around July 2004. The film opened #29 to a 135k $ first weekend in 12 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 762 theaters and grossed 3.2 mil. $ (96.7 % of the total gross). The film's only other recorded market at Box Office Mojo is the Czech Republic with just under 10k $, the remainder of the total gross. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, in line with this one. Zwigoff looked back upon the film in a 2012 interview, saying that it "was really negatively received both at the box office and critically. Everybody hated that film. I didn't think it was so bad. At least compared to all that other shit out there, anyway. It was certainly just as good as any film in the marketplace. And I'm not saying it's a great film. I'm just saying it's better than most of the dreck." He has since only returned with Budding Prospects (2017, TV short). Minghella returned in Elvis and Anabelle (2007); Malkovich in Klimt (2006); and Sophia Myles (Crossing Lines (2014, TV-series)) in 4 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Hallam Foe (2007). Art School Confidential is rotten at 36 % with a 5.45/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Art School Confidential?