The Internship

First Hit:  Moderately funny scenes and the real truth is the difficult story about finding jobs for anyone at any age.

When John Goodman fires Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) from their sales jobs and then tells them that they were sales “grinders”, were facing a cruel world out there, and that their prospects were minimal the film's set-up is made.

There is another segment where one of Team Lyle's members' states that more than half of today’s college graduates will not get a job that uses their education when they graduate. I’ve been on the job market as a 30, 40, and 50 year old person and I know just how hard it is. The older you get the harder it is, especially in a technology world. When 100 kids show up to Google for a summer internship in the hopes of 6 of them securing jobs at Google, it tells a huge story.

The story is about how two old salespeople use their skills at bringing people together so that the team can win. They learn who has what skills and how to support each other and help them grow. The downside, as I’ve stated before in other reviews, Vaughn is Vaughn no matter what role he takes. He’s got one character and it just shows up in different films so this film becomes predictable very early on.

Wilson, like Vaughn, plays the same character in most of his roles, although he can be more subtle in his acting. With these two as the main stars, the film lacks surprises and, for the most part, does not reveal its characters in interesting ways. If the film focused more on the second level actors it may have been more interesting. Regardless, there are funny, sad, and heartfelt moments which make it watchable.

Vaughn is just that, Vince Vaughn, no more or less. Wilson is the same thing, no surprises, and a knowable character. Nothing very interesting about these people or their characters. Rose Byrne (playing Diana) was OK in a minimal role. Aasif Mandvi (playing Mr. Chetty) was OK and a bit stereotypical. Max Minghella (playing a jerk named Graham) was good and showed the kind of arrogance this role called for. Josh Brenner (playing Lyle) was believable as a computer nerd – which he does on some movie theater promos. Dylan O’Brien as Stuart was good as the always negative to be cool guy. Tiya Sicar (as Neha, the only female on this team) was really good and deserved more script time. Tobit Raphael (as Yo Yo Santos) was wonderful as the oppressed by his strong mom nerd. He portrayed the fear and his change to finding his voice, sort of speak, perfectly. Vaughn and Jared Stern wrote this occasionally funny and adequate script but I do think there was more available for this film. Shawn Levy directed this film. There were nice moments and staging but other times it felt pressed and too made up.

Overall:  A “On Demand” film for sure and enjoyable on a Sunday afternoon or evening.

Premium Rush

First Hit:  An entertaining and “fun ride” kind of film.

The ending was never in question, but what makes this film very watchable is the bike riding through Manhattan.

We’ve all seen bike messengers in our major cities, and it’s always fun to speculate what their world is like. Does this film do this, probably not, but it does provide one person’s view as to why it is the right job for them right now. Wilee (Yes, his nickname is Wiley coyote), played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is a former law school student who discovers he’s just not the gray suit type of guy.

His job as a bike messenger gives him pleasure he cannot find anywhere else. His bike is a point of pride because it has one gear, cannot coast and has no brakes. He always has to keep pedaling and because of this, he’s in perpetual motion riding through the city full-on, all the time. He “sees” options through the various obstacles which confront him on a moment by moment basis and finds his path through them.

The film takes place over a 2 hour time period when he picks up an envelope and delivers it by 7:00 PM. Not a big deal right? It is to a cop who needs to get a hold of the same envelope. The cop Bobby Monday (played by Michael Shannon), has a huge gambling debt and getting the envelope’s contents and delivering it to his debt holders will excuse his debt and the death he caused.

Wilee’s girlfriend Vanessa (played by Dania Ramirez) wants a different lifestyle so she is trying to break up with him. She’s tired of the rough and tumble life of a messenger. Vying for her attention is Manny (Wole Parks) who rides a bike with multiple gears and brakes and claims to be a better rider and man than Wilee.

To bring a level of laughter to this film, there is an ongoing sequence about a bike cop (played by Christopher Place) trying to chase down Wilee because he breaks bicycle laws and runs red lights. As I said, the fun in this film is the riding and Wilee’s avoiding being caught by Bobby for one reason and by the bike cop for another.

Gordon-Levitt is outstanding in both attitude and physicality as Wilee. I believed him in this role. Shannon had just the right level of being stupid, arrogance and bullying in the various type scenes he was given. Ramirez was OK, added some female energy to the film but it was not necessarily needed. Parks was very good as Gordon-Levitt’s competitor for both Ramirez and bike riding. Place was wonderful as the determined bike cop who was going to get his man. Aasif Mandvi as Raj the bike rider’s dispatcher was perfect. David Koepp and John Kamps wrote a fun script and story that didn’t dawdle. Koepp did a wonderful job of choreographing some great bike riding scenes and made it feel as I would imagine it to be like riding in NYC – dangerous.

Overall: This film is very watchable, fun, and very entertaining.

Today's Special

First Hit: An overall satisfying film which is about listening to oneself.

I was surprised at the engagement I had with this film. Although Samir’s (played by Aasif Mandvi) relationship with his family was typically and culturally based, the rest of the film was engaging.

Samir is a sous chef with a fancy New York restaurant with hopes of being a chef at a new offshoot of his current restaurant. However when his current chef and manager tells him he doesn’t carry the soul or drive to be a chef, he quits.

Samir makes plans to go to Paris and work for top chefs so that he can become better. But his father, who owns a rundown Indian restaurant, has a heart attack and he decides to stay home and help. Taking over his father's restaurant is a nightmare for him and he ultimately fires the cook and then hires a taxi driver named Akbar (played by Naseeruddin Shah) to be the cook.

Akbar told Samir that he once cooked for Indira Gandhi. Akbar cooks with his head, heart and stomach. He doesn’t use recipes to create his meals he uses his understanding of taste. As he cooks great food for the restaurant, the word starts to get out and it becomes more popular.

Samir is slowly learning from his friend Akbar on the ways of cooking Indian food and in a moment he is left to be the chef of his father's restaurant. Joining him is an assistant from his old job. Carrie (played by Jess Weixler) meets up with him and after they have a few dates they begin to grow something together.

At the end of the film Samir is learning his profession from his heat, heart and stomach and and learning about love of a woman and his family.

Mandvi is believable as a cook who cooks by cookbooks and not his heart. As he begins to turn his thought process around you can really sense this in the way he changes his character. Shah is outstanding as the guy to has tried everything and know what life is really all about. He is a patient teacher and a lover of life which he shares in his fortune cookie philosophy. Weixler is wonderful as the love and life interest. The film is rounded out by numerous other characters which are fun and add to the flavor of this film. Mandvi co-wrote this with Jonathan Bines and their script was crisp and to the point. David Kaplan directed this little independent film clearly and with the love of life it needed.

Overall: This was a wonderful little film which tells a nice story.