Prime Time: The Intern (2015)

I am happy to admit it. When I saw that The Intern was written and directed by Nancy Meyers, and when I saw the poster that had Robert De Niro looking slightly awkward standing alongside Anne Hathaway,  I wasn’t ever in a rush to see it. But it became a film that I kept being reminded of over the past few years, with many people commenting that it is better than you might think.

I have to agree. The Intern is better than you might think. It’s predictable and fairly safe throughout, although that helps the most risqué gag to become even more hilarious when it happens, but it’s sweet and funny, and there are a couple of good points made throughout (about the tougher treatment of successful women and the unfair dismissal of elderly citizens with a lot of life experience to share with others).

De Niro plays Ben, a widower who is a bit bored while trying to fill his days. He sees an advert for a “senior intern” vacancy with an online clothing retailer company, applies, and soon finds himself in the midst of a whole new world. Although, as becomes clear, it isn’t actually THAT new to Ben, considering his work history and the values he holds dear. It may not be the experience he hoped for though, considering the fact that company owner, Jules (Anne Hathaway), isn’t convinced that she needs an intern.

If you think you know how The Intern is going to play out from start to finish then you would be correct. Ben wants to find more from his life, although the satisfaction of doing a good job well remains high on his list of priorities. He also has to learn some new skills to be more effective in the modern workplace. Jules has to accept help from others when she needs it, and has to find a way to strengthen her resolve when others start to doubt her capabilities. There are a couple of fun surprises though, whether they take the shape of the aforementioned risqué gag or an unwelcome character development that will have you hissing at a certain someone as if they were a panto villain.

Meyers may not make movies to suit everyone, especially if you’re not into movies that seem designed more for the entertainment and amusement of women, but there’s no denying that she does what she does damn well. She knows what she is doing, and the final result is always polished and balanced between moments of fun and moments of obvious emotional manipulation. In line with her other directorial features, this is a sweet and optimistic film that feels like a good viewing choice to make during more cynical and dark times.

De Niro is great in his main role here, not having to overdo any comedy as viewers get to see his character being sharper and more capable than people assume. He’s fastidious, he presents some old-fashioned values in a way that manages to convince others of their worth, and he convinces as a valuable asset to the company. Hathaway is very good, although slightly hindered by the trials and tribulations thrown at her character throughout the second half of the film. The two leads make a great team though, complementing one another without immediately realising how well they fit. Adam Devine, Zach Pearlman, and Christina Scherer are other work colleagues (Scherer a standout as a swamped assistant who rarely gets the recognition she deserves), Rene Russo adds some romantic potential, and is always welcome in any movie role, and Anders Holm plays Matt, the “house husband” supporting his very busy wife and looking after their young daughter (a winning performance from JoJo Kushner) for most of every day.

I’ve already written far more about this than required, but this was one of the biggest surprises from my viewing choices last week. Sweet, fun, funny, and maybe even a little inspiring, I would recommend people watch The Intern if they want to spend a couple of hours in the company of a mixed bag of characters all able to make you smile for a little while.

7/10

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Game Over, Man! (2018)

Oh boy. There's a fun idea at the heart of Game Over, Man! but it's one that is constantly being buried under a mountain of atrociousness.

Adam Devine, Anders Holm, and Blake Anderson star as Alexxx, Darren, and Joel, three male workers in the housekeeping department of some big hotel building. They're terrible at their job, and not in an amusing way. They're just so bad that you have to wonder how they have stayed in employment for more than half a day. Always looking for the chance to sell one of their big (and terrible) ideas to someone, the boys get themselves very excited when they know that their building is about to host a party for an ultra-rich celeb named Bey (Utkarsh Ambudkar). Unfortunately, there's one man (Jamie Demetriou) trying to keep unwanted members of the public away from Bae. And there are a bunch of criminals (led by Neal McDonough) about to crash the party and extort money from Bae, which gives our hapless lead characters the chance to become heroes.

If you like jokes about sperm, more gratuitous penis shots than any other comedy, even more gratuitous cameos, and a very open-minded approach to a wide variety of sexual preferences that would feel admirably progressive if every main instance of it mattering wasn't being used as a plot device, or for an easy joke, then this is the film for you.

I like Devine, and I like his usual douchebag persona, so I enjoyed some of his work here. I can't say the same about Holm (who also wrote the terrible script) and Anderson. There are hardly any other performers that I DID enjoy, sadly, with the exceptions of Demetriou, McDonough, and Rhona Mitra, and I just enjoyed Mitra because I hadn't seen her in anything for a while. Chloe Bridges tries hard, but isn't given enough to do, and Daniel Stern is stuck with the kind of role that a decade or so ago would have gone to someone like Chris Elliott.

Director Kyle Newacheck does an acceptable job, I'll grudgingly admit, with a decent way of shooting the action moments and the gags. It's that script, always that script, that undermines everything, feeling very much like something written by a bunch of drunk friends on a big night out who decided that they would very much like to star in an action comedy, but with as many unfunny jokes crammed in there as possible. I am sure that some will find the content here tasteless, while just as many others will find it hilarious. I just think it was all a bit too juvenile and didn't work with the action movie template.

This is advertised as being from the people who brought you Workaholics. Well, all I can say is that I won't be rushing to check out Workaholics. I also can't believe we get something like this while we are still deprived of a film version of One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night. Netflix (because, yes, this is another one from them), start adapting Christopher Brookmyre works and you may regain some goodwill after recent mis-steps.

3/10

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