New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Kim Hollis: If you google "Internship," you will discover that it earned $17.3 million this weekend. What are your thoughts on this result? Also, are Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson long in the tooth or simply in need of better projects?

Jason Barney: The Internship is hardly a story at all. The tracking was never great for this one. There wasn’t any energy in the trailers. Even fans of the actors involved were uninterested. The $58 million price tag is hefty compared to the success of the $3 million The Purge. This fourth place opening is much worse considering it was supposed to be counter programming against the other action/sci-fi options in the top 10. It didn’t do well against Now You See Me which has been out for a week. Nor did it do well against Fast and Furious in its third weekend. When all is said and done, the only notable thing about this film will be that it was a disappointment. A fourth place opening against the early summer flicks means it probably won’t hold well and will be out of the top 10 very soon.

I have never really been much of a Vince Vaughn fan, and there is a chance we saw the peak of his career years ago. Owen Wilson was great in Midnight In Paris, so he has a strong project in his resume not too long ago. Careers go up and down; both men probably have hits and misses to come.

Brett Ballard-Beach: Setting aside the fact that this might have played more successfully in 2006, when the duo were coming off Wedding Crashers, you have a younger demo (since the film is PG-13) who may not find them terribly worthwhile, and an older demo who (rightfully) wondered why Vaughn and Wilson would straitjacket themselves with a rating that ensured that this would in no way be as raunchy as WC (or Old School ,et al). That leaves diehard fans of the pair (including my wife, who saw it and loved it) to show up or not. This is the End has the buzz and the crudity and is set to sweep in in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . .

Edwin Davies: This is about what I expected given that no one seemed to have expressed any interest in it prior to release (what's the opposite of buzz? A quiet hum? If so, that's what The Internship had) and that both Vaughn and Wilson are several years past the point at which they could really open a movie that wasn't dependent on a big concept to sell it (Four Christmases, Marley and Me) or involved voiceover (The Cars movies). Both clearly peaked at height of the Frat Pack's popularity in the mid-'00s, and while I think both still have the potential to be good in the right film, their involvement is no longer a draw for people who aren't diehard fans. I think they've used up most of the goodwill people had for them at this point. The difference between the two is that Wilson still has his friendship with Wes Anderson and his indie cred from Midnight in Paris to fall back on, whereas Vaughn has remained firmly wedded to the persona that made him a star. That might come in vogue again in the future, or he might be able to transition into supporting roles that don't require him to carry the movie as he gets older, but I think the days when he could headline a movie by being an abrasive manchild are probably well and truly over at this point.

Max Braden: It seems like everyone came arrived at the same thought independently: why was this movie that would have made more sense in 2005 released eight years later? It instantly looks dated. Come to think of it, Owen Wilson looks dated too. I would have paired Vaughn with Kevin James. Even then, the trailer showed nothing about the story that would have drawn an audience. It looked like an undeveloped skit: Two middle-aged guys go for an internship... and?

David Mumpower: While I think the result borders on best case scenario given the matters addressed above, here is my question. Is there a worse recent concept for a comedy than a couple of guys in their mid-40s becoming interns? I mean, if you're going to do this bit right, at least take it to the logical extreme a la Grumpy Old Men and My Fellow Americans. I get the vibe that there was a lingering feeling that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn could still sell in the right comedy. The people holding this position were promptly disabused of the notion over the weekend. Anyone who was still hoping for Wedding Crashers 2 just saw their dream die.

Reagen Sulewski: I would actually say it bodes well for Vaughn and Wilson that they got a toothless looking comedy like this to even $17 million. We are not that far removed from The Dilemma and Hall Pass. One thing you can say for the ads for this - they did at least have a clear idea of what the movie was about, and weren't actively off-putting, to compare to those movies respectively. But a bigger problem is that I don't think anyone's looking to mid- 40s guys for ideas of how to "party down", and the overgrown frat boy act is getting a little stale. They're both going to have to reinvent themselves to some degree if they want to stay relevant.

Kim Hollis: I don't really think the opening is disappointment. I'm actually with Reagen - that it managed $17 million on a lackluster premise and stars who are far less bankable than they once were is pretty impressive to me. I really like both of these guys (in fact I'd go so far as to call myself a big Wilson fan), so I was just hoping beyond hope that the movie was actually better than it appeared in previews. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to have been the case. I tend to agree that Vaughn may have more trouble finding relevance, while Wilson is diverse enough that he'll take the odd indie film and feel right at home.

Continued:       1       2