Film Review: The Internship

Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in The Internship
Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in The Internship

(NOTE:  I worked at Google for a number of years.  Let us just say that I may be slightly biased…but I can also shed some light on accuracies and inaccuracies depicted in The Internship about life at Google.)

In a performance review, The Internship would meet expectations.  It is a silly film with a few laugh-out-loud moments and many more moments that miss the mark.  We have seen this story before —  a group of underdogs learn to work together and discover real value in themselves that helps them fight against the odds.  It crosses every stereotype and dots every cliché.  The Internship borrows elements from fish out of water stories, bromance plots, and sappy inspirational tales.  Such a concoction of non-surprises fit into a one-note joke of a movie would be forgivable if it were actually hilarious.  Unfortunately, it is not.  However, if you are a fan of Vince Vaughn’s motor mouth, you will have a good time.  If you work in the tech industry, you will find the film highly amusing.  But most importantly, if you don’t expect much, you will be decently rewarded.

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SFIFF Spotlights #3: Computer Chess / Google and the World Brain / The Kings of Summer

The SFIFF continues to showcase fascinating films from around the world.  It ends soon (May 9th) so visit http://festival.sffs.org/ to get tickets to this week’s final screenings.

Computer Chess
(USA 2013, 91 min)

Computer Chess
Computer Chess

An existential satire of 1980’s computer technology and the burning topic (as it stood at the time) of human vs. computer, set against the backdrop of a small computer chess tournament.  Devotion to an 80’s feel through cinematography, fashion, and hilarious social stigmas are definitely worth the viewing, though the film dives a bit unnecessarily into the psychedelic.  It’s fun to see (and remember…if you’re old enough) how the computer geek culture has changed.

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SF MusicTech Summit 7: Why Attend and How to Save on Admission

In less than a week, the seventh installment of the biggest and best day-long music technology conference to ever grace the Bay Area will take place on Monday, December 6th at Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco’s Japantown district. If you’re an artist, music journalist, or involved in any facet of the industry, then you certainly don’t want to miss out on the sessions or, quite frankly, the abundance of opportunities to network and learn from some of the leaders and innovators in this space. After the jump, find out more about the event and how you can save money simply by being a reader of Spinning Platters…

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