'The Internship' Is the Real Revenge of the Nerds

The golden age of American Nerd Cinema is easy to pinpoint: from 1983 to 1985. The biggest hit of that brief, three-year period was Revenge of the Nerds, the rousing tale of the Tri-Lambs’ triumph over the preppies; it even spawned three middling sequels. But there was also WarGames, the story of a hacker who almost causes World War III, and Weird Science, in which two techies create their dream girl. All of these films have their place in the Poindexter pantheon, but the most influential remains Real Genius, about a group of brilliant, quirkily cool college students duped by the CIA into creating a lethal laser.

The Internship, the latest buddy comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, continues Real Genius’s tradition of geek chic. The movie follows two failed salesmen in their 40s who try to reinvent themselves by managing to get admitted into Google’s summer-internship program. If they “win” the internship, they get full-time jobs at the company.