8. The Internship - Google
Very odd one this; a film based around two technologically out of touch middle aged men trying to fit in with one of the hippest, most culturally diverse mega companies in the world wasn't at all funded a single dime by company in question. 'Google' has probably been used by everybody who has access to the internet at one point or another in their life, if not every single day. They potentially know more about you than anyone else on the planet thanks to your endless searches of likes/questions/wants/secret issues/desires/self-diagnoses (come on, you're all doing it). Their astronomical annual turnover is 50 billion dollars - So surely they used some of that money to pay for a film that stars (slightly) waning comedians Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and also heavily endorses their ethic and work style? Well no, not a thing. The script was conceived by Vince Vaughn himself, who later went to Google to show them and ask permission to use their brand in a film that effectively pokes fun at them (as well as the Luddites portrayed by Wilson and Vaughn). They looked at the script, agreed that it was fine (after a few minor changes) and sent Vaughn on his merry way, not once asking for a cut of the profits. They even allowed director Shawn Levy to shoot parts of the movie on their campus, use 'Google' staff as extras and helped the crew mock up a version of the aforementioned workplace. The film itself feels wrong on so many levels, but most strikingly apparent is the over excessive use of the brand which only succeeds in making the whole affair one huge walking advert that no amount of comedy or tongue in cheek self-reflection can mask. Also, the overall message for the film seems to be that if you're unlucky enough to be made redundant in the height of a global recession and are of a certain age, then all you need to do is take some isolated young nerds out to a strip club, get them drunk and boom - Goodbye Analogue and hello Digital. This is a toe curling exercise in free advertisement coupled with a gargantuan sense of self-congratulation; a very rare coupling in the world of product placement in films.