Or "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes".
It was that or "Don't mind me, I'm just here for Megan Boone".
So, I was looking through the Paramount+ app after watching a Star Trek: The Animated Series episode and I came across a movie called The Internship. It looked interesting... and then I saw one of the cast names. It was obvious immediately that this was not only something for me to watch, but a review case as well.
Anyway, the choice of the title comes down to this being a rather well-worn plot, told with Zoomers.
The movie opens in Moscow at the FSB headquarters, where a young American woman (played by Lizzy Greene) infiltrates her way into the building, accesses a secure room... and then things gets shooty-shooty. Not to mention knifey-knifey. This woman through the course of the movie does enough headshots for a casting agency. Her codename is Catalyst and it turns out that she was part of a black ops program to turn children into spies by taking them from their parents, then engaging in intense training with more than a bit of torture involved.
Now, she and some of her barely-out-of-high-school fellow escapees from this CIA version of the Black Widow programme (albeit with boys as well) are after the people who did this to them.
So is Russian intelligence, with Vlad (Jonas Armstrong) sent after them by his boss, Steven Berkoff again playing a Russian baddie but without the divisions in Czechoslovakia at his command.
The CIA is also aware of these renegade operatives and to lead the operation, they get CIA analyst Janice Dalton (Megan Boone). She brings in her ex-boyfriend and it quickly becomes clear that there's a personal reason for all this. Catalyst is the daughter she had when she was 17, given up for adoption. Strong shades of The Blacklist here - this is only her second TV or film role since she left that show too.
(Ms Boone has also deactivated her Instagram account, which is her choice at the end of the day)
Dalton brings in her ex-boyfriend, Nelson, who just happens to be played by Sullivan Stapleton. He used to work for the CIA until he punched out his boss, Dick Jones. Now this is where one fun element of the movie comes in. Jones is played by Philip Winchester. Stapleton and Winchester appeared to together on the Cinemax series Strike Back, where they got to see the world, meet interesting people, kill the evil ones and sleep with the sexy female ones. They also engaged in a good deal of verbal sparring, which they do so here.
The movie itself sees "the interns" head to the United States, with both agencies after them, suspiciously close to the point they suspect there's a mole in the team.
It's not the most engaging of plots, and perhaps the whole team dynamic might have worked a bit better if I was closer to the ages of the main character, instead of old enough to be their parents. It's nice to see that overweight white young men are represented too and that they get something too. Also, it's not the first time that Megan Boone has played a mother.
The action itself is a mixed bag. There's rather a lot of Adrenaline Time throughout the movie, especially when things get throwy-knifey. Catalyst does a bit of firing two guns while jumping through the air, which makes this author think of Hot Fuzz where it's royally sent up. That movie was released in 2007... and Lizzy Greene was four then. Seriously, I'm getting old. Stapleton and Winchester get a good fist-fight, which to them was just like riding a bike. With more breakages. Ms Boone herself gets a bit of action near the end that made me exclaim in joy.
Much of the movie is set in the US, but the location filming in Bulgaria is painfully obvious, because NYC doesn't really look like that. Megan Boone, who spent a good deal in time in NYC filming The Blacklist, must have really noticed. Setting a good part of the movie in Little Odessa, the Russian/Ukrainian part of the Big Apple, helps only a little.
(This reminds me of another show filmed in Sofia but set in Boston - Absentia - along with one of my regular jokes involving Stana Katic and ex-DB carriages)
What elevates this movie beyond the mediocre and into the mildly good is the reveal of the mole at the end. I won't spoil it here, but I was reminded of a previous role of said person. It also means I can't use a joke I'd come up with before watching this, but such is life.
Conclusion
This tale drags a bit, but is ultimately saved by the final twist, which raises it up a whole point.
7/10
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