The Internship (2013)

Even if you haven’t seen “The Internship,” you’ve seen it. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson reprise their tired roles as the 40-year-old past-cool frat boys from a dozen prior movies. You know the map: The best-pal guys are cool king cats who get blown low, mope, find a crazy angle to hit it big, and against all odds succeed and learn to be real adults. Credits. Nothing new. Even the fuck granny jokes play like repeats a decade old. But, damn it, I laughed when these guys con their way into gigs as Google interns, competing against tech geeks half their age and double their IQ. I got suckered. The hook: Vaughn and Wilson are roped into a Quidditch match, the actual field game inspired by Harry Potter and played by thousands of college youth. “Who the fuck is that?,” Wilson asks, dumb founded as a man in a glittery gold outfit takes the grass. It’s a comedy of generational divide, yes, repetitive, yes, and definitely too long, but I got it. I work on a college campus, where students play Quidditch, and I knew what Wilson spoke of. B

Midnight in Paris (2011)

“Midnight in Paris” is a delight. A reminder that Woody Allen is one of the best movie writers/directors out there no matter how creepy he is off camera. This is a comedy about a struggling American novelist (Owen Wilson) who becomes lost – figuratively and literally – in Paris’ nighttime streets, the lights and spirits of deceased artists, musicians and writers lulling him in utopia. Then he gets lost – in time – when a 1920s taxi, every night at midnight, whisks him away to the days of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Cole Porter and Ernest Hemingway, what Owen’s Gil considers the greatest era for artisans in history.

Back in 2010, Gil is the fiancé of a wealthy woman (Rachel McAdams) who as with her Tea Party parents rejects anything not American and has no appreciation of art. Only status. She openly pines for a former professor, a know-it-all played wonderfully by Michael Sheen, who starts off every sentence with, “If I’m not mistaken,” when he is indeed. So, yes, Allen uses the crutch of the wicked girlfriend to allow his male hero the right to fall in love with the more pure Adriana (Marion Cotillard), the mistress of Picasso. Small error in a grand film.

This just isn’t a new classic Allen comedy, it’s a tweak at nostalgia fever by both Tea Party Americans who long for the founding days of America, and daydreaming liberals who think art was somehow more pure 100 years ago. Both are wrong. “Midnight” has more wit than any film I’ve seen all year. The best joke has Hemingway, Picasso, Fitzgerald, Dali (Adrian Brody!) and dozens of others treated as biopic shadows. Picasso belligerent, Dali talking nonsense and Hemingway uttering every word like a bull fighter with a rifle slung over his shoulder. It is all a wicked satire ala homage. The great artists (and he never says it, but Founding Fathers) we uphold as gods are as false as the notion that life was happier in 178whatever. Fact: You were likely to die of small pox than live out a life of glorious freedom, no matter what cracked teapot Michelle Bachman says.

The best scene has Gil talking to Dali and his fellow surrealists, fretting over his time travel predicament, confused by the mess of his life, and they nod their heads, knowingly and approvingly. Flustered, Gill spits out, they’re surrealists, they have no concept of normal. Fantastic screenplay. Wilson has never been more likable, and “Inception” star Cotillard knocks every other female onscreen out of the park. A

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Wes Anderson's films are love letters to quirky people and to their messy lives and the lovely music that serves as their soundtrack. In "The Darjeeling Limited," we follow three estranged brothers (Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman) as they reunite on an Indian train for a so-called spiritual journey. Each is equally messed up, and carries an addiction to one drug or another, or many.

Not as brilliant as "Rushmore" or Anderson's earlier films, it's still a winner as we watch the messy noise and emotions of people who are related, but who can't relate, come together. Wilson, who normally tires me, nails the role of the tight-wad control freak eldest brother who has had his face smashed in. (That Wilson has always looked like he's had his face smashed in is perfect.) He uses his laconic laid-book coolness as weapon, as if he naturally knows what's best for everyone around him, and is shocked dumb that no one can figure it out.

The film is funny, sweet and when it takes a dramatic turn, soulful. It makes anyone who doesn't talk to his own brothers, long for a train ride. As always, the music, sights and performances all are top notch. Angelica Houston, another regular player of Anderson, appears, as does Bill Murray in a briefly funny and pointless role. B+

Cars (2005)

Re-watching Pixar's "Cars" recently, I had the same reaction upon seeing it in theaters in 2006. I liked it the first time I saw it in 1990, when it was called "Doc Hollywood" and featured a game Michael J. Fox and a nude Julie Warner. The plot also steals from the Tom Cruise drama "Days of Thunder." Here, a self-worshipping race car (Owen Wilson's voice) is lost in rural America, gets arrested and finds his soul among the little small-town people ... err, cars and trucks (including the voice of Paul Newman) through community service. It's a great looking film, for sure; Pixar always is at the top of the computer animation game. And Larry the Cable Guy provides the best laughs as a tow truck. But, man, this story is old and tired. This is the first Pixar film to feel like a retread, and its life lessons are heavy handed and a lie (plenty of big-city folk mange to live happily). Still, those tractor tipping scenes kill every time. C+