Director: Ben Palmer
Screenplay: Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, based on the television series The Inbetweeners created by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris
Starring: Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison
Running Time: 97 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Nerdy Will McKenzie (Bird), lovelorn Simon Cooper (Thomas), mouthy Jay Cartwright (Buckley) and dopey Neil Sutherland (Harrison) have finally finished their A-levels and are about to leave high school for an unsuspecting world. To celebrate finishing school, and also to cheer up a recently dumped Simon, the boys decide to go on a "lad's holiday" to the Greek island of Malia to indulge in sun, sex and booze, not necessarily in that order. However the holiday soon turns into a catalogue of humiliating disasters.
The Inbetweeners was a British television comedy show about four teenage boys growing up in suburbia, which ran for eighteen episodes between 2008 and 2010, and quickly went from a small cult series to a hit mainstream success, even now, ten years after it ended, there is rarely a week goes by without at least one episode being shown somewhere on British TV. The film takes the tried and tested route of umpteen big screen adaptations of British TV comedies, by whisking the familiar characters away to a new location. There is really nothing here that you wont have seen many times before, but it's an enjoyable and very funny film. As with the series, the film concentrates on cringe humour and toilet humour, although all the gross-out elements have been dialed up for the film. However, again as with the series, what makes the film work is that there is a heart beating under all the bodily fluids and knob gags. As badly as the boys behave, they never entirely lose sympathy. Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison are good as ever in their familiar roles. The film also features Laura Haddock, Tamla Kari, Jessica Knappett and Lydia Rose Bewley as the group of girls who befriend the boys, and Emily Head as Simon's ex Carli (incidentally Emily Head's father, Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Anthony Stewart Head, has a cameo as Will's father). The female characters are sidelined, in favour of the boys antics. Although Laura Haddock is very good as Alison and her romance with Will is quite touching. Familiar faces from the TV series make brief appearances, with Greg Davies as the sardonic teacher Mr. Gilbert giving a memorable speech to the school leavers ("Try not to kill anyone. It reflects very badly on all of us here.")
This will definitely please fans of the TV series, and if you haven't seen it, then the film is still perfectly accessible.
It's perfect funny, late night, post-pub entertainment.
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