The Inbetweeners 2

Year:  2014
Directors:  Damon Beesley and Iain Morris
Screenplay:  Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, based on the TV series The Inbetweeners created by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris
Starring:  Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, Joe Thomas, Elizabeth Berrington, Tamla Kari
Running Time:  96 minutes
Genre:  Comedy

Nerdy university student Will (Bird), unhappily partnered university student Simon (Thomas) and dim-witted bank employee Neil (Harrison) decide to take a holiday to Australia to meet their friend Jay (Buckley), who boasts that he is a millionaire superstar DJ in Sidney.  When they get there though, they quickly realise that Jay has vastly overstated the reality:  He is a toilet attendant in a Sidney nightclub and lives in a tent in his uncle's backyard.  However, when Will chances upon Katie (Berrington), who he knows from his private school days, the lads join her and her backpacking friends.  Of course, everything soon ends in a series humiliating disasters.

This second big-screen outing from the successful British TV sitcom, The Inbetweeners (2008 - 2010), takes the basic structure of the successful first film, and expands it.  The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) took the main characters from suburban England to Malia, and subjected them to the usual gross-out hilarity.  In this film, written and directed by series creators Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, making their directorial debuts, the locations are more far-flung and exotic, and the gross-out gags are grosser than ever.  It is very, very funny in places, though it is not as successful as the first film or the television series, which at it's best was a masterclass in cringe comedy, partly because this film feels almost cartoonish compared to the TV series, which, while obviously exaggerated, always felt like it had a sense of reality.  This is very much a male oriented film.  The main female characters seem to be there to either be lusted after by the guys, or to be venomous harridans.  It is also unlikely to do much for Anglo-Australian relations.  It does have some heart to it, although it seems to lack the genuine sympathy for the characters that the TV series has at it's best.  It's unlikely to win many new fans, but for those already fond of the antics of Jay, Will, Neil and Simon, there is plenty to enjoy, because it really is very funny, and there is a real chemistry between the four leads. 

Simon (Joe Thomas), Will (Simon Bird), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison) go walkabout in The Inbetweeners 2   

The Inbetweeners Movie

Year of Release:  2011
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.

         From left to right: Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison in The Inbetweeners Movie