The Inbetweeners Movie

I'm going on holiday in a fortnight, something which I am greatly looking forward to. The sun, sea and sand will be a welcome break from our oh-so-typical rainy English summer and I can sit back and enjoy the atmosphere of bars, clubs and restaurants in a relaxed and laid-back way. I'll be able to wander the street markets, climb picturesque cliff tops and take in the historic beauty of the cities and towns...wait a second, who am I kidding? If it's anything like The Inbetweeners Movie, I'll be coming home penniless, hungover and most probably with more than one or two unFacebookable photos. But surely that's what a teenage holiday is all about?! Well, according to The Inbetweeners Movie, it is.

The film picks up from where the hit Channel 4 TV series left off, following the four social misfits as they finish school and, before going to uni, head to Crete in search of a lads' holiday to remember. As with the television series, things don't go smoothly for the friends, especially when it comes to Simon getting over his recent break-up and Jay's on-going hunt for a woman. However, it was this continuity which, in a way, jarred with me. As to be expected, the very explicit humour seen in the TV series was continued and, in places was rather funny although the audience I was in seemed to only chuckle now and then, totally unlike (dare I say it) when I saw The Hangover Part 2. However, at times it felt very un-cinematic and could easily have been cut down to an extended TV episode. This doesn't mean that the script was overly weak but I saw no reason for it to be in a film format and I can't help thinking that it is the creators' last effort to squeeze as much revenue from the series as possible. Now I'm not saying that it wasn't funny – it was – but there seemed to be far fewer major laugh-out-loud jokes than in the original series and it struck me that the writers were perhaps running out of material even though putting the boys in a new setting such as Malia should have produced more creative ideas than Lady Gaga in a fancy dress shop. On another level. the plot seemed to drag in places and certain scenes felt disjointed and necessary.

There were, however, many good points about the film. Simon Bird's narration as the overly-mature Will helped to make the antics of the famous four even more cringe-worthy and Jay's (James Buckley) totally crude and less than eloquent observations that the holiday was going to be like “shooting clunge in a barrel” capitalised on the humour which had made the original series so popular. Although Joe Thomas' character Simon became more and more annoying as the film progressed, Neil (played by Blake Harrison) provided several comedic gems including his observations on God and his rather worryingly honed skill of seducing women more than twice his age. The film never gave the audience too much emotion, even with Simon's relationships with Carli and Lucy and, in a way, this was a good thing. People won't want to go and see The Inbetweeners Movie in order to see the boys change as characters into caring, kind and considerate young men but instead they will want to see more of the same behaviour seen in the TV series. The film was never going to be daring in this respect and it is clear that the writers have played it safe (even though some of the content was still very shocking – as a friend of mine pointed out, the 'fat' girl wasn't even that fat!). All in all, the film is worth seeing, even if only to say you've seen the final chapter of The Inbetweeners. The script has just about enough in terms of humour and comedy to keep its head above water but could so easily have been funnier if it had been a TV special. Going to see it is more like sitting in your living room surrounded by total strangers guzzling on popcorn and Ben and Jerry's. Not really the cinema experience I like to pay for. 

Clapperboard Rating: * * *