My review of The Inbetweeners Movie

Nick and I went to a matinee of the new Inbetweeners movie this weekend. Here’s my little review (it’s not a spoiler for those who haven’t seen it).

When I heard The Inbetweeners were making a movie, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. We had watched the refreshingly funny three TV series back-to-back and even have the DVD, but one thing I liked about it was that it had a shelf life. Inbetweeners aren’t really proper teens yet (a bit like the crowd at V – see my last blog entry!) and at some point they would have to grow up and hang up their school uniforms.

Also would a half-hour comedy fit the hour and a half feature format? They went for a bit of a safe plot for the film – a lads holiday in the tacky resort of Malia. One thing I have always loved about the geeky capers is that the 30-minute TV slot allows for a genius comical build up into a huge, sidesplitting crescendo. It works on TV because it’s a clever combination of comic timing and visual humour. A classic is the revealing catwalk scene in the school fashion show, where Nick and I couldn’t see through our tears.

The truth is the film is a real giggle, it’s light hearted, the characters are still cringe-worthy and sadly we can all relate to them on some level. I certainly have an inner nerd!

It takes the guys no time to pick up their characters where the TV show left off. I was worried that there wouldn’t be a post-school role for the hilarious, fascist head of sixth form Mr Gilbert who makes a ‘true to form’ appearance. The disastrous, embarrassing ‘dad’ characters all have their lines too. Why is it that all dads are horrible in Inbetweeners?

Maybe it was my frame of mind (grey, wet bank holiday weekend) but I also thought a few bits were ‘unfunny’ too. They introduce a nutty single ‘bloke’ who crops up with a few lines that didn’t make me laugh and the film didn’t do much for my short attention span when the foursome have a short bust up mid-film. There were a couple of plot fillers too where our favourite nerds get serious and sentimental. There is even a little bit of bullying when Jay gets picked on in a club by a cooler chap which didn’t fit the bill for me.

But all the real Inbetweeners ingredients are there – smutty scenarios that are too gross to watch, base toilet humour and disasters with girls. Simon is still chasing Carly, Jay is still boasting his (non-existent) sexual prowess and Neil has his dippy lines.