Filthy Review - 'The Inbetweeners Movie'

The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)

Review by Jude Felton

A couple of years ago I was flicking through the channels on the old goggle box, when I came across a show called The Inbetweeners. It was showing on BBC America and followed the trials and tribulations of the socially inept Will Mackenzie and his three equally dysfunctional friends. The show was set primarily in school and hit all the right notes with me. Quite simply the show was, and still is, absolutely hilarious. The saying goes that your school days are the best of your life; this show puts a more realistic spin on that.

As is often the case the inevitable film version of the show was bound to happen, and I was intrigued to see whether the writers, Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, could stretch out the often outrageous humor to fill a feature length production; I’d heard from friends back in Blighty that it wasn’t as good as the show, but I am never one to be dissuaded. I needn’t have been concerned though, as this film is bloody hilarious.

School is drawing to an end, Will’s best friend Simon has been unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend. After a truly fantastic speech by the Head of Sixth Form, Mr. Gilbert, Will, Simon and their two friends Jay and Neil, decide to head to Crete for a summer of sun, sea, sex, booze, sex, sex and sex, before they go their separate ways.

Now, these four friends aren’t your typical group of lads, not in movie terms anyway. They really have no idea about anything at all, and find themselves in situations that most of us dread, and no doubt some of us have found ourselves in, albeit in a heightened fashion. If you have ever been on vacation to a resort, such as featured in this film, you will see how much of it rings true.

The main plot of the film, aside from four friends going on vacation, concerns Simon’s attempts at winning back his now ex-girlfriend and this involves trying to get tickets for the trip on the party boat, which everyone is going on. Mix this in with just about every cock, tits, booze, puke and shit joke you can think of, and you might get an idea of where this movie wants to take you. The humor is actually very funny; it takes very basic toilet humor and then infuses it with a sharp wit and painful reality. Smart toilet humor? You betcha!

The strength of the script does carry the film, although it is the performances of the four leads that bring this script to life; and all four are truly wonderful to watch. If I did have any complaints about The Inbetweeners Movie, it would be that there is a slight lag in the middle of the film, but this is probably down to the fact that the jokes come so thick and fast that the movie needed a breather.

The film has been compared to the American Pie series of films, and there are similarities; socially awkward kids learning about life. However, this is a very English affair, and as such there is more subtlety to the humor. Sure, most of the humor is there in your face, but there is a deeper humor there as well. Also, the cast isn’t made up of shiny happy Hollywood folk.

With this being an English movie, and a very English one at that, some of the nuances of the language may be lost on American audiences, but nothing that should take away from your enjoyment of this outrageous movie.

I thought The Inbetweeners Movie was absolutely hilarious. It’s funny, smart, extremely vulgar, and quite honestly just what the doctor ordered.

The Inbetweeners Movie opens in select US theaters September 7th.