The Inbetweeners Movie

Ben Palmer

BY Scott A. GrayPublished Feb 7, 2013

4
Picking up where the third (and last) season of this crude British high school comedy series left off, The Inbetweeners Movie manages to capture only some of the show's already modest filthy charm. No previous experience with the program is necessary to dive into the misadventures of four immature buddies in pursuit of intoxication and sex. There are a few nods to long-time fans, but the plot, which takes place during a tumultuous post-graduation summer vacation, is essentially a mix of Euro Trip and American Pie. After being dumped by his lifelong crush, Carli (Emily Head), Simon (Joe Thomas) embarks upon a trip to Malia to drown his sorrows with best friends Will (Simon Bird), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison). The juvenile social pariahs bring their brand of irreverent and uncouth awkwardness along for the ride, to mixed results. If you're shocked by things like lunchmeat as a masturbatory aid, casual minging cougar finger-banging and find inopportune male nudity implicitly funny, the lazily titled Movie is a barf bag full of laughs. What's a little more thoughtful is the way in which director Ben Palmer and writers Iain Morris and Damon Beesley take the piss out of the rampant clichés charting the course of this standard line-up of erection-fuelled life lessons. Every time the picture builds towards a saccharine, dramatic convenience, something a little closer to reality sets in to flip the bird at convention. Unfortunately, these are just a series of bait-and-switches on the way to a completely predictable and consequence-free conclusion. Comprising the special features are four separate commentary tracks. The first, by the foursome of Bird, Buckley, Harrison and Thomas, is the funniest, with the boys employing the natural chemistry that made the show a success, riffing on topics like the appeal of having a barbed animal penis. Less directly entertaining is a talk with three of the girls who play the conveniently matched objects of affection to the pack of insecure horn-dogs: Tamla Karl, Lydia Bewley and Jessica Knappett. Continuing the descent of interest for all but the most hardcore fans are a commentary with the screenwriters and yet another with the production designer, director and director of photography. If you fancy low-stakes wank jokes, you could do worse — like any of the direct-to-video entries in the American Pie franchise.
(Alliance)

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