A lot of movie comedies leave me cold. I find I enjoy the performances but wish the script could be sharper to match. The worst offender is often big screen adaptations of successful TV sitcoms. What works well in tight 30 minute slices often feels stretched and bloated to fill 2 hours. So I went into The Inbetweeners movie expecting the chuckles to be as sparse as the sexual conquests. Thankfully, the lads blew my expectations. This is one funny film... as long as The Inbetweeners is your kind of funny.
Like the TV show that spawned it, The Inbetweeners is immature, indecent, icky and idiotic. Much has been written about why the adventures of four sexist and sexually inept Sixth Formers should have captured the nation's heart so, but the reasons are obvious. We all knew lads like this at school - hell, many of us were lads like this at school... and probably still wish we could be. There's the pedantic geek (guilty), the lovestruck sap, the inveterate bullshitter and the big dumb oaf with a heart of gold. We all love a loser - because that's how most of us felt in high school. But by the time we hit the Sixth Form, we'd usually found our niche - and mates who'd stay with us forever.
Much of the Inbetweeners humour is near-the-knuckle or downright crude, but it's rarely cruel. It kicks political correctness in the goolies yet never feels offensive. Largely that's because our four straight white male heroes are buffoons, so we're laughing at their attitudes and opinions as much as their antics. And for all their gross-out sex-talk and objectification of women, the girls they encounter are usually smarter, sassier and cooler than any of the Inbetweeners could ever hope to be.
I never went on an 18-30 holiday with my mates, but this film is exactly how I'd imagine such an experience. (People I know who did say it's spot on.) It's hideous... yet also heartwarming. These are the very best of times, and the worst, and The Inbetweeners movie captures that sense of joyful camaraderie you'll either fondly recall from your schooldays... or wish wholeheartedly you could have experienced. Sprinkle liberally with graphic jokes about masturbation, deviation, regurgitation and defecation - plus lashings of humiliation - and it's an experience you'll remember for the rest of your life.
My only real complaint was that we didn't get more of Head of Sixth Form Mr. Gilbert. Greg Davies' opening speech must echo the unspoken thoughts of teachers across the land with its frank "I never liked any of you" message. Fortunately this isn't the very last we see of Mr. Gilbert... but maybe he could get his own spin off show now?
