Review of The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) by Kev_I_N — 14 Jul 2013

Summary.

+Very good comical writing, with nice twists.

+Good acting from the cast particular from Will (I will refer to characters by character name not the actor who plays them).

+Great scenes that help to make the film more iconic when compared to average comical films.

-Most of the characters personalities are not explored leaving most to be uninteresting.

-The film lacks originality when compared to “Kevin and Perry Go Large”, which follows a very similar storyline yet with more twists than the Inbetweeners movie.

-The films story is very predictable with not enough turns to make the story remarkable.

In short in my opinion the film is ok for a Friday/Saturday night watch, but compared to Kevin and Perry Go Large, the film falls flat, hence it is nothing that is outstanding.

Full Review.

I wish to say at the start of the review that my actually score is that of 6.5. This is largely due to the vast variety of comedy in the film, ranging from clever remarks from Will, to crude humour from the cast on the whole e.g. James snorting poo with coke.

As a send-off to the brilliant Inbetweeners series, the film does a good job. It still maintains what was a great feature of the series which is the continuation of the conflicts between the personality of the 4 friends (Will, Simon, Jay and Neil). This is particularly the case with the conflict between the sensible Will who fails to understand what a Lad’s Holiday really consist of; and Jay who wants to go all out looking for easy booze and sex (and fails at the sex part till the end). Therefore with regards to being true to its source material the film does a god job. Unfortunately one thing fans of the series will notice is that the film in many ways feels restrained, with regards to how crude the film is. This is probably due to the fact its rated 15 (Teen) instead of 18(Mature). While this is understandable because the directors of the film wouldn’t want to deny the film to potential viewers, it has negative impact on the quality of the comedy. Another thing the fans will notice is how iconic characters from the series are hardly featured in the film. This can be seen by how Mr Gilbert is only used in a one minute farewell speech to the students, which annoyingly is one of the most worthy moments of the film.

With regards to acting again this is a mix bag. It is certainly worth giving credit to Will, who is by far the best portrayed character. He real adds to the comedy of the film, because he provides to a nerdish prospective on an otherwise stereotypical party movie. Unfortunately the other characters are really dry. This is particular true of the 4 girls the lads meet up with, because while each having their own quirks, they are not exploited enough, thus making them less special. However possible the greatest weakest character is that of Simon who spends the time ignoring obvious access to minge (Lucy) in favour of his ex. However he fails to portray much emotion beyond mediocrity.

However possible the main issue of the film is that of how predictable the story is. It is clear what will happen once the four lads meet the 4 girls, (spoiler) each of the four lads will each shag one of the girls. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if the film had enough twist to make the story interesting throughout. Unfortunately there isn’t enough twist, to make the story stand out, because many of the twist feel more like fillers. This can be seen with the character Richard who was added to add some sense of quirkiness to the film, but instead adds very little to the film other than confusion.

Furthermore the predictable nature of the story in many ways makes the film feel contrived and nonsensical. An example of this can be seen by how in one part of the film Will mention how he is thinking of committing suicide, which is a huge over-reaction. Them literally 10 seconds later after basically being told by Neil you only live once, Will becomes all happy and up to get “royally f***ed up”. Another example of this is that of how the main characters (with the exception of Will who throws up throughout the end part of the film) have the remarkable ability to drink countless shots and not be affected at all, e.g. the characters never struggle to walk in a straight line etc.

All this amounts to a film which while funny at first, lacks the needed elements to make it anything more than an average comedy.