The Inbetweeners

While I accept that the series might have provided a silly entertainment to a fan base of sorts,this effort lacks so much in so many departments that I wouldn't even consider it a film.

For anyone unfamiliar with the series,the characters and their respective actors offer absolutely nothing of any value,and neither does the "plot".

It just paints a very grim picture of British youth and deteriorating British culture,forcing the audience to watch the British humour being reduced to a mixture of awkwardness,scatology and frustrated bing-drinking twats desperate to indulge in mindless sex in any shape or form.

A truly horrible thing to watch and waste your time on.

I really enjoyed the movie, it felt like a follow on from the series and had the same humour and nothing was changed it is just a carry on from the sixth form days.

Harkening back to Kevin & Perry Go Large, but perhaps a little less exaggerated, this film is a perfect representation of an 18-30's holiday. I have to say although I was creeping up towards the end of the age qualification when I went, I had the time of my life in Faliraki, which also included a boat trip, shots and fish bowls! What a great film to watch to bring back all the happy times I had there, I just wish I could at least remember somebody's name?

This film is the Inbetweeners cast doing what they do best, but on holiday and it works brilliantly. They are all such well developed characters that they can't fail to hit the spot with the practices behaviours, regular jokes and old faithful situations that they get in to, situated in a fresh new location.

Personally I was glad to see less of Greg Davies as I'm not his biggest fan and pleased to see lots of Joe Thomas, who has the cutest butt. He always makes me laugh, because he is so much like my friend Simon anyway.

Typical British lads on tour humour and just good fun.

Despite this British sitcom's surprisingly far-reaching fan base (not a single seat of the four hundred in my cinema was left unoccupied) I still find myself having to explain the show to family members, casual acquaintances and my favourite movie-loving cab driver on the way home.

So, a quick recap. The premise is simple: we follow four friends on the fringe of social status, somewhere between the 'normal kids' and the 'freaks', as they meander their way through high school and its teenage perils. There's the nerdy but level-headed narrator Will (Simon Bird), selfish relationship-dependent Simon (Joe Thomas), compulsive liar and big-noter Jay (James Buckley) and lovable dimwit Neil (Blake Harrison). The film picks up, naturally, during the last day of school. The boys decide to book a party holiday to Greece to help Simon get over his break-up with Carli, but things get hairy when Simon, who is at the furthest point from being over his ex, spots her on the same trip.

If I had to justify why I loved this film with one sentence, it would be this: at no point does it stray from the formula that made the show so refreshing. The humour is there, as are the scenes of incredible social awkwardness, but this consistency begins with proper characterisation. Every fan of the show has a personal favourite, and should be pleased to hear that their move to the big screen has not coerced creators Beesley and Morris into thinking they should customise the characters to suit a wider audience. By the end of the film, each of the four is in an inherently better position in their life than they were two hours ago, but how they all get there remains entrenched in typical Inbetweeners fashion.

What does this mean exactly? It means that the screenplay puts individual character development on the backburner for most of the film, instead preferring to fill every scene with a truckload of jokes ranging from slapstick, the spoken word and a merciless array of cringe-worthy moments; the kind that have become the niche of the series. In any other genre this could be considered a sour point, but comedies are granted exceptions on the basis that they exist primarily to entertain, not to provide a moral, or indeed, much deep thinking at all. Does each character learn something about their life through their experience in Greece? Sure. Should we expect them to let the rest of their life be guided by these same profound moments of clarity? I doubt it.

Anyone even slightly familiar with the series would be aware of its unrelentingly crude subject matter, which some might interpret as vulgar or even offensive. That's a personal call, and while it doesn't concern my comedic sensibilities in the slightest, I must warn the more politically correct among us that this is not a movie for you. Few social taboos are left undisturbed, and when you couple this with the notion that filmmakers can get away with a lot more on the big screen (a saying that rings especially true for The Inbetweeners), it is recommended that fence-sitters have a long think about how they feel about the series, lest they return home with the unexplained compulsion to take a boiling hot bath and scrub until a little skin comes off.

If I had to make a couple of minor criticisms, I would say that a handful of party clichés are overdone (see: front-on shots of friends walking in slow- motion through a club with big grins on their faces) and that some realism is lost when Simon appears too gullible to be believed (you'll know it when you see it). However, these moments are few and far between, and fail to detract from making this the funniest movie I've seen in a good few years.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review.*

Don't get me wrong - I loved The Inbetweeners series, which packed a freshness and sparkle that far outshone many of the pallid comedic offerings of the late noughties. In all accounts, sadly, I feel the film failed to capture the magic of the show.

The movie plot positively throbs with potential - horny teens, a chavvy holiday destination, a pot of money from a dead grandparent. What could go wrong? Sadly the characters proved utterly skin-deep, the jokes were sparse and predictable, and the finale an embarrassment with the characters' half-baked romances.

The television series were a warm and funny reflection on the trials of Brit adolescence. This film provides a few banal little holiday vignettes and a poo joke. Disappointing.