The Inbetweeners: O Filme

This is a teen comedy film which follows on from the British sitcom The Inbetweeners. The four main characters from the sitcom go on holiday together to Malia, a seaside resort on the Greek island of Crete.

This is not as good as the sitcom, but it's better than most teen comedy films. It was followed by a sequel, The Inbetweeners 2.

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.

The critically acclaimed E4 comedy series returns for its final swansong in the form of an hour and a half film which contains among other things, sun, sex, booze, sea, booze, and, er, well sex. It is essentially an extended episode, instead of rolling this out as a summer or Christmas special under differing circumstances, writers Damon Beesley and Iain Morris who were the primary writers on the television series, have shrewdly decidedly to capitalize on the series' short fame and enter the cinematic market instead. Will's (Simon Bird) narration returns as does the crude jokes and the toilet humour, but isn't that what made the 'Inbetweeners' so hilariously funny? It's a silly, contains a formulaic plot, and stereotypical characters, but what really makes the four boys work, is there childish banter, and sexual optimism that reminds us all of what it was like to be eighteen again.

The last time we saw them on the small-screen, they were finishing up a bonding trip into the woods as each one of them were on a knife edge deciding what they would do for the rest of their lives; university, or the meat-counter at ASDA with a potential promotion up to the check-out in the works? But before they must decide what to do for the rest of their lives (also known as the next five years) they have six weeks to think it over and take the obligatory 'lads holiday' which is an old, wise British tradition for any male who reaches the age of eighteen. The tradition consists of the boys going abroad to a country, which in this case is Malia, with plenty of sun, sea, sand, and bars, and seeing how much tolerance their body has to the effects of copious amounts of alcohol, before attempting to see if this makes them any more (or less) attractive to the fellow British revellers. Premise, nice, simple, and set, and the narrative pretty many rolls it's self out from here.

Again the stars of the show are the characters, with Will's offbeat precocious nature a nice alternative to the foul-mouthed tirades of Jay (James Buckley) which have seemingly got more and more crude as the television show has gone on. Neil (Blake Harrison) on the other hand acts as welcome relief, always guaranteeing to make a laugh out of any innocuous comment he makes, which is especially helpful during the scenes involving the continued romance between Simon (Joe Thomas) and Carly (Emily Head) as it is one of those aspects they should have left to die gracefully with the television series as it seemingly drags on and on with little in the way of a rewarding conclusion. While, Allison (Laura Haddock), provides the romantic interest for Will, and their scenes are somewhat touching as they both seem fish-out-of-water in this world of drinking for twenty hours, eating for two and sleeping for five minutes.

It will almost certainly come away empty handed when the awards season comes sweeping around in Britain, and it might not very favourable with the print and online critics, but it isn't half bad as it never tries to be anything more than an feature-length episode. The jokes are still there, Jay's miraculous lies crop up every now and again, a few old and new faces make welcome cameo's and the boys still get caught up in many embarrassing situations, the majority of which involve the involuntarily showcasing of their genitals. If you look beyond the unoriginal narrative, the one-dimensional primary protagonists, the stereotypical love interests, and the unsophisticated jokes, you will probably enjoy this film for what it is.

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.

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.