Inbetweeners

I'm not surprised few people have seen this film, but I am surprised by the low score. Well, maybe I'm not.

You undoubtedly will not appreciate this film unless you have been to a British university. It perfectly captures the awkwardness and general stupidity of life as a "fresher" (that's "freshman" to you yanks). The first three questions you always get asked, the crap parties, the bizarre conversation and general lack of work all make this film absolutely spot on. It shows in a rather un-nostalgic kind of way what life as a fresher was like - crap, in a good and fun kind of way.

It's completely unlike any US college film like Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds, more dramatic, and more true to life. I definitely recommend seeing this film.

Well, I have been to a British University, in fact I went to the one in this very film, and it was nothing like that. This is a horrible, badly made and acted film. Worst thing is, it could have been really good, if they bothered to spend more that 12p on it, in fact if it really wanted to represent true British Students it should off acted like one and took out a 15 thousand pound loan. It says nothing about Uni life, where was the bush diving, the tea drinking till 4am, the endless chats about group dynamics??? Where was the diversity and fun? Maybe I'm just being romantic, but I don't remember Fresher's Week being that awful, and I'm teetotal. And in the end the question still remains...a bed or a wardrobe?

This is possibility the worst and most disappointing film I have ever seen. I've spent four years at two universities and know that there must be a good film to be made about the experience. This isn't it. The "acting" is god awful and the plot non-existent.

Here are a few incidents from my one year in halls of residence.

1) A posh lad that unknowingly got off with a transvestite. 2) The best friend pairing of two girls - one with huge breasts and the other with the nickname "the brick". 3) A couple that shag too loudly. 4) The lad who gets all the girls 5) The lad from Northern Ireland who is very difficult to understand. 6) McDonalds in bed 7) Curry every night for a week 8) Student bashing, couple of my mates ended up in hospital 9) The discarded joint that started a fire. 10) The flood 11) The lad who wakes up on his floor to find that every item of furniture has be taken from his room.

And if I can come up with that list in 5 minutes and from real life, I'm sure a couple of script writers can do better, a lot better.

And for a film named after a Sleeper song, where is the Britpop soundtrack?

There are a lot of 'bad' films out there. Tune in to Channel 5 every night of the week and you might just be treated to a daily, shocking effort from one filmmaker or another. There are possibly films that have caused me more pain - were harder to sit through - than this, but in terms of writing, acting, direction, cinematography and the bare basics of cinema Inbetweeners is a truly, truly appalling effort and should be avoided at all costs. The only laugh it gave me was in the behind the scenes documentary on the DVD, in which the film's geeky director Darren Fisher explains how it was his script that attracted the 'talent' to the project! Never underestimate the power of self-delusion.

Darren Fisher - Britain's answer to Edward D. Wood Jr.!

is Darren Fisher the next Malcolm Bradbury..? quite the opposite - rather than an overly caricatured set of extreme personalities driving the storyline, Fisher tells it like it is Quite honestly, students are not all in a constant flux of drugs, gigs and sex...mostly, they are normal people going through normal emotions - awkwardness, discovery, embarrassment, excitement...

Given the budget Fisher worked with, this is an interesting addition to the Campus genre - if parents want to see what their loved ones will be doing in college, this is closer to the truth than other more populist exaggerations.