The Inbetweeners 2, 2014.
Written and Directed by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris.
Starring Simon Bird, James Buckley, Joe Thomas, Blake Harrison, Emily Berrington, Freddie Stroma, and Tamla Kari.
SYNOPSIS:
Jay, Neil, Simon, and Will reunite in Australia for a holiday.
In a year where the most pushed British comedy movies have been Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie and Pudsey the Dog: The Movie, it’s refreshing to see a film like The Inbetweeners 2 – a sequel to the successful first movie, itself a spin-off from the successful Channel 4 sitcom.
Since we last saw The Inbetweeners, Will is having a miserable and friend-less time at University, Simon is feeling the pressure to stay committed to his psychopath girlfriend and Neil is… well he’s Neil. The trio get an email from the fourth part of their odd friendship, Jay, who is currently living in Australia apparently as the number one DJ at a club, living in a mansion and have threesomes with the Minogues. Bored with their UK lives, they head out to surprise Jay only to discover his email – unsurprisingly – wasn’t full of facts. Joining a group of pretentious backpackers, they soon discover what it’s really like to go ‘travelling” and find out the real reason why Jay went out to Australia.
When it comes to laughing at people who go “travelling” for six months and then talk incessantly about their “life changing experiences”, you will fall into two categories when watching The Inbetweeners 2. One side will be able to see and understand how utterly biennial their “experiences” are, and the other half will be those who go travelling for six months and come back with life changing experiences who will be able to laugh at the mirror being held up at them. Just like the students who go on clubbing holidays in the first movie, the backpackers in The Inbetweeners 2 are the most caricature versions of this culture but are still believable in their pretentiousness. It is poking fun, but it’s not malicious.
If you were a fan of the first movie, or indeed the show, then you will know what to expect when walking into The Inbetweeners 2 and the movie doesn’t do anything new or try anything clever. It just gives you what you want to see – the four lads giving it “bantz” and being embarrassed and humiliated. One of the key things with the script is that it makes you want to see the boys succeed. Just as you wanted them to get with the girls in the first movie, The Inbetweeners 2 wants you to see Will stop acting like a backpacker and join in his mate’s quest. Despite the fact that all four of them are pretty deplorable and thoroughly repugnant, you can’t help but find them likeable. You’ll be having so much fun of these four idiots make fools of themselves you won’t even question why certain characters from the previous film are missing or not even mentioned. Even as the movie came to an end, I could have happily watched another adventure with them.
As with any sequel, The Inbetweeners 2 does step up its game in terms of “outdoing” the previous outings, but not to the degree where it feels forced or even silly. There is one particular moment involving Will and a race against something rather nasty, but The Inbetweeners 2 doesn’t just resort to fart jokes and crude humour to get its kicks. Its comedy lies in the absolute embarrassment of its main stars and seeing just how they can become even bigger losers than they already are.
Perhaps your enjoyment of The Inbetweeners 2 will boil down to how much you enjoyed the original series and the last movie. If you weren’t a fan, then this will not be the movie to change your minds. But fans will really enjoy it. It’s hilarious from start to end with some huge belly-laughs and it has enough sweetness and genuine love for the characters in there so that it doesn’t feel like a cheap cash-in project. The cast all do a great job with the material, the story is smart and it will leave you wanting to see a third movie.
Let’s put it another way – it’s a lot better than Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published August 6, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
