The Inbetweeners 2, 2014.
Written and Directed by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris.
Starring Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, Joe Thomas, and Emily Berrington.
SYNOPSIS:
Following their trip to Malia, we catch up with Will, Simon, Jay and Neil as they head on an Australian adventure
Starting its life as an E4 sitcom, The Inbetweeners has become a comedy phenomenon both here and across the pond. In their second big screen outing we catch up with the boys following their hilarious holiday to Malia. Will is the loneliest student at Bristol University, Simon is in a Fatal Attraction style relationship with Lucy (Tamla Kari), Neil is working in a Bank and Jay is apparently living it up in Australia.
We start with a hilarious montage of Jay’s crazy life in Australia where naturally he is getting blow jobs from supermodels every morning, he owns a mansion and is the best club DJ. Deciding to join him in Australia the rest of the lads find out the reality that Jay works in the men’s loos, sleeps in a tent in his Uncle’s garden and is pathetic as we remember him.
Deciding to go travelling, we follow these loveable lads from one disaster to another. The reason that The Inbetweeners has endured and reached out to all age groups is that we all knew a Will or a Jay and it harks back to our own idiotic teenage days. Writers Beesley and Morris have always had a knack for putting their characters in embarrassing but oddly believable situations. Throughout this film we’re treated to a hilarious trip to Splash Planet, near death experiences in the outback, and lots of pretentious “Gap Year” speak. This is where this film nails its humour. We’ve all met people who had “life changing” experiences on their Gap Years and this film constantly rips into this and it makes for entertaining watching. We’re treated to Will playing guitar and singing around a fire, doing all sorts of extreme sports you’re meant to do on your Gap Year. Eventually he comes to his senses and his outburst is fantastic.
The performances are as solid as ever from the 4 leads, with Will (Bird) once again the narrator we’re treated to his inner thoughts and his desire to really “do some travelling”. With Carly out of the picture, Simon (Thomas) now gets more to do and his hilariously awful relationship with Lucy is enjoyably cringeworthy to watch. Neil is still Neil and his endearing stupidity shows no signs of wavering. A spectacular moment with a dolphin had me in stitches. Strangely it is Jay (Buckley) who holds the heart of this movie with his search for a lost love driving the boys on their quest.
Although The Inbetweeners 2 is fun to watch and has some outstandingly funny set pieces, it doesn’t do anything new with the formula. Fans of the TV show will love this film but it doesn’t offer anything new. Each of the 4 boys are still as hopeless as when we first met them back in 2008 and perhaps that’s why we enjoy watching them get into even more horrific situations.
As this is their second outing, it has followed the trend that it should be bigger and better. The action is transported to various exotic locations in Australia, and the whole film feels like there’s a ton of money behind it. Unfortunately it doesn’t make it better than the first film or the TV series. Whilst I laughed throughout, the characters didn’t really develop and unlike the first film it didn’t feel like it had much heart, which is why the first film and the TV series worked so well.
The Inbetweeners 2 is no doubt a funny film and I was in hysterics for the last half of it. But it took a while to get going and its format felt a little tired. Nevertheless it was wonderful to see the fab four on the big screen again being the loveable idiots that we know and love. I’m unsure whether another outing would work for the boys but with the film having broken another box office record, you can pretty much guarantee that we’ll see Will, Jay, Simon and Neil on our screens again.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Helen Murdoch
Originally published August 10, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
