Matt Adcock’s film review: The Inbetweeners

The Inbetweeners

Right, bumders, prepare yourself for the big screen exploits of four UK teenagers known as The Inbetweeners.

These aren’t rioting, looting chav scumbags – these are just average young middle England chaps trying to make it through their teen years.

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They’re four friends obsessed with girls, trying to be cool, the hope of sex, having a laugh, dealing with embarrassing parents and exploring the finer points of self-pleasure.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the Inbetweeners in two seriously successful series of TV adventures, they are posh nerd Will Mackenzie (Simon Bird), nice but dim Neil Sutherland (Blake Harrison), sex-mad wide boy Jay Cartwright (James Buckley) and your average lovelorn teen Simon Cooper (Joe Thomas).

The pals have survived school – the end of which is marked by a superb ‘leavers speech’ by head of sixth form Mr Gilbert (Greg Davies) in which he tells the kids in no uncertain terms how little he hopes he’ll ever see them again.

Be sure to look out for Gilbert again just as the end credits roll as he has a truly unforgettable final cameo.

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When Simon is dumped by his girlfriend/love of his life Carli D’Amato (Emily Head), the boys decide that only a post-exam dose of sun and booze in Greece will take his mind off it.

So the scene is set for a cringe-em-up horror story of cheap package holiday fun which sees the boys drinking copious amounts, getting ripped off, dancing very badly and trying with various degrees of success to hit on females.

Writers Damon Beesley and Iain Morris bring some fantastic situations to the table, which put the characters through humiliation beyond the call of duty. Think The Office played entirely with work experience kids, or maybe a British version of American Pie directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and you’ll have some idea what to expect.

The movie works better than expected – delivering plenty of ‘wrong’ laugh out loud material, some of which will have you wincing at the screen.

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If you’re one of the Daily Mail-reading reactionaries who knock The Inbetweeners for being overly crass, crude and juvenile then you really need to get over yourselves and realise that stupid and over the top as this might be it’s probably the best insight into young male minds ever.

And as Jay says: “You better bring your wellies, because you’ll be knee-deep in clunge.”

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