Burnham-On-Sea film enthusiast Molly Harding, who was last year nominated for the national award ‘Young Film Critic of the Year’, reviews The Inbetweeners which is now showing at Burnham’s Ritz Cinema in Victoria Street this week…
We’ve seen the end of Harry Potter but now it’s time to see the end of ‘The Inbetweeners’! And what better way go out than with a ‘mental lads holiday’ to Malia where ‘Four boys become men.’
Looking around the packed showing I could not believe how many fellow fans of The Inbetweeners there were that were hungry for an hour and a half of the boys’ squirmish, rude and downright embarrassing antics. I have been excited about the film ever since I heard it was being made. This was five months ago.
I believe the reason people love The Inbetweeners so much is because Simon, Neil, Will and Jay represent what teenagehood is actually like whilst making us cry with laughter and giving us some genius new catchphrases. The series has always maintained a sense of realism and events and talk that we all in someway can relate to.
So, obviously, there’s a lot of expectation surrounding the film and I’m not sure if it quite lived up to mine. It was a consistently funny and borderline satisfying end to a series that ended quite abruptly, but perhaps the boys just aren’t suited to the big screen. It wasn’t the belly laugh-for-laugh fest I was hoping for.
Unfortunately, the film didn’t feel the same as the series, which was so hilarious and successful it was hard to understand why they didn’t just make another series instead of a film bulked out with clichés. The problem is that at times it loses the realism that we all know and love, and replaces it with everything that the writers must have thought should happen on a lads holiday rather than what would really happen if The Inbetweeners went on a lads holiday. It tries too hard and doesn’t flow very well.
Because of the longer running time, it allows time to focus on friendship and the boys relationships and morals which is good as technically the gang are now adults and about to go their separate ways away from the painfully reassuring grounds of Rudge Park.
Bizzarly in the film a usually ‘all talk and no trousers’ but harmless Jay goes almost nasty and the hopeless but relatively ‘normal’ and likable member Simon turns slightly less so by being self-centred and insensitive.
The Malia setting captures the essence of all the tacky awfulness of teenage holiday resorts; the garish bars and swarmy waiters and there are some brilliantly crafted moments. A personal favourite for me was the ‘child by the pool’ incident and, don’t get me wrong, a whole host of other moments that had most jumping out of their chairs but left me wondering whether the film really was a good idea after all.
Despite my opinion of a series over a film, it’s a film that has been made which is a funny, awkward and (very) occasionally tender that explores the true underlying ‘fwend’ship that has always been subtly apparent throughout its four year span.
It’s been a pleasure knowing you, boys – 3/5
Read more of Molly’s regular film reviews on Burnham-On-Sea.com
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