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'Inbetweeners Movie' review: Dweebs on holiday

Updated 3:02 am, Friday, September 7, 2012
  • Four geeky British lads take a vacation together with shagging on their minds. Photo: Wreckin Hill Entertainment


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The Inbetweeners Movie


Comedy. Directed by Ben Palmer. With Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas. (R. 97 minutes.)

If nothing else, "The Inbetweeners Movie" proves that raunchy comedies about horny teens aren't just an American quirk. A year ago, the film set an opening weekend box-office record for a comedy in the United Kingdom.

A fitfully entertaining twist on the "American Pie" formula, even if it breaks no new ground, "The Inbetweeners Movie" had a leg up in its homeland. It's based on a popular TV series that ran in Britain from 2008 to 2010, and stars the show's four male leads.

(The original show was broadcast in this country on BBC America, and a U.S. remake is airing on MTV.)

There isn't much of a plot, because movies like this really don't need one. Four dweeby lads set off for a holiday to the party town of Malia, Crete, in hopes of getting laid. They meet a group of girls who are (and aren't) their counterparts. Misadventures ensue.

There's a lot of drinking, naughty words are used, the boys suffer numerous humiliations - some involving bodily fluids - bullies are encountered, and sex is pursued with varying degrees of gusto, terror, sentimentality and grim determination.

In other words, it's the spring-break formula. We do see a bit of the boys' family lives, and at one point the group splits into factions. But really this kind of picture is just an excuse for a string of skits. Some of them keel over and die, but, in the hands of director Ben Palmer (a veteran of the original TV series), a surprising number are either funny or - even more surprising - mildly touching.

It's also part of the formula that each of the foursome has a ruling characteristic or two: one's a brainiac (Simon Bird), another is bristly and totally focused on losing his virginity (James Buckley), the third's a seeming dolt (Blake Harrison, who spends most of the film with his face ineptly man-tanned), and the fourth is a more or less regular guy (Joe Thomas).

Also reprising a role from the series is Emily Head, who plays Carli, the girl who broke the Thomas character's heart and just happens to be in Malia at the same time as the fellows. (The other females are played by Laura Haddock, Lydia Rose Bewley, Jessica Knappett and Tamla Kari.)

While these films are about rudeness and crudeness, I have to say that, by American standards, the raunch level in "The Inbetweeners Movie" is relatively mild. An unexpected amount of comedy here is of the non-transgressive sort - for instance, the fellows engage in goofy dances to catch the girls' eyes.


To read David Wiegand's review of the MTV version of "The Inbetweeners," go to sfg.ly/TjwGmr.
