The hit E4 comedy returned for its second outing on the big screen recently and it’s definitely official; Inbetweeners 2 is at least as funny as the first film, if not a bit funnier. For anyone with a slightly puerile sense of humour, like us, you’ll be cracked up for the majority of the film, but if you decide to take your Mrs with you and know she’s not a big fan of cock and indeed ball jokes then you should expect lines like, “it was just a bit of a waste of time”.
While you probably shouldn’t let that phase you, it does sort of confirm that neither of the two movies have quite captured the smarter elements of the TV series, where more of a subtle comedy was used at times. There’s still a lot of great one liners and slap stick, but there’s also an element of schlock jock bants that, if we’re honest, probably goes a step or too over the line of necessity.
The storyline, written once again by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, makes for the perfect follow up to the post high school holiday craziness of The Inbetweeners Movie. This time around, they’re off overseas once again with Neil leaving behind his job, Will happy to get away from his lack of Uni mates in Bristol and Simon even happier to get away from his trainer burning bunny boiler girlfriend Lucy to visit Jay in Australia.
The result is a crazy tour of Oz that sees the quartet getting into all kinds of trouble, mischief and funny situations as they chase clunge in Sydney, Byron Bay, an Aussie water park inevitably the outback. Gap yah bashing, a good amount of references to the past exploits of the gang and just enough logical progression helps to make The Inbetweeners 2 work well enough in terms of the overall plot.
While there is obviously a fair few scenes that you’ll need to suspend belief a little to go along with, the fact that the general storyline is easily believable shouldn’t be under-appreciated.
In terms of the cast, Simon Bird (Chickens), James Buckley (Rock & Chips), Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners Movie) and Joe Thomas (Chickens) are all as strong as ever. Having worked together as the same characters for the last six years they’ve had a long time to develop the roles and theirs very little slack in the delivery during the second movie.
There are a couple of times where the acting goes a bit over the top though from some of the supporting roles, in particular with Jay’s Australian uncle, who’s just too much of a cliche to be an effective part of the film. He’s added to by Greg Davies (Cuckoo), who overcooks it a bit as their former head teacher Mr. Gilbert when he puts in a surprise showing in the film. Both roles just needed to be dialled down a notch to come across well.
Direction for the film came once again from co-creators and writers Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, who on the whole pull things together well, but with free reign they were probably left a bit unchecked. This possibly led to a few of the scenes and performances being a bit over-cooked at times. This was tempered slightly with a few cool cinematography techniques, in particular the harrowing camera shot after Will’s water slide race and the scenes in the outback.
However, for an out-and-out comedy movie, all you can really hope for is at least one moment when you’re doubled over, holding your bouncing stomach, waving your free hand at the screen to indicate to the previously filmed actors that they should stop with the hilarity for a second while you catch your breath. The Inbetweeners 2 pulls that off with ease, so from our perspective it would be difficult to put in a bad review, but if you’re just not into stupid laughs then get back on the bus, open up your briefcase and try to attract some serious “friends” to talk knitting with.
The Inbetweeners 2 review: 3.8/5
