ITS one interesting success story to see a sitcom on a non-terrestrial TV channel to spawn a box office topping "lads on tour" movie. Its another to try it again, and with the same premise.
The Inbetweeners was perhaps the right sitcom for the right time when it first aired in 2007, bringing the tale of four awkward schoolkids uncertain of their place in the school ecosystem to E4. Filled with dirty humour, adolescent crises and more, it is a good incarnation on the small screen. When it made its big screen debut, it had a bit of a hit-and-miss gag rate, and awkwardly ran out of jokes as it neared the final straight. But it proved surprisingly big box office, with the film being the third highest grossing film in the UK in 2011 and the-then highest debut for a comedy in this country.
This is better by virtue of the fact that joke-for-joke, this doesn't run out of steam for the last straight, has some more consistently funny bits, and there is a feeling of more ambition in this piece. This is even from the very well realised Harry Potter parody at the start of the film, and the introduction to Jay (James Buckley) in shots that recall some of the more excessive moments of The Wolf of Wall Street.
The film's prologue is very brief. We're reintroduced to the boys - nerdy Will (Simon Bird) is now an unhappy loner in denial at Bristol University, lovestruck dork Simon (Joe Thomas) is stuck in a psychotic relationship and a sociology degree at Sheffield University, lovable dimwit Neil (Blake Harrison) is now employed and the habitual liar Jay is claiming to be a big DJ in an Australian club with a private mansion full of sexual conquests. Perhaps naturally its quickly revealed he's actually a toilet attendant in the club and lives in a tent in the garden of his Australian uncle.
With Will and Simon hating university and opting to max out their student loans, and Neil in pay of a big bonus, the gang decides to go surprise Jay by going Down Under. And yes, gags of that variety are almost par for the course very quickly.
The Inbetweeners' success was built on a crass dorky humour that those puns are almost designed for. Naturally, this brand of joke is turned up to 11 for the big screen, and there's plenty of sex-based jokes, be it in sight pieces, one-liners, asides, puns, "banter" and all the rest.
This is before the scatological humour, which really is turned up a notch. Granted there were amusing vomit gags in the TV series, but this really has some OTT set-pieces. They are also very well handled.
In terms of the overall humour, however, its hit-and-miss. The heavily trailed piece involving dolphins, for example, is one that doesn't work. But at the very least, comedy films are routinely derided for putting the funniest lines in the trailer and mercifully here, they're not, or at least not in full. Will's cringe-worthy song, for example, was briefly hinted at in the trailer, but in full it is hilariously embarrassing.
The object of Will's desire from his hilariously weird song is Katie (Emily Berrington), who is a girl from Will's prep-school and is part of a troupe of gap yearers claiming they're better than the stereotypical "gap yah" and then behaving exactly like a person on one might.
The fairly one-note "gap yahs" do at least get sent off in a fairly brutal few moments where Will rants about them in brutal and increasingly amusing fashion. From this point, the film suddenly moves away from its disappointingly underused supporting cast of underused/underwritten female parts, stereotyped Aussies and the rest to a more intimate piece just using the main four and set in the eerier Outback - a Wolf Creek vibe, if you will.
This section of the film is perhaps the closest the film has to an emotional core behind the sex and body fluid jokes, and is surprisingly well done. Even if it does have time to fit in one spectacular urine joke.
The focus is still the four boys, who show different evolutions of the tropes that sustained them through their E4 days. There's little of the romantic evolution they experienced in the first film - if anything its regressed on that department - but there is still some decent character development going on.
The big changes is for Jay, who certainly now seems more comfortable in his own skin. For the most part. By contrast, Neil remains as he always was - a good natured simpleton who has some extremely funny lines. Simon is a strange one in this film, given his soppy schtick has been inverted by an underwritten girlfriend (Tamla Kari) who casually destroys all his possessions for unclear reasons. Will, by contrast, remains our sarcastic narrator and a confused man.
The four boys do certainly have the charm and chops to carry this even as it hits moments lacking outright laughs. They're also aided in their vision with some impressive direction, with some magnificently captured shots of the Australian Outback looking very impressive.
Overall, its certainly funnier than the first one, and has the gag rate to make admission worthwhile. In terms of whether or not this is the swansong is here, its an interesting debate - not least given the cast are all now either in or pushing towards their 30s - and one that depends. If this film takes yet another substantial box office haul, then maybe they will return, and certainly, it doesn't have the air of finality to it just yet, even if some of the sex schtick might need a refresh at some stage.
3.5/5
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