Jay, Neil, Simon, and Will reunite in Australia for a holiday.
Just a few years ago the british sitcom The Inbetweeners took the step from TV to film and received a very welcome reception to the tune of approximately $86 million at the worldwide box office, naturally this led to a sequel which sees the four lads on holiday in Australia.
Once again the series doesn’t over stay its welcome despite transitioning to film, things are kept to a disciplined under 100 minute length which helps keep things trim and to the point. After quickly re-establishing what the four friends are up to in their lives the script from series creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris quickly gets them all to Australia for the main story of the film to get underway.
As with the first film the story here is pretty superficial, however it’s not something that you’ll dwell on too much as things move through the locations with strong comedic elements and performances. In fact Inbetweeners 2 is pretty consistent with its comedy throughout the entire film, always managing to be humorous, and it times reaching some hilarious moments that’ll keep you engaged and having a good time.
The style of comedy with both the TV series and films has always been on the juvenile and at times grotesque side and there’s nothing different here, though it does push the grotesque and crass comedy here more than they’ve done previously. Setting the film in Australia gives a distinct flavour of comedy to play with and they do so pretty effectively, though thankfully some of the stereotypes are less commonly seen than others and this film is certainly not asking anyone to take anything seriously.
The heart of the Inbetweeners once again rests with its four main characters and it’s hard to imagine this film being worthwhile viewing if not for these performers. Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, and Joe Thomas have such a great chemistry and charisma, they are so likeable in their own extremely awkward manner it’s difficult not to want to keep watching them on screen together. The film format calls for some slightly more dramatic content, and a decent amount of transitional content to keep events moving along, so while there are stretches where things aren’t particularly funny, to their credit the characters remain fun to watch.
The film delivers a number of physical gags mixed up with wit and sarcasm, so all in all it’s a good blend and brings back several of these characters’ eccentricities in some new ways. Overall however Inbetweeners 2 is a bit behind the usual quality of the series, it’s definitely not going to win over any new fans with this outing however it should give existing fans a bit more fun with these characters, while still not quite matching some of its previous highlights.
I’m giving it 6 out of 10 stars, The Inbetweeners 2 will be in cinemas across Australia from Thursday 21 August 2014.
