Off the success of their last movie, it seemed only natural, if somewhat...tawdry for the boys to return to the screens with The Inbetweeners 2. When I first heard about this second installment, I, along with many others, was quite concerned that they wouldn't be able to replicate the same success as they did back in 2011. It's a bit crass, but I like the show, and I'd be sad to see it go to pot just because they wanted to make more money. As is often the case with this sort of thing, I was happily wrong.
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| Will's face says it better than I ever could. |
Inbetweeners 2 is set a year or two later from the first installment, and the boys have lost contact with each other after going off to different universities (or, in the case of Jay and Neil, simply falling out of contact). Will's met up with Simon and Neil, and they decide to go down under to Australia, where Jay's on a "mental gap year". However, Jay may have been a bit generous on the truth, as usual, and their journey might have more to do with a certain unrequited love than a blowie a day.
Inbetweeners 2 did not disappoint me. One of the things I really liked about the first Inbetweeners movie was that all four of the characters had their own sub-stories--quite common in TV and film, I know, but here it seems that they're really unrelated, like they're actually four different stories rather than one big one. By the end of the film, all of the loose ends are tied up, with hilarious results. It seems that the writers really haven't lost their touch, and they really did have more to do with their characters, rather than they were flogging a dead horse. No, there was a lot more fresh material to be done with the Inbetweeners, and while I don't think it will stretch to a third film, it was bundled nicely into this sequel.
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| This...looks like it's from a dream sequence. |
The acting was solid, as was the whole "bit" about the backpacking community. Your four heroes will do battle with hipsters, girls who kiss everyone on the lips (or do they??), a rape alarm in a hostel and a misadventure involving greedy little dolphins and a poo. There could've been more actually Australian stuff, but as someone who has neither lived in or been to Australia, I could be more accurate than I think. Either way, I enjoyed it, and there was enough of the whole backpacking dickhead culture to cancel that out. It wasn't lacking for plot, setting or exposition, which we find all to often these days. It's a nice round-off for fans of the series, with, I'll admit, room for a sequel, though to actually make it would probably be a big mistake. Still, very funny and enjoyable, easy watching--nothing that'll inspire a cult following, nor will it be the film of the year, but extremely funny and very watchable. And when Will takes on the backpackers. (As well as the meaning of the word "spiritual") it was wickedly funny. I almost wanted to clap, but Romford on a Tuesday night, when school's out for the summer...best not for people like us to draw attention to ourselves.
As I say, nothing high-brow or award winning, but that doesn't mean it's awful. Crass, easy viewing--just like the TV show, really. At times surprisingly emotional, as well, which is all the more credit to both the actors and the writers, Damon Beesly and Iain Morris.
4/5
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