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DVD: The Inbetweeners Movie (15)

Ben Walsh
Friday 16 December 2011 01:00 GMT
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Turning a popular British sitcom into a feature film was all the rage in the Seventies, with various levels of success: On the Buses (dismal), Are You Being Served? (painful), Bless This House (quite sweet).

The Inbetweeners Movie is an entirely different beast. The excellent Channel 4 sitcom about four socially awkward 18-year school friends – cerebral oddball Will (the wonderful Simon Bird), soppy Simon (Joe Thomas), grubby Neil (Blake Harrison) and foul-mouthed Jay (James Buckley) – effortlessly works as a film. Mainly because for all its crudity the boys are very convincing together and the (mostly rude) gags are very funny. The horny suburban teens have finished school and plan to "go on a mental holiday together", so they plump for the hedonistic Cretan resort of Malia where they encounter Hell's Bells-style accommodation ("There are North Korean prison camps nicer than our hotel") and four kind girls willing to put up with their appalling habits – their vomiting, social ineptitude and gross immaturity/naivety.

It's the well-worn tale of young Brits abroad and coming-of-age, then, but far superior to the likes of Kevin & Perry Go Large, mainly because the pals are essentially quite sweet and there's some terrifically earthy dialogue. A fitting finale for the not-so-fantastic four.

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