The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
★★★★½ — The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
The Inbetweeners Movie arrived in British cinemas in August 2011, spun directly out of the E4 sitcom that had run for three series between 2008 and 2010, and it became one of the most commercially successful British comedies in years, taking the better part of £45 million at the UK box office alone against a modest budget of around $4.5 million. Director Ben Palmer had helmed the television series itself, which gave the film an unusually consistent feel for a small-screen-to-cinema adaptation. The four leads, Simon Bird, James Buckley, Joe Thomas and Blake Harrison, all reprised their roles, with the action relocated to a Malia-style Greek resort (actually filmed largely in Crete and Spain). The film landed at a moment when British comedy was finding real confidence on screen, following in the wake of projects like The IT Crowd and Fresh Meat, and it comfortably outperformed expectations for a low-budget studio-backed expansion of a cult television property.
If you asked me right now to pick between this and Superbad for funniest movie ever made, I’d hesitate and that says everything. This film is pure, unfiltered British awkwardness at its finest. It’s like someone took every embarrassing, desperate, slightly tragic moment of being a teenager and turned it into a feature-length comedy special. And somehow, it all works brilliantly. What makes it so special is how utterly relatable it is, even if you weren’t a hormonal, clueless, emotionally stunted teen in the early 2000s. The gang (Will, Simon, Jay, and Neil) are such a perfectly mismatched but well balanced disaster squad that watching them fail upwards is both hilarious and oddly heartwarming. Their chemistry is unmatched. Their decisions are horrifyingly believable. From the moment they set foot in Malia, it’s just one catastrophe after another and some of the most iconic lines in recent British comedy history (“I stopped believing in God when I realised it was just dog backwards”). It’s crude, it’s cringe, and it’s absolutely glorious. It’s up there with the best British films ever made, not because it’s deep or meaningful, but because it’s genuinely funny. Properly, consistently, gut-bustingly funny. And in a world full of remakes, reboots, and overly serious dramas, that kind of comedy gold deserves to be celebrated. Not quite perfect (because let’s be honest, it's not going to win any academy awards) but still an all-time great.
Rating: ★★★★½ | Year: 2011 | Watched: 2025-05-16
Where to watch (UK)
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Related on Movies With Macca
More with Simon Bird: The Inbetweeners 2 (2014)
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