What Do The Critics Say?

"I asked every member of my team at work and none of them had heard of The Inbetweeners. How could this be? I was shocked, horrified, disappointed! For whatever reason, this fantastic British television show never quite took off here in Australia. It can be best described as a UK version of "American Pie". The real success however has come from this film. One of the funniest films I've seen all year. It's faithful to the TV series." Matthew Toomey THE FILM PIE "The hapless quartet are out of sixth form and on their first holiday abroad together in The Inbetweeners Movie. If you're a fan of the show then you're going to find a lot to enjoy on their overseas adventure." Catherine Jones LIVERPOOL ECHO "The Inbetweeners Movie is a milestone of sorts for British comedy, not just a successful big screen re-working of a small screen show (hit E4 comedy "The Inbetweeners") but also the first gross-out comedy from these sophisticated shores that actually works. Like The Hangover for school-leavers." Henry Fitzherbert DAILY EXPRESS "With some sharp lines peppering the script, TV series director Ben Palmer knows he merely has to keep things moving to score in cinemas. Audiences aged 17-20 will really buy into their coming-of-age adventure. The Inbetweeners is rude, crude and often downright gross." Graham Young BIRMINGHAM MAIL

"The humour is crude and scatological and the language disgusting beyond imagination. But the film, like the show, expertly captures the horrors of being a male teenager in all its pathetic glory. It's not big and it's not clever, but boy will it have you laughing. Filthy fun in Malia." David Edwards DAILY MIRROR UK "It's no surprise that the film sticks so closely to the winning formula of the TV show. The four leads are excellent, delivering strong comic performances and even adding a little depth to their believable, likeable characters. Crude sight gags, witty lines and strong, likeable characters, thanks to enjoyable comic performances from the four leads. Consistently laugh out loud funny." Matthew Turner VIEW LONDON "Fans of the show have little to worry about in regards to whether its sense of humour has been retained for the big screen. Also still in fine form: the outrageous vulgarity. Those familiar with The Inbetweeners hardly need warning, but they’ll appreciate the fact the crudity has been kicked up a notch in accordance with their graduation from the small to the big screen." Simon Miraudo QUICKFLIX "The Inbetweeners Movie will be an enormous hit, a Mamma Mia! for the Hangover demographic. And it works better than you might expect, because the boys’ neediness: for each other, not just the exhausting goal of getting laid; is ever-apparent." Tim Robey DAILY TELEGRAPH

The Inside Story From the team behind the record breaking and award winning TV program comes "The Inbetweeners Movie" which shows what happens when four lads go on holiday to Malia with no parents, no teachers, no money and little chance with the ladies. It is written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, directed by Ben Palmer and produced by Christopher Young. The film will be the only outing for 'The Inbetweeners' for the foreseeable future. The Inbetweeners, Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas, are joined by the show’s regulars including Emily Head as Carli, Belinda Stewart-Wilson as Will’s Mum and Greg Davies as Mr Gilbert. The film introduces Lydia Rose Bewley, Laura Haddock, Jessica Knappett and Tamla Kari. There are many experiences that define teenage life, from the first-ever trip to the pub through to the firstever fumble, and ranking highly among them is, of course, the first-ever holiday abroad without your parents. And with their time at Rudge Park Comprehensive now drawing to a close, Will, Simon, Jay and Neil, aka The Inbetweeners, are set to embark on that potentially momentous journey. The Inbetweeners are off to the Cretan holiday hotspot of Malia to hit its infamous club strip. "Lads holidays can be horrible and terrifying things," begins Iain Morris, who along with Damon Beesley, created The Inbetweeners, and wrote all three TV series and the film script. "If you’re not having a good time: and no one enjoys their whole holiday the whole of the time; you’re looking around thinking everyone else is having an amazing time. Which makes it even worse. I’ve been on four or five 'lads holidays' and things always go wrong, and there are always fights between best friends. Everything is much more intense when you’re away, so that felt like a good place to take the boys in the film." Indeed, the idea of sending four lads away on an overseas trip has long been in Morris and Beesley’s minds. "Right from the beginning when planning the first series of the TV show we went through storylines and ideas, and we outlined formative teenage moments as well as anecdotal things that had happened to Damon and me, and we had a subsection on holidays,' Morris continues. "Your first big trip without your parents is always a big deal." Morris and Beesley wrote the first draft of a story set overseas after they had completed filming on the second series of the TV show, although decided that it would be better to wait until the boys finished their schooling at the end of Series 3 before embarking on a full feature-length trip. "We wanted the film to be about what it means to go away on your first holiday, what the promises are, and then what really happens,"co-creator and co-writer Damon Beesley offered. "There’s this perceived nirvana where you think that you are going to meet all these incredible women, and you are going to have sex with women all the time, and drink, and you dream about all the fun you will have there. Then, actually, when you get there it is terrifying." Simon Bird, who plays Will, agrees. "I don’t know why people expect it to be very different from going out in England but they do. The boys think that they’re bound to have a good time because its abroad but they’re just as pathetic out there." At home, the boys only need worry about the likes of school bully Mark Donovan, but in a sun-drenched tourist spot brimming with boozed-up Brits, Will, Simon, Jay and Neil find themselves in a different world, bristling with dangers. "You realise that being away is full of much scarier people than you meet back home," Beesley adds. "There are about fifty boys in your year at school and you have only got to worry about probably ten per cent who might attempt to bully you, and yet when you go abroad there are hundreds and hundreds of very drunk adults who are very comfortable in this environment." It is this sense of displacement upon which "The Inbetweeners" thrives, although ordinarily it unfolds in the relatively safe surroundings of the boy's suburban world. "Out on holiday, it is multiplied by about a million times," says Beesley (TV'S "The Persuasionists"), "and I think that you do a lot of growing up on those holidays. That is a necessity. You can learn a lot in the ten days you go away. Also, you can of course learn nothing at all." Given the nature of the boy's adventures in Malia, they’re given plenty of opportunity for new experiences, although not all of them are quite what the boys expect. "Obviously, the arc in this story is to do with their relationships with each other, and their relationships with girls," Beesley explained, "but there’s a sense of wherever you might go in the world, and particularly with these four, you always travel with yourself. The boys have got these aspirations to reinvent themselves as players, but they will never be players because they are Will, Neil, Jay and Simon. That said, I hope that you feel that you have gone on that journey with them and there is an emotional depth as well as lots of big jokes." To bring "The Inbetweeners Movie" to the big screen, Morris, Beesley and their long-time producer Chris Young: who has worked with the writers since the first television episode; turned to director Ben Palmer (TV'S "A Bear's Tail"), who assisted with the editing on the pilot before going on to direct the second and third series of the show. Young revealed, "One of the many fights I have had is to say, 'Yes, we know how to make a film and the fact that the director has never made a feature film is no problem here.' The argument for that was that we’ve shot three series with the same team and that team works." As a film producer, Young has overseen the likes of "Prague" (1992), "The Final Curtain" (2002) and "Festival" (2005). Young believes, "Ben is a brilliant director. He will go on to be another David Yates or a Danny Boyle. He is very confident. He was never thrown when I was saying things like, 'We will need a helicopter for this, or a party boat.' He is a very, very talented director and incredibly responsive to the script but he is also creating a film which has its own visual identity." Palmer says that in many ways shooting the film, "is very similar to shooting the show." He notes the filmmakers did, "want to give it a sense of scale that the series doesn’t have. From a technical point of view, I’ve wanted to see the boys more as a foursome, so we put more emphasis on some of our wide shots and some of our group shots, and running the dialogue in scenes more in group-shots, rather than chopping-in and using lots of close-ups. On a big screen you want to see the four of them together." For the backdrop to the boy's story, the filmmakers chose the popular party cum holiday destination Malia, in Crete, although they shot the majority of the movie on the equally sun-drenched stag and hen party hotspot that is Magaluf, in Majorca. Young notes: "Going to Malia seemed the natural choice, and having that as the boy's destination helps give the film a sense of scale and there are some definite wide screen moments which I think play well. We are using state of the art digital cameras that Martin Scorsese is using, so we can’t complain about that." Going digital also provided an opportunity to shoot in hand-held mode. "The thought behind the hand-held intimacy of the show was that the viewer was there with them. You hang around with them and we want to keep that while they are in Malia, but then also add some more cinematic elements to give it a sense of scale. And it’s been great," Beesley revealed. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the filmmakers, however, was ensuring that the characters had expanded narrative arcs that carry the audience through the movie. "We realised pretty early on that we must give some emotional depth to the film," Beesley says. While the film has been eagerly awaited by the hordes of devoted fans, the filmmakers were conscious of the fact the piece also needs to reach out to those who haven’t seen the show. "One of the things to be very conscious of is that you are not just talking to people who know the show," says Young who founded Young Films in 1986. "The story needs to stand by itself. My kids love "The Simpsons", for example, but I was not really aware of what the characters were like, but then I saw "The Simpsons Movie" and it made sense. "For me, "The Inbetweeners Movie" needs to be like that." Whether audiences know the hit TV show or not, they will meet the characters of Will, Simon, Jay and Neil just as they’re leaving school and embarking on what will likely prove their final adventure together before the foursome head their separate ways. "We always thought the boys should be a foursome, right from the outset," Beesley (who co-founded Bwark Productions with Iain Morris in 2004) notes. "It is a good number in terms of the characters you need for the comedy because you have one that sits in the middle, the glue of the group and then you have Will who is the outsider bringing a completely different perspective on it all and then you have your loud-mouthed friend in Jay and your slightly thick, guileless friend in Neil." Indeed, as with the TV show, much of anecdotal incident is drawn from the writer's own lives. "A lot of what happens to the boys on the holiday: from the state of the boy's apartment to falling asleep in an ant’s nest or getting a cock drawn on your back; it’s all drawn from experiences of mine, Damon's or our friends," Morris admits. When we meet the boys on screen, all four have moved on a little bit since the last series. Blake Harrison plays Neil. "The beautiful thing about Neil is that he never has much of an arc as he shrugs things off very easily. He could get the worst news possible and within a few minutes has probably moved on. He very much lives in the now." Out in Malia, Neil scores with a school dinner lady. "And that scene is pretty disgusting," says James Buckley, who plays Neil’s close if foul-mouthed friend, Jay. "As for Jay, he has his usual words of wisdom: there’s plenty of 'gash' and 'clunge'." While Simon, Neil and Jay obsess about girls: and some familiar faces, such as Carli D’Amato (Emily Head), return; Will is keen on exploring some of the local culture. According to Simon Bird (who plays the character), "Will is worried about being normal, and Will feels this constant struggle that he should be enjoying a normal holiday." Palmer notes that the film feels edgier than the show, "with its language and some nudity. More than has been seen in the series. Also there’s more of a sentimental and coming of age feel that the series never had, because we never allowed sentimentally in the show, except for perhaps the last fifteen minutes of the last series. We’ve had a lot of fun exploring that in the film. And it needed that. You have to have that kind of depth to the characters." Unlike the TV show, "The Inbetweeners Movie" is not all about pulling girls and trying to have sex for the first time. "There are elements of that in the film of course," Palmer concludes, "but there’s also a sense that they’ve grown up a little and will go their separate ways at the end of this and they need to take something from it. It is kind of the end of the road for them as a group and that hopefully adds some real poignancy." What's It All About?

With the possibillity that this could be the last summer they spend together before university starts, Will, Jay, Neil and Simon have decided to take the ulimate 'get laid' holiday at a boozy resort in Crete. With high hopes of scoring with the ladies and getting as pissed as possible, they are on their way to Malia for two weeks. Right from the start, these four twats, suffer setbacks. The resort they have booked into is an absolute dump and despite the fact that there are women galore, they just don't seem to have what it takes to hook-up with any of them. Even worse, Simon, who can't stop obsessing about Carli, falls out with Jay, adding to the tension of rejection. Along the way, the simple-minded Neil cops off with every granny in sight, Simon attempts to get over being dumped, Jay gets eaten alive after passing-out drunk on an anthill and Will has a rather embarrassing skinny-dipping experience.

The Verdict "Those who haven't as yet experienced "The Inbetweeners" TV series (seen in Australia on the GO! channel) need not worry and neither should those who are dedicated fans of Will, Jay, Neil and Simon, for this is about as much fun as you can have with a 'cumming of age' teen flick without copping an R18+ rating. For the uninitiated, an MA15+ rating means things could all get a little naughty, Well, "The Inbetweeners Movie" is assuredly: very naughty. And in-case you aren't aware, an MA15+ rating also means the film could contain, strong sexual references, coarse language and nudity. Seeing as "The Inbetweeners Movie" is about four chums from Rudge Park Comprehensive School (nothing fancy, just another State School), who have completed their final year and are now going on a trip abroad in the hope that they will finally get laid, you'd be right to expect that it will all get a little out of hand: and it does. For the record, I saw it with a full house of paying punters, mainly young people, who like me, pissed themselves laughing. I have to admit, I found it refreshingly funny, despite the fact that some of the 'comedic moments', do test test you at times. But, because it's British comedy, it's somehow (unlike many American teen 'college' flicks), easier to handle. Yet, once again, I must offer this warning: if you are easily offended by strong language, nudity or references to body parts, don't waste your money. Parents should also note that it is not really suitable for children under fifteen years of age. "The Inbetweeners Movie is definitely no squeaky clean Disney flick. "Outrageously damn good fun! 4 STARS." Who Is Playing Who?

Simon Bird James Buckley Blake Harrison Joe Thomas Laura Haddock Tamla Kari Jessica Knappet Lydia Rose Bewley Emily Head Theo Barklem-Biggs David Chrysanthou Greg Davies Katarina Gellin Anthony Head Theo James Cush Jumbo Henry Lloyd-Hughes Lily Lovett Alex MacQueen

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Will McKenzie Jay Cartwright Neil Sutherland Simon Cooper Alison Lucy Lisa Jane Carli D'Amato Richard Nicos Mr Gilbert Donna Mr McKenzie James Jaime Mark Donovan Rachel Kevin Sutherland

The Production Team Directed by Ben Palmer Written by Damon Beesley & Iain Morris Produced by Christopher Young Cinematography by Ben Wheeler Film Editing by Charlie Fawcett & William Webb Casting by Nadira Seecoomar Production Design by Dick Lunn Art Direction by Lucienne Suren Set Decoration by Anna Kasabova Run Time 97 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2011 - FILM4 - All Rights Reserved Enduring © - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian & International Copyright, Trademark Laws & Intellectual Property Rights.