A lot is going to be made of Simon Bird (29), Joe Thomas (30) and Blake Harrison (30) playing teenagers but the 'teen movie' was always liberal with casting. Brando was 29 in The Wild One and Dean was 24 in Rebel. Judd Nelson’s rowdy ruffian from The Breakfast Club was 26 and Ferris Bueller’s Alan Ruck was 30. While the Americans looked their ages (and older) Bird, Thomas and Harrison just about pull it off, and a college movie is different to a teen movie, right?
It’s a year on from the madness of Crete and Will (Bird), Simon (Thomas), and Neil (Harrison) are in university where they are just the outsiders they were in school. They’re invited by Jay (Buckley) to join him down under where he lives in a mansion, is a DJ at a club, and a general ‘babe magnet’. Join him they do but, obviously, it’s not as wild as Jay has made it out to be - he works in a toilet and lives in a tent - but an elongated (and rather boring set up) later the gang hit the road to Byron Bay in the hope of… well, you know.
The Inbetweeners Go To Malia worked because writers Beesley and Morris ensured the gags remained distinctly British Teenager and the franchise’s secret weapon - the great big beating heart - was still at the centre of the maelstrom. With the writers in the director’s chair this time around they ensure the beating heart remains but there is a puzzling dependency on Hollywood Teenager antics: Neil’s protruding scrotum is licked by a dog, Jay’s overcooked introduction to his Aussie life, there’s an unfortunate incident with a dolphin, Simon’s strained campfire song, and Lucy (Tamla Kari) has gone from Sensible Holiday Girl to PlayStation-Microwaving Bona Fide Psycho. Boo.
While it’s shame to see Beesley and Morris beginning to lose sight of what made The Inbetweeners work, the ramping up of the gross out gags do offer the best laughs on show: Will is chased down a water slide by a poo (don’t ask) and Simon feels he has no other option than to drink Neil’s wee (again, don’t ask).
And they are on the money having a dig at those gap year backpackers who do nothing but blather on about their experiences in Vietnam or Malia or some other place you’re bored hearing about. Most of the running time has Will sandwiched between two of these undesirables - Katie (Emily Berrington), the middle class always smiling 100% FUN girl who is very kissy, and love rival Ben (Freddie Stroma), an impossibly-built, dreadlock-sporting toff. Easy targets they may be but a dead shot nonetheless.
Despite taking an age to get going and to find its rhythm The Inbetweeners 2 does eventually provide the gags but another movie would be a stretch, both in the cast’s ability to look the part and in where these characters can go.