Darkmatters Review: The Bad Education Movie

The Bad Education Movie (15)

Dir. Elliot Hegarty (@eltel88)

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@Cleric20)

“Pain is temporary… being an absolute bad-ass lasts forever!”

Brace yourselves for this summer’s most wildly inappropriate comedy. The Bad Education Movie is this year’s Inbetweeners – as British comedian Jack Whitehall takes the hit TV series to the big screen.

"look our Cornwall"

If you’ve seen Bad Education the show, you’ll know the deal - Alfie Wickers (Whitehall), possibly the most inept teacher ever, takes his class of misfits on a school trip nobody will ever forget.

Before the opening credits have even rolled Wickers can be seen causing serious affront to Hasidic Jews in Amsterdam (his crepe spiked with magic mushrooms by his class). He absconds with a waxwork of Anne Frank from her museum and takes her to an inopportune new resting place in a canal after a failed E.T. bike flight stunt.

"do not feed the teacher"

Yes The Bad Education Movie is quite offensive and puerile – meting out lewd schoolboy humour with numerous sex references – but it is (much like the TV show) also extremely funny when it works.

We re-join Wickers and Class K who include inappropriately sexy Chantelle (Nikki Runeckles) sporting t-shirts like ‘pupil with benefits’, Jing (Kae Alexander) the brainy one, Joe (Ethan Lawrence) the large kid with gentle nature, hard nut Mitchell (Charlie Wernham), the fabulously camp Stephen (Layton Williams) plus wheelchair user "Rem Dogg" (Jack Binstead) as their GCSE results approach.

"ain't no party like a Cornish pub party"

One last field trip is planned and with Las Vegas turned down on budgetary reasons Cornwall is the new destination. Cornwall will very likely never be the same again…

Whitehall is totally at home as Wickers and it’s joyfully winch inducing to see him readily humiliated at every turn – his testicles could actually get best supporting actor nods they are on screen so often. Comic misadventure is the order of the day despite Joe’s officious mum (Joanna Scanlan) inviting herself along bringing wearable tech to record any slip-ups by Alfie.

"nice Hot Fuzz swan reference / action"

Things get completely out of hand after a tattoo mix up sees Wickers inadvertent involvement in a terrorist plot leading to an epic climax involving riot police, Interpol, angry tooled up Cornishmen and a fencing duel.

Director Hegarty manages to make a decent fist of it aided by cameos from Harry Enfield, Mathew Horne and Iain ‘Game of Thrones’ Glen but as a film its no classic. Taken however as an extended episode of the show The Bad Education Movie is a hilarious send off for the gang. And as Chantelle tells Wickers: “You taught us things we weren’t never not going to learn nowhere else!”

Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:

öööö

(4 - Best. School. Trip. Ever!?)

Awesomeness ö ö ö ö – comedy mayhem that will make you laugh out loud

Laughs ö ö ö ö ö  – bangers

Horror ö ö –  male nudity and comedy violence ahoy

Spiritual Enlightenment ö ö - limited but some anti bullying messages in there

LINKAGE: Bad Education Quotes