The Bad Education Movie

Plot

Alfie Wickers (Jack Whitehall) has taken Class Form K on a school trip to Amsterdam. Unbeknownst to him, Mitchell (Charlie Wernham) had spiked his crepe with magic mushrooms, causing Alfie to hallucinate, thinking Jing was a panda and was convinced that the Anne Frank dummy was alive, causing him to steal it from the museum (parodying ET) and ends up in a canal.

One year later, the PTA led by Joe's mum, Susan Poulter, insists that Alfie gets sacked from the school, but Martin Wickers (Harry Enfield) Fraser (Mathew Horne) and Rosie (Sarah Solemani) insist that Alfie is given another chance and that they conduct a surprise visit to the class room. They are unaware that Mitchell tried to do a tattoo on Alfie's back labelled "CLASS K FOREVER" but only manages "CLA" instead. They burst into his classroom during a game of class wars, which ends with an unfortunate incident with Mrs. Poulter and the class hamster.

Alfie informs the children that they are going on a trip to Cornwall, and he reminisces on a trip to 'Shagaluf' with his teenage friends. However, Mrs. Poulter tags along with them to Cornwall, starting with a trip to the Eden Project, where Alfie ziplines down half naked. Next they go to Stirling Castle where they see a foreskin of some Saint. When Susan goes to toilet with the guard assisting her with the directions Mitchell loses the foreskin. Alfie finds the foreskin but as he was about to put the foreskin back at its place Susan arrives and Alfie had to swallow that foreskin to save himself from being caught. The group then arrives at Port Jago where Alfie and the children manages to go to a pub without being caught by Susan. They arrive at the pub where people believe that they are from Cornish Liberation Army because of the CLA mark on Alfie's back and they have a happy time with Pasco who was also a member of CLA but soon Susan catches them. Alfie makes Pasco put Susan in a box and sends that box to France while they enjoy the night at the Strip Club. Rosie comes to know that Alfie and the children are missing and she with Fraser decides to go and find them. Pasco instructs Alfie to deliver weed to Atticus Hoye's party who happened to be Alfies's fencing buddy. Alfie along with the children arrives at the party and is bullied by his friends and when he decides to call Pasco, the building at which the party was taking place blew because what Pasco gave Alfie to deliver at the party wasn't weed but explosives. Pasco takes Alfie and the children in his truck and decides to make Alfie the leader of the Cornish rebellion. Police meanwhile conclude Alfie as a terrorist. Pasco, Alfie are brought back at the Stirling Castle from where the rebellion was going to start. Joe is able to find a secret passage in the castle from where all the children are rescued. Meanwhile Alfie was about to deceive Pasco and get himself rescued but was caught by the latter and they had a fight. Rosie arrives with the help of a helicopter at the spot where the fight was taking place and rescues Alfie, again the latter being zip-lined half naked. The story skips to the result day when Mitchell again mixes magic mushrooms in the brownies which Alfie ate. He again lost his senses and posed for a hilarious 'Leavers Photograph'.

Production

Principal photography for The Bad Education Movie took place over five weeks, commencing 23 February 2015.

Release

The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 21 August 2015 by Entertainment Film Distributors. The film's first trailer was released on 12 July 2015.

Reception

The film received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics, with some praising its silliness and direction whilst others criticised its crude humour and portrayal of Cornwall. It currently holds a 71% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 7 reviews and a 43% audience score based on 916 reviews (as of January 2017), together indicating generally mixed reviews. It is not listed on Metacritic.

Positive reviews came from Chris Tilly of IGN Movies, writing that 'Hegarty directs in a style that transcends the show’s small-screen roots, and ultimately there are enough good jokes to make the feature a worthwhile endeavour', awarding it 6.6/10, Henry Fitzherbert of the Daily Express, writing 'there are enough laughs to make this a hit with the target audience' and Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International, who described the film as 'unexpectedly hilarious'.

Negative reviews came from Matthew Turner of The List, writing 'there's very little of any merit here, unless you're a Whitehall completist interested in seeing prosthetic recreations of his balls on multiple occasions' and Mike McCahill of the Guardian, writing 'you sense Whitehall and co-writer Freddy Syborn egging one another on to see who can scrape the bottom of the barrel quickest and loudest'.

British film critic Mark Kermode panned the film, criticising its lack of laughs, overuse of crude humour and offensive portrayal of Cornwall and the Cornish people.