Die Girls von St. Trinian 2 - Auf Schatzsuche

Annabelle Fritton (Talulah Riley) is the new Head Girl of St Trinian's. Roxy (Sarah Harding) is the Rock Star new girl that every click wants. Sir Piers Pomfrey (David Tennant) hires Celia (Juno Temple) to steal a ring from the school library for £20,000. The girls find out and Annabelle counter offers £100,000. Pomfrey do not take it well. Her aunt headmistress Camilla Fritton (Rupert Everett) tells the girls that in 1598, her pirate ancestor stole a treasure from Pomfrey's ancestor. The ring is one of two which leads to the treasure. Pomfrey raids the school and steals the ring. Camilla seeks the help of disgraced politician ex-lover Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth). The girls dress as boys to find the other ring. They call former Head Girl Kelly Jones (Gemma Arterton) to steal back their ring from Pomfrey's male chauvinistic secret society AD1.

It's a silly franchise that got even sillier. The problem is that it's more boring and less fun. The new girl is a dud. It turns into a rather boring caper movie. It tries to play up the girl power aspect by creating a cartoonish chauvinist secret society. It only serves to make a powerful message seemingly stupid. This franchise is never going to be Shakespeare but this is much worst. By the time they do a flash mob, all hopes are lost.

Lots of things impressed me about this film. The incredibly imaginative plot takes the action into several widely varied settings, all of which I thought were painstakingly realised. The girls are a wonderfully diverse bunch and I liked the way in which, in spite of their differences, they make getting along with each other more important than their rivalries. The humour is plentiful and is nice and evenly spread over the entire film. For me the girls' comments amongst themselves provided some of the funniest moments, but there is also plenty of witty absurdity present throughout the suspenseful plot. Good use is also occasionally made of the background music (some of which I thought bore more than a passing resemblance to what I've heard in other films). In truth, I was never all that keen on early British comedies. However, I'm glad I didn't let that put me off seeing this as I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish!

It is wonderful to see British comedy such as this. To me this really hit the spot and was just what I needed to cheer myself up.

How can you go wrong with a cast such as this? Colin Firth, David Tennant and Rupert Everett all coming together with a cast of sensational young girls.

OK, the plot veers towards the ridiculous but what would you expect from this type of film? It is pure escapism performed to perfection.

I have been a fan of British comedy all my life and it is wonderful to know that the genre is still healthy and going strong.

Bring on St Trinians 3!

It would be wonderful at this time to see a revival of the old 'carry on' movies. Most of the cast of St Trinians would fit right in.

I watch movies to be entertained not necessarily educated. This movie certainly kept me entertained this evening.

This is an absolute Christmas cracker. I think it is slicker and more polished than the first film, and Rupert Everett is even better this time around as the eponymous Miss Fritton. It is camp, witty and outrageous and full of classic one liners. The new girls are hilarious and Tamsin Edgerton who played Chelsea has proved that her future career lies in comedy. Yes It's movie/panto for the masses, but that's half of its charm. At a time when England is in the grip of mass unemployment and recession, this is the kind of family comedy that everyone can enjoy. I cannot believe all of the bad reviews. That said, the vast majority of them are written by men aged 35-60. Go figure! At least the filmmakers know their target audience, unlike the people who's job it is to criticise. I'm sure it will be as successful as the first film. Top marks class. No detention for anyone.

It's really hard to rate St Trinian's 2. On the one hand, it is lively, sharp, and amusing, but on the other hand, the plot is a little disappointing. The film itself borders on the 'absolutely surreal' (mind you, it's a bit ironic to claim this against St Trinian's school, eh??), which somehow, I thought, made it a bit awkward to watch.

As ever, the stereotypes of teenage schoolgirls is strong, which adds to the overall enjoyment of the film, and as you can expect with your typical British comedy film, there are the odd pieces of play-on-words humour which you have to be quick to catch up on. Also watch out for references to famous films or other popular-culture references (you'll understand what I mean when you watch it).

(And before you ask: It's generally clean humour. No toilet humour/fart jokes.)

Thus, I give this a rating of 6/10, mainly because of its overall cleverness and entertainment value. Would I recommend it? Yes I would; it's about time a comedy film had real humour in it, even if it is masked in a very bizarre plot.