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Mischa Barton, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth

St. Trinian’s, the infamous school for ‘young ladies’ is once again facing dire financial crisis! The bank are threatening headmistress Camilla Fritton with closure. Her unorthodox doctrine of free ex...( read more  read more... )pression and self empowerment is also under threat from new Education Minister Geoffrey Thwaits, an old flame of Camilla’s who is determined to bring discipline and order to the anarchic school.

In true St. Trinian style the girls are in a league of their own; smart, fearless and determined to defend the school they love to the end. They need to unite the warring girl gang cliques and come up with the cash fast to save the school.

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59% liked it

27,439 ratings

Critics

34% liked it

38 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 37 min.

Directed by: Barnaby Thompson, Oliver Parker

Release Date: December 10, 2007

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DVD Release Date: April 14, 2008

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Stats: 2,938 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (2,938)

  • kiriyamakazou
    June 21, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    With this and Wild Child, you be forgiven for thinking that most British schools are actually like this. The film tries to justify the anarchic teens actions but misses the point entirely.The children don't seem to learn anything of value and simply use their bad behaviour in ord...( read more)er to "do the right thing". There is a lot of fun to be had as well. Everett is fantastic in a double role and Firth plays his bumbling self with an extra dash of villainy and empathy. The jokes are dated or just completely painful and the sexual undertones are sometimes plain uncomfortable.
  • EarthlyAlien
    July 12, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    "Daddy, you can't expect me to stay here. It's like Hogwarts for Pikeys!"

    It was inevitable that the "St Trinian's" series would be revived. Ronald Searle's cartoons, created during the Second World War, dealt with life at a bizarre girls' boarding school, and formed the ...( read more)inspiration for four hit feature films made between 1954 and 1966. An attempt was made to revive the franchise in 1980 with The Wildcats of St. Trinian's, but much like the 1992 Carry on Columbus, it lacked the charm of the original series.

    Photobucket

    For this 2007 revamp, co-directors Barnaby Thompson and Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest) have done an able job of bringing the series back to life. The film features a strong cast, is suitably anarchic and frequently hilarious. It's spot-on for entertaining its target audience of 12-year-old girls and averagely fun for the rest.

    Rupert Everett takes two roles here, just as Alastair Sim did in the original films. We meet the first, scheming art dealer Carnaby Fritton, as he delivers his anxious daughter Annabelle (Talulah Riley, Mary Bennet in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice), who has left the rather more refined Cheltenham Girls School, to the semi-derelict country house that is St Trinian's. St Trinian's is run by Carnaby's sister, Camilla, who's also played by Everett, done up in broad country ma'am drag. Annabelle is introduced to the school's different factions: chavs, posh tottie, geeks, organised crime first years and the "We're-not-goths-we're-emos", all of whom are presided over by head girl Kelly (Gemma Arterton, who we'll soon see again in Quantum of Solace).

    The kids get little in the way of formal teaching, but instead play with guns with army vet Miss Cleaver (Fenella Woolgar) or learn how to talk their way out of a dodgy drug deal by Miss Maupassant (Caterina Murino), the object of desire for the school's treasurer (Toby Jones). Alongside the teaching staff, there's also Flash Harry, the petty criminal, played by George Cole in the original films. Here the mantle is passed to Russell Brand, who shamelessly plays the classic role, complete with trademark jewellery and a small chemical plant's worth of hairspray. The girls work with him to sell their killer vodka, cooked up in the chemistry labs, and their designer tampons (cue that old "What's this?" gag from the The Young Ones).

    St Trinian's' slow set-up is its biggest flaw. There's a string of great, sketch-like set-pieces though, including a school weapons amnesty, and some cheeky dialogue. Like all the best films aimed at younger audiences, St Trinian's packs in a lot that kids won't necessarily pick up on - notably drug references (signs doctored from "Keep off the grass" to "Keep off your head"; "Does anybody have any smelling salts?" "No, but I've got poppers", etc.) as well as asides about the acting careers of Everett and Colin Firth.

    Firth plays the nominal nemesis, Minister of Education Geoffrey Thwaites who's determined to give a "good kick up the arse" to poorly performing schools, exemplified by St Trinian's. He was also the lover of Camilla at university - "Another time", "Another country" they say to each other, in a nod to the 1984 drama in which they both starred. To milk the film references yet further, we get Firth reprising his wet shirt scene from '"Pride and Prejudice"', and Camilla's dog is called Mr Darcy. It's not sophisticated, but it is fun.

    After some cruel initiation Annabelle becomes a St Trinian, and when the school is faced with foreclosure from £500,000 debts and Carnaby's dubious intentions to turn it into a boutique hotel, she's at the heart of a plan to save the school through some elaborate art theft. When Kelly suggests stealing Vermeer's Girl With The Pearl Earring, the dim posh tottie girls Chelsea (Tamsin Egerton), Peaches (Amara Karan, who played Rita the train stewardess in The Darjeeling Limited) and Chloe (Antonia Bernath) respond with "Oh my God, you want to steal Scarlett Johansson!?" Cue more inter-textual nods to Firth, who also starred in that film.

    To pull the stunt off, the girls have to reach the final of "School Challenge", a quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry, which is taking place at the National Gallery. This pleases prissy English teacher Miss Dickinson (Lena Headey) no end, though of course she's oblivious to their dubious methods (sex, drugs, technology) for beating Ampleforth, Bedales and Eton. The girls' plan involves Flash pretending to be a gay German black market art dealer and the pupils going all Mission: Impossible, complete with an animated sequence that nicely references the style of Searle's original cartoons.

    The film's girl power message is thoroughly laboured, and the story occasionally grinds to a standstill. But when that happens the filmmakers carefully come up with a quick scene of the girls screaming and dancing madly to a classic rock cover, or cut back to the Everett-Firth double-act, which has plenty of chemistry even when the lines are groaners. (Everett appears in full Elizabeth I regalia and asks, "Don't you think I make a good queen?")

    Ultimately, the film manages to be both anarchic and edgy. The drug references may seem almost quaint to UK audiences, but how they'll wash in the US is another matter; and the film does have a US market in mind, as is made clear in the occasional but overt Americanisation. Yet the tone is also warmly conservative. As the Spice Girls once so helpfully explained, girl power is about female empowerment, but it's also about solidarity. Here the girls do their own thing with wild abandon, but also work together to save the school. Heavy-handed at times and poorly plotted, but energetic and funny. A suitably undignified return to the screen for the notorious school and its out-of-control pupils. Those who aren't familiar with the original cartoons should skip this, 'cause there's nothing here for them.
  • organgrinder136
    June 10, 2008
    organgrinder136
    there couldn't be a more girly and pre-teen film ever. saying that i liked watching russell brands antics.... and there were some funny moments... but... i feel a bit old for this sort of stuff. someone who's about 9 years old would enjoy this thoroughly. colin firth... (mr borin...( read more)g as well as mr annoying in every film he's ever been in) is boring and annoying. oh, and why is russell brand obsessed with a schoolgirl? isn't that a bit pedo???
  • roygutteridge
    June 10, 2008
    roygutteridge
    Lacking any really sharp dialogue, the film just about goes the distance
  • mingsysar
    January 5, 2009
    mingsysar
    Awful but fun.
  • ffiiiz
    November 16, 2009
    ffiiiz
    Looking back, it wasn't THAT brilliant. Still good and thoroughly enjoyable :)
  • MaClampet
    November 10, 2009
    MaClampet
    This is a really funny film. Everytime i see this film i can't stop laughing as it's just that funny! I look forward to seeing the seqel.
  • FiLmCrAzY
    October 26, 2009
    FiLmCrAzY
    ooh i love this movie its great
    its hilariously funny and you can watch over and over
    its acted brilliantly and brilliantly funny making me laugh every time and its got so many of my fav actors and its the first big film for gemma arterton who i love in it, but its a shame lena...( read more) headey didnt get a bigger part but really its a great britsih cast and british film.
    Its enjoyable and you have to love the storyline and characters i just think its brilliant i cant believe its not been i big hit because i think there has been more terrible films than this one.
    Of course its the infamous st trinians school back in this new reamped up to date movie that takes us on a new adventure through trying to save the school the st trinians way and trying to stop colin firth from taking the school away!
    Its brilliant and completely worth a watch!
  • clau0dia
    October 25, 2009
    clau0dia
    unul din cele mai bune pe care le-am vazut de ceva timp
  • sugarlips241
    October 15, 2009
    sugarlips241
    iit isn't bad it alright

View All St. Trinian's Reviews

Critic Reviews

October 19, 2009
A.O. Scott, At the Movies

Every scene is so frantic and desperate to make you laugh, to be clever, to be naughty and none of it worked. full review

August 26, 2009
Armond White, The New York Press

St.Trinian's represents a travesty of the British comic tradition. full review

View more St. Trinian's reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • HayleyLeigh1
    September 29, 2009
    HayleyLeigh1
    found it hilerious cant wait for the next one
  • AAliceTaz
    January 6, 2009
    AAliceTaz
    <3 great movie, but still like the old ones best!
  • claudyetta
    July 4, 2008
    claudyetta
    when i watched it i can't stop laughing x)
  • megacheesefreak
    March 10, 2008
    megacheesefreak
    Best film in the whole best films in the world!!!

    But come on......
    GIRLS ALOUD??????

    They could of had anyone but they chose girls aloud??
    Who does that?
  • GottaLoveZacEfron
    January 12, 2008
    GottaLoveZacEfron
    Just Seen It Like An Hour Ago reli Funny And Its A Great Film
  • xstaceyxonetreehillx
    December 29, 2007
    xstaceyxonetreehillx
    i went to c dis last week it was a gr8 film nd i luved it every bit of it.
  • absloveshercats
    December 29, 2007
    absloveshercats
    Loved it one of my favourite movies. 5 stars
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  • Which of these films were NOT an Ealing Comedy?   Answer »
  • Who played headmistress Millicent Fritton in 'The Belles of St Trinians'?  Answer »
  • who plays JJ French in the movie- st trinians (2007)  Answer »
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