Film review: St Trinian's 2: the legend of fritton's gold

Published on Friday 18 December 2009 17:45

St Trinian's 2: the legend of fritton's gold (PG) ***

Those naughty minxes from St Trinian's are back to their old tricks in Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson's lacklustre sequel to their rambunctious 2007 comedy, inspired by the cartoons of Ronald Searle.

St Trinian's 2: The Legend Of Fritton's Gold is more ambitious than its predecessor, but regrettably lacks some of the spunk and charm of the first film, contriving a preposterous treasure hunt around London in search of stolen 16th-century booty.

Rupert Everett is still a hoot as the toothy headmistress of Britain's most notorious school, who stirs her gym-slip troops into action following a tactical assault by special ops.

"Our sanctuary has been violated - and not in a good way!" she trills, cannibalising the lines of Shakespeare's Henry V to salute those few, those happy few, "that fought with us upon St Trinian's Day".

Girls Aloud vamp Sarah Harding turns back the years as a new addition to the student body, while former Doctor Who David Tennant snarls as the chauvinistic villain who believes "women are for making cakes and babies".

A prologue set on the high seas of 1589 sketches the legend of salty seadog Captain Fritton (Everett), who hijacks a ship full of treasure belonging to aristocrat Pomfrey (David Tennant).

Some 420 years later, embittered descendant Sir Piers Pomfrey (Tennant again), leader of a secret brethren of "women-hating psychopaths" called AD1, exacts his revenge by seeking the two rings which give the location of the plundered treasure.

He steals the first ring from St Trinian's school headmistress Camilla Fritton (Everett), but has no clue to the whereabouts of the second, so the principal employs her girls to find the missing jewellery while she pursues old flame Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth).

Newly-appointed head girl Annabelle (Talulah Riley) emerges from the shadow of her predecessor, Kelly Jones (Gemma Arterton), to unite the various factions: rude girl Bianca (Zawe Ashton), eco leader Celia (Juno Temple), computer geek Lucy (Ella Smith), emo Zoe (Montserrat Lombard) and the posh totties Chelsea (Tamsin Egerton), Bella (Clara Paget) and Saffy (Gabriella Wilde).

With words of wisdom from indie chick Roxy (Sarah Harding), the girls follow the trail of clues around the capital, bound for a final showdown with the arrogant swines of AD1.

The Legend Of Fritton's Gold is a lazy follow-up that relies too heavily on the comic pairing of Everett and Firth, who always seem to be one smirk away from corpsing.

The young cast embrace their roles with gusto, notably Lombard as the gloomy girl who professes: "Death is like life, with all the bad bits taken out: poverty, fascism, Miley Cyrus."

A linear and predictable plot never places any of the girls in jeopardy, while Tennant's over-the-top performance suggests he would make a fine Abanazer in the Aladdin pantomime next year.

POSH TOTTIES: Tamsin Egerton, Clara Paget and Gabriella Wilde

coming next week

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