The girls from St Trinian’s are back and this time they are on the search for treasure, hidden by Miss Fritton’s ancestor, but things are never that straight forward and the girls have to face off against a society which want to turn women into second class citizens...

St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009 - 1 hr, 45 min, 14 sec) is the inevitable sequel, this time written by Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft (screenplay) with additional material from Jamie Minoprio and Jonathan M. Stern. The film was directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson. This film's by committee approach explains why the actual plot is so paper thin as to be dispensable.

Where the old films had charm and wit the new ones have gags by the bucket load. No joke is considered too old or stale to be dragged out into the light for one more turn on the screen. Fans of the first film will possibly be disappointed to discover that many of the original cast have been replaced, but coming back is Rupert Everett, cross dressing his heart out as Miss Fritton as well as doing turns as Captain Archibold and Fortnam Fritton, you just can’t keep a good man in a dress down. Colin Firth reprises his role as Fritton's love interest Geoffrey Thwaites and for everyone that has missed him on our small screen, David Tennant turns in a memorable performance as the evil Lord Pomfrey.

Given that the film is beset on all sides with daringly dressed young nubiles, the result is far from being risqué, this is an old fashion farce and the directors keep the action pounding away throughout. Its fast, brash and just a little crass, but a pretty family friendly film for the pre-pubescents.

Although the Blu-ray lacks any deep and meaningful extras it makes this up by their sheer numbers. There are fourteen cast and crew interviews, ranging from the longest at nine minutes to a paltry thirty-nine seconds. Meet The Tribes (10 min, 04 sec) looks at the various sub groups in the school and Meet The Banned (7 min, 53 sec) looks at the making of the music numbers which accompany the film. Next up are the two music videos, Up and Away (3 min, 48 sec) and the old Go-Go’s number We Got The Beat (2 min, 46 sec).

If you liked the dance in We Got the Beat then Learn the St Trinians Dance (10 min, 54 sec) allows you to do just this, I have to admit to just watching this one, rather than trying it out so I can’t attest to how successful this would be. The disc is wrapped up with some Deleted Scenes (10 min, 54 sec) which add little to the film, but then given that the plot is so vacuous this would have been an impossible task, Bloopers (4 min, 44 sec) is a collection of the actors fluffing their lines and the whole thing is wrapped up with the trailer (2 min, 04 sec).

Like the film the Blu-ray is bright and flashy with a punchy DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, both with optional subtitles.

In the end the film has more in common with a Jim Abrahams and David Zucker movie where gags are thrown pell-mell one after another, if you didn’t like the last gag, worry not there will be another along in a minute.

In the end, although there are some good turns by David Tennant, Colin Firth and Rupert Everett, the final film is only slightly above average.

6

Charles Packer