Going Back to the Basics with St Trinian's

This was a fast turn around! I saw the sequel to St Trinian's just a few days ago and found out that my friend @Foebeard actually had the first movie on dvd, which he promptly lent to me. I was really excited to see this considering how much I enjoyed St Trinian's 2, and if IMDB was anything to go by, this one was going to be better. Yes, I know IMDB ratings aren't much to go on, after all they gave the sequel a 5.0, yet I still quite liked it. I always think of ratings or %'s as more of an odds game. The higher it has, the better the odds you'll like it. Just because it's rated low doesn't mean you won't like it, you just might be in the minority. Anyways, enough of that, how did St Trinian's 1 perform under pressure? Hit the jump for more.


The story this time around (I'm going to have such a hard time thinking of this as the first film) is that St Trinian's school for girls is going bankrupt. They've missed or ignored all their final warnings from the bank and they're finally given just 4 weeks to pay off their debt to the bank. Head-Girl of the school, Kelly (played by Gemma Arterton) leads them on a quest to steal a priceless painting. The movie also starts with young Annabelle Fritton, played by Talulah Riley, joining the school and she acts as our avatar as a normal person thrown into this insane school. She's put to the test and eventually becomes a leading member of the students. I, of course, knew this as she's made Head-Girl in the sequel.

This time we see some of the school sports. Expect cheating.

Well, to cut to the chase, I was actually a little disappointed by the movie. A lot of the things I liked about the sequel film weren't in the first at all. Music didn't play as big of a part as it did in St Trinian's 2, and the girls are pretty much just dressed in the same school uniform all the time, and there just wasn't as much of a variation between the different types of girls like in the sequel. Overall, the sequel just had far more style.

I had also imagined all these character ties and on going jokes or running gags that lead to certain actions in the sequel. An easy example is that in St Trinian's 2, Annabelle tries to whistle unsuccessfully with 2 fingers to get all the girl's attention. Later in the movie when Kelly comes back, she goes to whistle the same way, but Annabelle beats her to it with a blaringly loud whistle, in a way proving she's really become Head-Girl. I thus expected Kelly's whistle to feature prominently in this movie, but it doesn't. She only whistles once, and it wasn't actually that impressive.

From left to right: Eco, Chav, Geek, Emo, Kelly. Only the Eco and Kelly are in the sequel.

A thought I had on why people don't seem to like St Trinian's 2 as much as the first, while I've experienced the exact opposite reaction, is the failure to keep the full cast. Sure, many characters do remain the same, Annabelle, Kelly, 2 of the 3 Posh Totties, one of the Eco's (although they only call her "weirdo" here) and the little twins. However all the other students are either recast or are completely different. The Emo, the Chavs, the Geeks, the other Ecos and the school band are all either missing or they were recast for the sequel. Some good things about this movie's cast though was that there were far more teachers this time around, and also the twins got to do far more than they did in the sequel, so that was good. I really didn't like the "new" characters here, and just wanted the girls I knew from St Trinian's 2 to be here.

While I didn't find the heist all that fun, or the game show they enter as a cover to be very funny, it was a little fun to see that the girls run an illegal car body shop out of the back of the school, and have their own distillery in the basement. This makes sense now why in the sequel, there is an AA group running out of the school for the students. Basically it was just good to see more of the school and at least some familiar characters.

These are the teachers, only 2 of which were still in the sequel. Unfortunate.

I think I'm glad overall that I saw the St Trinian's films in the order I did. Yeah it sucks that this one didn't turn out how I hoped, but I think if I had seen this one first, I would have never bothered with the far more stylish and bigger scale adventure of St Trinian's 2. Not sure how to recommend this. It would be good to see this for Annabelle's growth as a character, and more Kelly is always good, but you might give up on the sequel which I think is far better. It's a hard call. I'd be interested in hearing what @Foebeard has to say in the comments after he sees the sequel as to what he thinks.

Oh yeah, and Russell Brand is in this movie, and he's not funny at all. Am I missing something or was it just this role? Anyone know?