St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009)

The girls of St. Trinian's return once again to plague both those who enter their school grounds and fans of the original movies who pull their hair out and bemoan the fact that some people will watch these films and remain unaware of those enjoyable black and white comedies.

Things start this time with a swashbuckling moment in which we see Captain Fritton (played by Rupert Everett, of course) stealing the treasure of one Lord Pomfrey (David Tennant). Moving forward 420 years, we end up back at St. Trinians school and quickly find out that Pomfrey's ancestor is out for revenge on Fritton the headmistress. Pomfrey hates women and feels they should get back to where they belong, under the rule of men. He also wants the long-lost treasure but doesn't count on the resourcefulness of the unruly schoolgirls, who get quite excited when they find out that they could be in with a chance of discovering a large stash of cash.

With some minor changes in the hierarchy this time around, Talulah Riley's character is head girl while Colin Firth's character starts off as a depressed drunkard. Jodie Whittaker, who I forgot to mention in my review of the first movie, returns. Tamsin Egerton gets a bit more screen time and is just as enjoyable as she was in the first film and Sarah Harding (from Girls Aloud) gets a substantial supporting role despite the fact that, as much as I like the lass, she's not all that good at the actual acting lark.

The adults who aren't vital to the whole revenge/treasure hunt story strand are largely left on the sidelines so there really isn't that much point in mentioning the minor contribution from Celia Imrie, Toby Jones, etc.

Written and directed by the same people who made the first film, this movie tends to stick very much within the rules of safe sequels. More of the same, overall, with a little bit less entertainment value. There are more slow motion strutting moments and more teen-friendly schemes (including one risible "flash mob" moment) but it's just wearing out it's welcome by now.

Gemma Arterton reappears for some screen time that absolutely fails to excite in the way obviously intended so it's lucky that this movie gives more time over to the strange, wonderful chemistry between Everett and Colin Firth. Both are wonderful and make up for many of the lesser moments.

David Tennant gets to roll his eyes and bunch his fists and snarl in a completely over the top fashion but he's at least a fun, hammy villain even while we know that it's the girls we're supposed to be rooting for all the way.

Retreading the same ground as the previous film did, with less memorable characters, it quickly becomes a little bit stale in places but it's far from a complete travesty and there's still a fair bit of fun to be had with those anarchic schoolgirls.