| Product: |
St Trinian's (DVD) |
| Date: |
03.05.08 (127 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Not as bad as many say
Disadvantages: Russell Brand is very bland
There has been a lot of criticism over the new St Trinians movie, so rather like watching the likes of Epic/Date Movie and Meet The Spartans I thought this would be a good opportunity to add something else to my worst movies of all-time list. Sadly St Trinians was far from bad and all those people that claim it does not add up to the originals are sadly wrong, while the actors don't have the weight of the original movies, and with a few saucy words to bring the movie up to date, structurally there is no difference.
Annabelle Fritton is forced by her father to leave her illustrious school Cheltenham Ladies College and go to the school of her aunt Miss Fritton (Rupert Everett) the world famous, but for the wrong reasons St Trinians. St Trinians is a girls school filled with rogue characters and thugs, education is poor, and the welfare of the girls is far from on Miss Frittons agenda. When Minister Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth) decides to clean up bad schools, and the bailiffs move in to recover a large debt it's up to the girls to save their school.
My biggest criticism of the movie is in the casting of Russell Brand, I really don't know what this is all about, he clearly is no match for George Cole (who played the role of Flash Harry in the original movies), and regardless of the fact that the movies costume designers tried by dressing him in the same attire, the two are a thousand miles apart when it comes to acting. I guess the biggest issues is that Brand's Flash Harry tries to mimic Coles' rather than attempting to make the character his own, whether that was down to Brand himself of the movies producers I guess we will never know, whichever the case it's a dire mistake. This being said undoubtedly Brand fans will support him if he literally appeared and did nothing, Brand is very much the Marmite of entertainers who you either get or don't, and I really don't understand the fascination.
The second criticism and in honestly my last one is that rather like the original the actual plot is incredibly thin, focusing on the two main stories instead of filling space with smaller stories, assuming that its audience is really not capable of taking in too much information, assuming its audience to be on the whole minors. A fact that the movies producers should have taken into account when approaching the British Board Of Film Classification for a certificate, who in the UK imposed the movie with a 12 rating automatically alleviating the need for thin plots. I guess as one further but minor critique if you want to be really fussy is the fact the frequently used and referenced Cheltenham Ladies College uniform is in fact green, and not blue as shown in the movie. I'm not that anal that I researched this, simply that Cheltenham Ladies College pupils pass my office window Monday-Saturday.
On the plus side there are some good performances in the movie Ruper Everett is great in the dual role of Miss Fritton and her money grabbing brother Carnaby Fritton, and it's a reasonable homage to Alaistair Sim who played Miss Fritton in the original movies. In fact for my money Rupert Everett is the main draw for the movie, good timing, nice facial expressions, and devilishly amusing to watch. Lucy Punch best known as the dippy Elaine in Doc Martin is a little out of place rather like brand looking way too old to be Cheltenham's head girl. Though Mischa Barton, Gemma Arterton, Cheryl Cole and Nadine Coyle (the latter of the two singers from pop group Girls Aloud) are handle their roles well, in suitably tarty St Trinians tradition. There is also some older more mature casting in Stephen Fry as the host of a interschool variation of University Challenge, Anna Chancellor as a snooty school teacher from Cheltenham, and Celia Imrie as the often half baked Matron. Colin Firth proves again he is more than happy to take the mickey out of himself, playing the movies key villain and always on the rough end of things.
I never actually laughed at St Trinians, I don't think I really got close; I smiled with each appearance of Rupert Everett, but that was as close to humour as I got. But then having recently sat down and watched every one of the original St Trinian's movies I never laughed at any of those, I think it's very much a generational thing where as younger kids will love it (if allowed to watch it) because it's kind of funny and a bit saucy for the most part. The only big difference in the movie is technology, though in the originals movies the young girls had gadgets technologically advanced for the years the movies were actually made, that and of course Russell Brand.
For those that feel the need to blast this movie out of the water, go back and check the originals and prepare for a shock. On the whole it's not as bad as everyone says, but it's certainly not a classic of British cinema, it's a bit old hat. For my money I'd far recommend watching a movie like Son Of Rambow as an example of good British comedy, though those watching St Trinians with a fresh mind will possibly enjoy it.
St Trinians is now available on both DVD and Blue Ray priced £12.99 and £19.99 respectively.
Special Features:
* Girls Aloud St Trinian's Chant
* 'Trouble' Video
* Behind The Scenes - The best of the features really giving a feel for the movie, but containing some scenes and filming locations that never seemed to get into the movie.
* Bloopers - Not very amusing and again featuring some scenes not featured in the movie.
* Deleted Scenes
* Soundbites
* St. Trininan's trailer - Compare even this to the original movies and you'll see what I mean.
On Blue Ray, the picture quality is fantastically clear, and far more defined than the DVD edition, doing a comparison between the two I noticed a little skimming on the edges too with a portion more image on the Blue Ray print. But while the picture fares well the soundtrack on the DVD is better, with Blue Ray having a couple of drop outs (not down to my equipment I may add).
Summary: Fifties comedy characters back for the noughties
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