i fell upon the following movie with absolutely no prior knowledge of what it consisted of or even the smallest gathering of what it was even about; st. trinians is a british comedy romp that is, unbeknownst to me, the sixth installment of films based on the comics of ronald searle.

to kick off the movie is your general run-of-the-mill children’s movie. the overall plot is the the girls of st. trinian are rambunctious and malicious girls to all who oppose and bring peril to it’s walls; however, the females of the academy are family. it’s focal point being the pretentious annabelle [talulah riley], beginning from her entry into the school, traversing through her hazing and required back story, and then her initiation to be a “st. trinian girl.”

the conflict is your standard sitcom/made-for-t.v. twist; the school is in debt and the ladies decided to steal the infamous “the girl with a pearl earring” painting. this is all revealed nearly after an hour into the film, following the general build up for the resolving action.

now i don’t know if it was just me but the farce wasn’t as funny as many other reviews claimed. perhaps it’s my lack of the british sense of humor [save for shaun of the dead and hot fuzz] or perchance the reality that scary movie and all of it’s brain-dead clones have completely annihilated the chance of gag humor from stimulating any emotion out of me of other than sadness; the movie was not that astounding.

rupert everett [stardust, chronicles of narnia:lion...] co-stars in an eddie murphy-esque role in which he plays multiple parts and genders, and in fact, is the ugliest woman i have ever seen. this is part of the humor, i get it, it’s just not funny. i smirked many times during the satire of british prep schools but, disheartedly, laughed out loud once. it was reminiscent of the day-time movies of yore; i am not a child anymore though.

yes, it was much more risque than those movies but nevertheless stale. there was an attempt at a latent meaning, trying to tie together different social cliques to unite a family, but it’s been outdone.

bottom line: it’s absolutely not a bad movie; it’s just old. the concept is outdone and it’s a tired and retread road. if i were ten years younger and a girl i would’ve adored it.

the movie is comparable to: madeline for the teenage girls, bad british sketch comedy, a u.k. version of the popular satires we are already bored of in america