If Angela Robinson's only previous project (a short film about a lesbian vampire named Chickula) is anything to go by then the be-pimpled youths and spotty virgins of today are in for a treat.

This fantasy begins with the revelation that behind the droll exterior of every S.A.T. (Standard Aptitude Test) for American high school students lies a hidden test which singles out pupils with a penchant for stealing, fighting, cheating and – most importantly of all - lying.

They're quickly rounded up to join an elite, top secret academy where they learn to become spies. To the outside world, the D.E.B.S. look like picture-perfect, plaid-skirted, well-schooled young women but in reality they're America's first line of defence.

Amy (Foster) is the 'perfect score' and the Academy's best chance of defeating arch villain Lucy Diamond (Brewster), a sexy bank robber so deadly that no agent has faced her and lived to tell the tale.

When Intelligence intercepts communications between Lucy and a beautiful blonde Russian assassin (Jessica Cauffiel), Amy and her team of cunningly disguised schoolgirls (complete with micro-skirts and knee-high stockings) are sent to stake out their meeting.

To Amy's surprise, the encounter turns out not to be a meeting at all but a blind date, which totally goes against her preconception of Lucy and leads to a fascination she wouldn't care to admit to the others.

More 'Agent Tyra Banks' than Agent Cody Banks, the film boasts a cast of models-turned-actresses and otherwise beautiful girls who are extremely easy on the eye and do well with a tongue-in-cheek and genuinely funny script.

It's not going to change the world but nor is it afraid to be taken for what it is... frothy, giddy, forgettable entertainment.

Dominic Bloch