Movies like Get Duked! use you or lose you with their hook. Just keeping it real bruv: “A hip hop comedy horror movie.” If that hook line and sinks you, then Get Duked! will live up to its exclamation point. If it doesn’t I believe the teens in this movie would tell you to f*ck off, and go smoke some weed.
Apparently there’s a thing called the Duke of Edinburgh Award in Scotland. Meant to help struggling city teens, it puts the troubled kids into a group in the Highlands, forcing them to work together and grow from their experiences. However, Ian (Samuel Bottomley), Dean (Rian Gordon), Duncan (Lewis Gribben), and DJ Beatroot (Viraj Juneja) are pretty terrible kids, so the odds aren’t very good. Also not helping appear to be a large number of malevolent forces hunting the boys as they try to smoke their way to the cash prize, or whatever the hell the award is.
Ninian Doff knows what he’s promising the audience with a hook like this. Thankfully this first feature for the young director does two of the basic things a great story should do: have a sense of style and tone, and keep the audience on their toes, anticipating what’s coming next. Though there are certainly a few scares, Doff’s tone is the movie equivalent of a middle finger in one hand and a joint in the other. The boys accept their task and go about it with a “give a sh*t” attitude despite the crazy stuff going around them, more interested in getting high or promoting their up and coming label. This indifference to the world lets Doff’s “complications” the boys encounter get more and more insane, in the best ways. Without context, rabbit sh*t, medieval swords, vans, Highland farmers, bread thieves, CDs, and dehydrated soup are all integral to Get Duked!’s story. Each of those pieces provides fun, exciting context around the 4 boys, helping define their characters and advance the plot, flipping the bird just enough to make us care but not roll our eyes at the insanity.
I hope Get Duked! announces arrivals for Ninian Goff and his 4 boys. There’s a swagger and style here with just enough substance to make badass viewers excited at what comes next for them, and what twisted ideas are rolling around Goff’s head. I guess if I were isolated in the Highlands, I might go a little loopy too.