By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Every now and then, a film that you had never even heard of before ends up blowing your mind. That’s what happened recently when I watched Get Duked! (2019), a movie that starts out like a Stand By Me-esque coming-of-age comedy and ends up a silly, 420-friendly stoner horror film.
There’s nothing else quite like it, and you can now experience this quirky comedy thriller for yourself by streaming it on Prime Video.
Go Duke Yourself
The premise of Get Duked! is that three problem students and one ambitious brainiac are forced to compete for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. This requires them to successfully navigate the Scottish Highlands using only a paper map, but the boys end up spending most of their time getting high and meeting colorful characters. Unfortunately, one of those characters is a mysterious masked man with murder on his mind, and he will stop at nothing to put these gutsy little Goonies six feet in the ground.
The biggest strength of Get Duked! is its cast, starting with talented young performers. The movie’s stars include characters played by Lewis Gribben (best known for T2 Trainspotting), Rian Gordon (best known for Final Score), Viraj Juneja (best known for Little English), and Samuel Bottomley (best known for Ghost Stories), and this fearless foursome has an infectiously funny onscreen chemistry. Each actor brings refreshingly original humor to the table (always important for an ensemble), and they are collectively funnier than the sum of their already-hilarious parts.
As for the adult actors, Eddie Izzard (arguably best known for Ocean’s Thirteen) is perfectly cast as The Duke, a villain who is simultaneously scary, mysterious, and vulnerable. His onscreen partner in child-hunting crime is played by Georgie Glen (best known for the TV series Call the Midwife), someone who serves as his comedic foil throughout the film. They, too, have excellent chemistry, and the movie at its best feels like something out of The Venture Bros., with bumbling, costumed criminals inexplicably having trouble finishing off some of the funniest and stupidest children in all of cinematic history.
Hunting Down Serious Ratings
When Get Duked! came out, critics fell in love with the movie’s bonkers premise and gloriously off-kilter sense of humor. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 88 percent, with critics noting that the film excels at being both a side-splitting comedy and an edge-of-your-seat thriller. They also praised writer/director Ninian Doff for making an unforgettable cinematic debut, one that signaled he would have an undeniably bright future as a filmmaker.
Personally, I checked out Get Duked! late at night while trying to find something to watch, and I found myself wondering what the heck the title was all about. Since horror comedy is my favorite genre, I decided to roll the dice, and I was pleasantly blown away by this film’s high quality and major production value from start to finish. The child actors did a great job, and the movie often seemed to channel the energy of other quirky coming-of-age movies like the aforementioned Stand By Me, whose young cast captured both the pathos and reverie of youth.
The Best British Comedy Since Attack The Block
Comparatively, Get Duked! isn’t as serious a film, which will be good news for audiences who just want a funny comedy rather than a movie with a message. If you enjoyed the sillier parts of Stand By Me (including tales of ball-biting dogs and pie-puking kids), you’ll enjoy the more slapstick comedy of this hilarious Scotland-set thriller. As an added bonus, this script is filled with several fulfilling surprises, making the movie a great pick for anyone sick of predictable movies where you can figure out the entire plot in the first five minutes.
Will you agree that Get Duked! is the best British comedy since Attack the Block, or would you rather be hunted down by a masked man than finish this outdoor expedition? The only way to find out is to stream this movie on Netflix and discover its every demented punchline for yourself. Afterward, you can join me in asking the most important question of all: can we stream DJ Beatroot’s sick mix CD next time we want to party like a Scottish farmer?
