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Starring: Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja, Rian Gordon
Director: Ninian Doff
Running Time: 87 mins
Get Duked! is a British film about four teenagers who are left in the Scottish Highlands to complete their Duke of Edinburgh Award, but soon find themselves running for their lives over the course of a chaotic and bloody day in the great outdoors.
The Duke of Edinburgh Award was the bane of pretty much everyone’s existence back in school, but who knew that it would be the perfect ingredient for one of the most entertaining British comedies in recent memory? Complete with mad, chaotic energy, a hilarious leading foursome and genuinely gorgeous cinematography, Get Duked! is huge fun from beginning to end.
Following four high schoolers as they traverse the Highlands trying to complete the award, this film delights with an irreverent sense of humour that pokes fun at both the DofE award, as well as tells a chaotic action-horror story of survival during one crazy day.
The in-jokes relating to the DofE are great fun for anyone with memories of it, but the film is still an absolute riot for viewers from all around the world, thanks to its genuinely hilarious horror-comedy, as the four teens find themselves hunted by members of a puritanical elite across harsh terrain.
What’s more, lead actors Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja, Rian Gordon and Lewis Gribben are all brilliant right the way through, with surprising chemistry and immense likeability that helps you to root them on as they desperately clamour for survival.
Couple that with hilarious supporting turns from Eddie Izzard, Georgie Glen and especially Kate Dickie as a small-town police officer, and you have a film that’s teeming with comic energy wherever you look.
So, there’s clearly a lot to love about Get Duked!, from its brilliant humour to its hilarious performances, darkly comic action and gorgeous vistas of the Highlands, and even though it is at heart a purely silly comedy, it’s an enormously enjoyable watch from start to finish, so that’s why I’m giving it a 7.5 overall.
