Duchess

When it comes to British films i feel that we should be talking more often how important a lot of British productions are in film history. Just imagine if we didn´t have British classics such as Trainspotting, The Full Monty, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Deathwatch, 28 Days Later, we could go on for a long time. I have been a big fan of British films ever since the early VHS days in the 90´s and i still enjoy checking out British productions both from legendary directors but also from new people getting a chance to make films. There are of course legendary directors like Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle who i could easily talk about for hours since they have made several fantastic films, but let´s take this moment and talk about another British director who made a big impact in the early 2000´s. We need to talk about director Neil Marshall who a lot of people in the horror community recognize from his two best films Dog Soldiers from 2002 and of course The Descent from 2005. If you ask me these are two films everyone should own in their physical horror collection because they are both good for different reasons. Usually when i talk about his biggest classics it´s very simple to forget his sci fi action film Doomsday from 2008. It was a box office bomb at the time it was released in cinemas but i actually enjoyed it. The best way to describe Doomsday is a mixture of Mad Max, Escape From New York and 28 Days Later with some surprising fun scenes such as the dance scene to 80´s pop classic song Good Thing by British pop rock band Fine Young Cannibals. I recommend you to pick this film up on physical media if you are a fan of sci fi action films. Neil Marshall have continued working hard releasing films in later years and i heard about his latest film Duchess coming out. So in August the film was officially released on digital. Since i have seen all of his films so far of course i had to give Duchess a watch as well. Is this the best Neil Marshall films in many years or is Duchess just as forgettable as the 1997 comedy Father´s Day with Robin Williams and Billy Crystal?

Londoner Scarlett Monaghan ( Charlotte Kirk ) is a small criminal living by pickpocketing drunks to other forms of criminal acts. One night at a night club she bump into mid-level gangster Robert ( Philip Winchester ) who reveal her true intentions at the bar. They match really good and become a couple where Robert reveal how he is going after the big money. But with everything in life if you take high risks you have to be prepared for what is about to come. And Scarlett is forced to head inside a much darker world than she is used to see.

It becomes very clear that Duchess tries to be some kind of Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels ripoff with the fast editing Guy Ritchie style and throw in your face name titles, but to be honest this is nowhere near as good as the 1998 neo-noir black comedy crime film. What made Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels so effective was the film making of director Guy Ritchie, the well crafted characters with some really fun dialogue included. Duchess tries really hard to do something similar in certain scenes and it just falls flat. To be honest i watched this film trying to figure out what positve to say knowing this is a film directed by Neil Marshall who i respect for making some really good films in the past. Ok so let´s try to get to some positive at least and i don´t mind lead actress Charlotte Kirk ( who have worked with Neil Marshall in the past in his previous films The Reckoning and The Lair ) as the character Scarlett. There are some scenes where she at least deliver a few entertaining moments during the action scenes. And even if i support lead female actors in action films i do feel that this could have been much more fun if the action scenes were much more effective. In some scenes it just feels pretty lazy, as if they just decided to make fighting scenes but didn´t put much effort into it. As most of you know martial arts action actor Scott Adkins always makes sure his action films have some really fun fighting scenes included and this is exactly what a film such as Duchess would have needed to work better. What about the other actors? There are some terrible perfomances in this film except for a few exceptions like actor Philip Winchester ( known from TV series Strike Back and the 2009 film Solomon Kane ). If you want to see terrible acting just check out actror Yan Tual as the Russian character Victor, that Russian accent feels just as fake as Marjorie Taylor Greene´s eye lashes. What about the plot of this film? It is so generic you won´t remember the plot to be honest. This film is almost 2 hours long at it feels too long while you are watching it. In the end the only thing Duchess have to offer is some action scenes that looks ok but that´s about it. I am sorry to say this but i have to be honest, this could be one of the worst Neil Marshall films i have seen so far and i believe Duchess will be dusting on a DVD shelves in the future.

Rating: DD