Written and Directed by Ninian Doff
Starring Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja, Rian Gordon, Lewis Gribben and Eddie Izzard
Running Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for drug content, language throughout including sexual references, and some violence/bloody images 

by Jessie Landivar-Prescott, VHJess

With an uncool name like Get Duked! but a very fun sounding premise, my hope for the enjoyability of this movie was slightly wan. Oh, how sweetly wrong I was! Get Duked! is easily the funniest and funnest film of the year, thus far. I’ll repeat myself, Get Duked! is the funniest and funnest film of the year thus far. 

The premise is easy enough to follow, 4 high schoolers- 3 underachievers and 1 overachiever, set out on the Scottish Highlands to an adventure competition to win the Duke of Edinburgh Award. From the get go, we are treated to a strong dose of the punk rock, anarchic energy from the 3 friends. DJ Beatroot (Viraj Juneja) slaps the first of many self promotion stickers on the standing trail guide. He will later sticker up the wheels of a tractor and hand his cd to a farmer (James Cosmo) who warns the boys of danger in traversing the Highlands. The bald-faced, unaffected personality of DJ Beatroot vs. the grave sense of the farmer in this scene is what makes the humor truly fly.

Shortly into their adventure, the boys realize that they are being hunted by an older posh man who resembles the Duke himself (Eddie Izzard). (Think tweed and Wellies with a shotgun.) They run away and build an unsuccessful, makeshift bomb to hurl at their hunter, the takeaway being that their hash has been wasted. Get Duked! feel like a  Kevin Smith film if he decided to film in Scotland instead of New Jersey with his band of merry, foul mouthed lunkheads. 

To be sure, GD! has a juvenile sense of humor but it's wrapped up so well that we cannot help but laugh out loud-  literally. When DJ Beetroot finds himself celebrated in a barn full of fans, we laugh along at his impromptu hip hop performance and at the secret of the rabbit poop that is shared with him by the farmer he met earlier. The doses of surreality that GD! throws into the mix drive scenes shared with the posh killer into scary, funny, energetic heights.

And let’s take a moment to mention the music. Oh, the fun and bumpin’ beats throughout the movie are half the joy. The film starts off with Danny Brown’s “Ain’t It Funny” which is equally amazing and terrifying, perfect for this movie’s horror/comedy mashup feel. Not surprisingly, even DJ Beatroot’s music is fun since director Ninian Doff’s resume includes making music videos for supercool hip-hop act Run the Jewels, Chemical Brothers and Miike Snow among others; he cowrote some of the tracks on the soundtrack. It's no wonder that GD! was the opening Midnight Movie at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival. It's a perfect movie for late night hilarity and those young at heart who still make an effort to seek it out.

Watch Get Duked! via Amazon Prime August 28th.