Duchess

Good enough for a TV pilot episode.

Camera work, background music, lighting, editing, sets, TV grade. If it were a show, I'd watch it. But, I would not pay to watch it in a theater, but I'd regularly watch this as a show. I swear it seemed like a pilot. Then there was a murder torture scene that shifted the entire tone, it felt out of place, then the tone suddenly lightened up again. Then it shifts and shifts again. Its like the creators couldn't decide what exactly the kind of movie or even TV show they were making. Script is full of cliche's. Expected for a TV, not a movie. Title style location labels pop across the sceen like an 80's action show. There are a unneeded pauses, for emotional reflection. Characters pontificate to spell out motivations and intentions. The script seems like it was written by young out of work would be TV writers.

Surely, no Oscar material, or a match to Guy Ritchi's Gentlemen, but this movie gave me a very entertaining two hours with a well told story, massive efforts from not very talented actors (but efforts go a long way) and a consistent use of practical effects.

Surprisingly, the few well-known names (Meany and Pertwee) deliver the films least memorable moments, but Colm Meany's worst is still on par with the lead actors' best. But the lead cast do try to "steal the show" from them. Kirk delivers a solid performance as lead and I do not felt that I ever dropped my attention or got bored of her as the lead.

Altogether, I enjoyed this move and I wouldn't mind seeing it again in a few months' time.

It's that all familiar style of movie with the names of characters popping out to introduce them with some silly narration completely unnecessarily, some "funny" violence and all the characters are some kind of criminals. Except the dialogues are weak, there is not enough action, and it lasts 2 hours.

It's not a total trainwreck, camera work, effects, even the acting is solid but the characters aren't particularly interesting at all. The main lady is attractive.

Some of the characters have a rather strong accent which some might find hard to understand.

I'm not a fan of this type of movie in the first place but even if you are this is one of the weaker ones for sure.

Neil Marshall, a filmmaker I used to be a big fan of in the 2000s and early 2010s, is single-handedly ruining his career by making it his prerogative to show off his fiancée Charlotte Kirk in all his recent flicks. She's great eye candy indeed but has the charisma of a block of wood. Same applies to the rest of the cast she's working with. Marshall's desperately trying to pull off a Guy Ritchie here and fails big time. The voiceovers and quirky edits are all lacking the stamp of a seasoned filmmaker, much less their eleventh venture if I were to be precise.

Is this the same guy who astonished us with practical effects in Dog Soldiers and made us gasp for breath in The Descent? Neil, you gotta bounce back man. Don't go down the Rob Zombie path. Don't compromise on the filmmaking vision. Don't treat us to lazily made garbage like Duchess and deem it feminist just because the lead character is a woman. Also, was it unfair to expect some wry Brit humour at least? What a charmless affair!

I read somewhere that this film can be compared to Quentin Tarantino's work, and why not - I immediately got a copy and started watching.

Everything is designed following the template of proven cult classics. The goal of every scene is to shock, to be brutal and comedic. They drink the blood of enemies, and the Colombian necktie is explicitly shown. But...

After the first minute, it becomes clear that this film is just an annoying copy, printed with a faint toner, based on all those films we love and respect. The action is forced. The dialogues are terrible - someone tried to make them good but failed. All the characters are similar - meant to be dangerous but are actually as desperate as the dialogues. The comedic writing of names next to characters who enter the story, after the fifteenth repetition, becomes boring and feels like someone is mocking you to your face.

I think one star is a harsh rating since the actors did at least try to show up for filming. So: two stars.