Get Duked

  Get Duked is a very slight, likeable comedy about a bunch of lads who get dragged into being the most dangerous game while often tripping balls in the Scottish highlands.

 The lads in question are a trio of misfits played by Lewis Gribben (Duncan, the dumb one), Rian Gordon (the down to earth one) and Viraj Juneja (a vain would-be hip hop star who calls himself DJ Beatroot) who are forced to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh award to atone for burning down a bloc of toilets while trying to find out if shit is flammable.

 The Duke of Edinburgh award is a UK scheme to get teens to do sports, outdoor activities, that sort of thing; in this case it's a two-day hike across the highlands, overseen by their teacher (Jonathan Aris). The lads are joined by a slightly nerdy, middle-class kid who wants to do the challenge because 'it'll look good on my CV'.

 The foursome set into the wilderness and soon get into some mild misadventures involving teen idiocy, electrified fences, and magic mushrooms. It's all low key, affable humour; the movie's sympathies rest squarely with the kids, without any of the bullying or hostility you'd expect out of a bunch of people like this when forced to go with an outsider.
 They're not hoodlums or anything, just a sweet bunch of knuckleheads with just enough depth to give the movie a little bit of a thematic kick, portrayed affectionately. They're the film's biggest asset.

 Things kick into gear when they start being chased around the hills and heaths by a masked posh gentleman (Eddie Izzard!) with a hunting rifle and his wife (Georgie Glen), who keep spouting classist drivel about how they need to cull the herd of insouciant (low-class) teens; subtle, this ain't.
 But it's pretty funny that the lads think he's the actual Duke of Edinburgh.

 Ostensibly a horror-comedy, the horror side of things is all but neglected, even though it drives the plot, focusing instead on character-based humor and a welcome absurdist streak.
 The comedy does fare a lot better, but it's low-key and pretty hit and miss; Besides the character stuff, it scores some big laughs with its gruesomest (it's not very gruesome) black-humor joke involving some vehicular manslaughter, the way they resolve the final confrontation with a deus ex machina (could it be a reference to Terry Jones's Erik the Viking?). It also includes a full hip hop song courtesy of DJ Beatroot. But there are a lot of duds too: everything to do with the provincial police officers sniffing around the edge of the goings-on is eye-rollingly bad, there are some low-rent psychedelic scenes that aren't really integrated into the story... the sort of filler you'd expect in a low-budget comedy like this.

 It's a likeable but twee thing that struggles to fill up its running time and to fulfill plot obligations. Good thing the characters at its heart are fun to hang around with.