Scarlett - Diamond of Revenge

This low budget, British action film has a very shaky start. The dialogue is silly. The camera work not great. However, this one takes a turn for the better along the way and becomes much better than it starts. It is a revenge film and it has decent action and fight choreography. The film is done very much in the style of Jesse V. Johnson and Scott Adkins' The Accident Man; however, it is not as good. It grew on me in a way many movies of this genre do not. The film also goes under the name Scarlett, which confused me a little when trying to find it. The cast is pretty good in this on, especially, the ancillary characters.

Duchess starts off well. The titular heroine, Charlotte Monaghan, falls for a charming, dynamic man who pulls her into his high-flying drug-funded lifestyle. The twist is that she's more than tough enough to make a go of it. Their relationship seems perfect.

From the outset, Marshall uses a variety of visual touches reminiscent of Guy Ritchie movies - freeze-frames, bold text captions, colorful narration in the heroine's distinctive voice (the most shameless over-the-top cockney accent since Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins).

The performances make it work. Charlotte Kirk is not entirely convincing in the lead role, but she's very likable in a deliberately cartoony way. Philip Winchester is effortlessly charming as her crime-boss beau - I'd like to see much more of him in other roles. Sean Pertwee, a Neil Marshall regular, is welcome as always, doing his crusty supporting part. And Colm Meaney is meaner than we've ever seen him, in a single scene as the heroine's low-life father.

So far, so good. But about midway through, Duchess takes a turn for the more conventional and somewhat less enjoyable. What started as a quirky underworld romance morphs into a fairly straightforward revenge yarn. The flavorful characterizations of the first half are de-emphasized, in favor of over violently over-the-top action.

I'm okay with the violence, and with the revenge theme - but not so pleased about the predictability and occasional loose logic. It's still entertaining, with some nice set-piece moments - but not as fresh and original as the romance of the first half, nor as clever as we might expect from a director of Neil Marshall's accomplishments.

Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend Duchess to anyone who enjoys a wacky, ultra-violent crime send-up. It's an entertaining film, worth seeing if only for the off-beat performances.

This movie is not that bad as some reviewers say. To start, the voice over of the main character (Duchess) is great, I like that always, gives a bit of background and story telling idea. The famous trick that the beginning scene is a teaser and then back to how it all started, makes you immediately curious. It's fast paced, maybe a bit too long though, never boring. Great performance of. Charlotte Kirk, perfectly casted. Less good in my opinion is the extreme violence showed, not functional and not to my taste. The humor is great, compensates this a bit, the story is not intended to be taken too seriously. The British accents are funny on themselves. All in all worth watching when you expectations are not too high.

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.

Earlier this month, I had binge through all of Neil Marshall's filmography and it was a fun experience for the most part. Now, I just finished watching his latest movie, Duchess (2024) and it was very mediocre.

Positives for Duchess (2024): Charlotte Kirk gives a good performance as the titular character in this movie. There are spots to where the B-Action side of this movie can be fun. And finally, the action sequences in this movie are good.

Negatives for Duchess (2024): The movie's premise is all that interesting to begin with. There are some noticeably bad performances from the other actors. And finally, the movie's runtime is dragged out way too long.

Overall, Duchess (2024) is one of those movies where it depends on you go into this movie and what you are expecting from it, so I would recommend that you go check this movie out for yourself.