A duquesa vingadora

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.

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.

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.

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!