Review by michaelrulle

The Dukes is a story about former Italian American Doo Wop stars (Davi and Palminteri) who have devolved into a dead end existence working in a family Italian restaurant as short order cooks, under the close supervision of their strong willed aunt. Their wish to revive their career seems self evidently hopeless as their droll and equally devolved manager (Bogdanovich) gets them one ridiculously funny--and absurdly degrading--opportunity after another--only to have the group fail in getting any work.

Due to both desperation and a series of very amusing coincidences, Davi and Palmintieri conceive of a ludicrous plan to heist a large shipment of gold. Here, the plot twists begin to take over and command the audience. A combination of Murphy's law, misguided trust,and an hilarious botched implementation bring the group back down to earth. And back to an even more seemingly hopeless devolved state than where they began.

Through a series of tragicomic realizations the group learns what they already knew--hard work, self pride, and real focus is their only hope. But the writer/director Davi could not let them off that easy. They need to be comically punished again, and again....until he finally lets them of the hook in a terrifically funny and satisfying ending.