Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Only with Neil Marshall’s filmography, especially the uninspired actioner Duchess, the fall has been so drastic that one has to wonder whether he was that mighty to begin with. After a one-two punch of early aughts cult favorites in Dog Soldiers and The Descent, Marshall’s career has been on a serious downward spiral, and his latest effort — if you can even call it that, as that implies effort was put in by anyone involved — is a new low.

Duchess Review

Duchess follows a petty criminal who seeks revenge after she attempts to enter the dangerous criminal underworld of diamond smuggling. The script was written by Marshall and the film’s star Charlotte Kirk — who make up one of the most scandalous couples in Hollywood — and it’s clearly just another excuse for them to make another movie together. They’re like a mediocre version of Rob and Sheri Moon Zombie, and worse yet, they don’t seem to put much passion into realizing their movies.

Perhaps the most damning flaw of Duchess, though, is that it subjects its audience to around an hour and fifty minutes of monotony. For such a formulaic film to be that long is downright frustrating. By the time the central conflict actually kicks in, viewers will be so disengaged that it won’t matter.

The movie attempts to ground itself in an emotional through-line centered around a relationship between the protagonist and a love interest played by Philip Winchester, who has a model-like look that makes it difficult to imagine him as someone who wouldn’t stand out like a sore thumb in a criminal underworld setting like this.

To go along with the flat character she wrote for herself, Kirk gives one of the most soulless, juiceless leading performances in an action movie in recent memory. The action genre is unique in that a mediocre story can be salvaged if the audience is given a memorable hero (or heroine) or exciting action sequences. Unfortunately, the eponymous thief-turned-antihero has no personality or charisma to be found.

Duchess’s action sequences aren’t much more impressive than the story. Although Marshall is more well-known as a horror director, this isn’t his first time dipping his toes into action — previous films like Centurion and Doomsday were met with a warm enough reception. Because of this, it’s at least a little disappointing that what we get in Duchess is mostly a series of bland and dull firefights with some punches thrown in for good measure.

As for the rest of the movie’s execution, any hope that it would show the gritty promise of Marshall’s early work, or at least some element of stylistic flourish, would be in vain. Duchess starts with one of the most literal iterations of the “[record scratch] You might be wondering how I got here” in medias res trope this side of ‘90s sitcoms.

The film doesn’t even offer a worthy supporting cast to make it memorable for viewers. The villain isn’t interesting; there’s no charming sidekick to crack jokes and win over the audience. Marshall is riding hard on the picturesque scenery to do much of the heavy lifting for the visuals, and it’s totally insufficient.

Is Duchess worth watching?

Going into Duchess, all that most audience members will expect is a dumb, fun action flick. Sadly, Neil Marshall isn’t even able to deliver that. Because of generic storytelling, even more generic action sequences, and a cast that’s desperately lacking in charisma, Marshall’s latest outing doesn’t satisfy as a B-movie. Maybe one day, Marshall will get back to the level of output he had early in his career, but this isn’t it.

Duchess hits theaters and VOD on August 9.

2/10

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