Freevee is becoming the home of many lost, forgotten – or just bad – action movies, and Duchess is another violent critical disaster that is being discovered thanks to its inclusion on Amazon’s Freevee offshoot. The film that was described by some critics as a “fourth-rate rip-off” of Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie’s greatest hits, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, scored a dismal 14% Tomatometer score on its release in August, but its current availability on free streaming has seen it jump into the Freevee global Top 10.
Duchess is the story of Scarlett Monaghan, a woman who turns from small-time crook into a brutal vengeance-seeking anti-heroine. After involving herself in a diamond deal that goes wrong, Scarlett finds herself left for dead, but as is the way in these movies, it doesn’t take long for her to regain her strength and set out on a one-woman mission to extract her own form of justice on those who have wronged her. The convoluted plot leans heavily on several other movies, with Statham’s big, loud brand of action movie notably being mentioned numerous times in reviews as the template.
Director Neil Marshall, who also wrote the script for Duchess with star Charlotte Kirk, has previously been responsible for The Descent, Dog Soldiers, Hellboy (2019), and directed episodes of popular TV shows such as Westworld and Game of Thrones. However, Duchess has not proven to be one of his best movies as far as critics were concerned, with the Movie Madness Podcast’s review noting, “When you’re doing fourth-rate Guy Ritchie ripoffs you need to have stopped three rates ago.”
Duchess is a Female-Led Take of Many Generic Action Movies
The action genre never runs out of new movies, even if it has often run out of new ideas. However, there are many ways to tell the same story with a new angle or twist. Duchess doesn’t quite manage to do that, but audiences can be very forgiving of a film that spends a lot of time focusing on its scantily-clad lead as she takes down the bad guys in an overblown way.
The film came under fire from some seasoned reviewers, such as RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tallerico, who slammed the movie for dipping its toe into “torture porn” to drive its story rather than spending time developing a deeper plot and expanding its characters. Meanwhile, audiences granted the film a 64% approval rate, even though the film was once again called out as a “rip of early Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham flicks” by several less enthusiastic reviewers.
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Duchess managed to pull in a $60,000 at the box office, mainly due to its $45,000 haul from a cinematic release in Russia, and the story has enough of an open end to make it possible that we haven’t seen the last of Scarlett just yet. If there is one thing action fans love, it is a sequel, and a strong streaming showing could be enough to guarantee that happens sometime in the future.
Duchess, a small-time crook, tries to enter the treacherous underworld of diamond trafficking and ends up left for dead when a deal goes wrong. Determined to seek retribution she launches into an unwavering pursuit for vengeance.
- Release Date
- August 9, 2024
- Runtime
- 1h 53m
- Distributor(s)
- Saban Films