Get Duked!--"All this fresh air is horrible." So remarks one of the young heroes of this Brit comedy, stranded in the Scottish highlands in pursuit of the (real-life) Duke of Edinburgh's Award, an Outward Bound-like camping excursion meant to expose urban youth to survival skills like "Teamwork," "Orienteering" and "Foraging." One of the lads is a conscientious sort looking to build his resume, another is a hip-hop wannabe who goes under the name "DJ Beetroot" and the other two are ordinary numbskulls looking forward to working in the fish packing plant like their dads.
What the boys don't expect is to be hunted like game by the tweed-clad, rifle-bearing local gentry, led by a disturbingly masked Eddie Izzard. Written and directed by Ninian Doff, the movie spins away into terror and violence, farcical but with a tinge of the authentically macabre just the same.
The local law enforcement also sets aside the hunt for the notorious "Bread Thief" ("A've no hud a ciabatta in weeks," laments one officer) to pursue the boys, who they're pretty sure are terrorists. Hallucinogenic rabbit droppings are ingested, leading to some of the funniest depictions of tripping ever put on film.
The whole movie is freakin' hilarious, come to that. It carries hints of everything from Beavis and Butt-Head to The Wicker Man, but it also feels original, and it has a defiant and unpretentious dash of social anger. In its way it's a harsh movie, but it isn't a heartless one; the laughs it offers are very welcome in these unfunny times.
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