The Dukes
Dir: Robert Davi
Rating: 2.5
Cavu Films
96 Minutes
The pitch: The Full Monty meets Ocean’s 11 meets Big Night.The result: three guys who made up The Dukes, a foursome doo-wop group that was popular “in the ’60s,” want to make a comeback in 2007 while struggling with personal issues, their jobs as waiters in their aunt’s Italian restaurant, their efforts to cash in on a ridiculous heist and the goofy gigs set up by their manager (Peter Bogdanovich).
The good news: the spine of this film supports the value of resilience, an underrated and crucial attribute, particularly during these economically troubled times. The problems: a few minutes into this film, I was puzzled. I know a little about doo-wop. Doo-wop was born in the late ’40s, reached maturity in the ’50s, and petered out by the very, very early ’60s– say, before 1962. These age-inappropriate actors could not have been part of a doo-wop group unless they were about 10 years of age at the time.
The very slow story and delivery were unconvincing and, forgive me, sophomoric (a term I dislike, but it fits). It was as though someone developed several formulaic stories for a screenplay, mixed them all up in a bag, and tossed them onto a table to see how they would fall. Someone else grabbed a camera, several veteran actors, some oldies music and The Dukes was born.
It was more than difficult to connect to any of the characters. Danny, the band leader (Robert Davi), stews over finding the dough to fix his adorable and beloved son’s teeth, but when an opportunity arises, Danny’s pride prevails over what is best for his son. Maybe this behavior was meant to reflect a cultural machismo, but it does not endear him to the audience. Danny’s cousin, George, is obsessed with overweight women with little else to recommend him. Murph (Elya Baskin) was terribly miscast as a Duke — he is more suited to a role of a Russian comic. And Armond (the late Frank D’Amico), the group’s comic opener, provides little insight as to his character other than as an ice cream and donut eating diabetic. The fourth Duke appears at the very end during the restaurant’s reopening and when all the conflicts are set to right for a happy ending — but I had to wonder whether this fourth dude would have been a more interesting figure had he not shown up so late.
Director Robert Davi could have sped up the action and more thoroughly developed his characters, which would have given us the comedic highs in places that were meant to be humorous and more sympathy to situations that should have pulled on our heart strings. Instead, The Dukes is simply a limp effort at a silly story.
by Jane Hruska
