THE DUKES
Funny mishaps and melody, but adults should decide carefully.
Should You Watch It?
The Dukes is a good, funny independent comedy with clever lines, realistic camera work, and commendable performances. Its strongest qualities are the virtues it celebrates: friendship, love, sacrifice, and perseverance when life becomes absurdly difficult.
But the movie’s content keeps it from being a family pick. Sexual references and implied fornication, stealing as a shortcut to success, and light marijuana references—including a character being stoned during the robbery—require discerning adults to weigh the film carefully. The drug use is played for laughs, though the review notes that it should not be condoned.
If you are an adult who can engage those concerns thoughtfully, the film offers warmth and humor. For children and young teens, choose something else. The practical answer: adults may take the trip, but families with younger viewers should stay home.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESDanny, the former leader of a 1960s band, now works in his feisty Aunt Vee’s Italian restaurant with his partner, George. Their friends Armond and Murph are struggling too, and the four men are desperate to get back on their feet.
They make one last bumbling attempt to rob a dentist’s office of its cavity-filling gold. When nothing goes as planned, they must confront the difference between a quick fix and the hard work required to make their dreams come true.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means The Dukes is entertaining and competently made, though its storytelling has clear limitations. The realistic camera work sometimes makes the movie feel like a well-made home movie, a style characteristic of independent filmmakers.
The writing includes many clever lines, and the actors do a commendable job making the characters believable. The heartfelt performances help carry the story. Still, the film lacks enough historical background to help viewers fully understand the characters and their deep connections.
The Worldview
The film presents a strong moral worldview centered on friendship, love, sacrifice, and perseverance in the midst of absurd obstacles. Its characters learn that meaningful goals require hard work and sheer tenacity rather than easy solutions.
The movie also includes overt liturgical and high church elements, including ashes on a forehead for Ash Wednesday and a man crossing himself while praying. Alongside those elements are light humanist ideas, including a joking exchange about what happens after death. The film’s moral emphasis is positive, but its treatment of stealing is mixed: the plan fails, yet the main characters do not clearly condemn their actions themselves.
The film’s central longing is for people who have lost their footing to recover through perseverance and the support of friends. Scripture likewise honors endurance: “For you have need of endurance” (Hebrews 10:36).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong moral worldview extolling the virtues of friendship, love, sacrifice, and perseverance in the midst of absurd obstacles, with some overt liturgical and high church elements such as wearing ashes on forehead for Ash Wednesday, man crosses himself while praying, man asks what happens when you die and second man answers “you get sent back to California and Hollywood is limbo along” with light humanist elements; nine obscenities and four profanities; man hit in the head by football, man hallucinates a policeman shooting a gun, but nobody is hit; minor sexual references, light kissing leading to implied fornication, man is infatuated with plus size women, man stares at bikini clad woman; four brief instances of cleavage depicted and woman in bikini; light alcohol use; two light drug references to marijuana, and man hallucinates during robbery because he is under the influence of drugs; and lying, stealing which does not pay off in the end, and one main character is divorced.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The four friends are pushed toward a desperate shortcut. When does perseverance require honest work instead of an easy solution?
Proverbs 14:23 · Galatians 6:9The film celebrates friendship, love, and sacrifice. What does it look like to support a friend without helping that friend do something wrong?
Proverbs 27:17 · Galatians 6:1–2The movie includes prayer, ashes, and questions about death. How should Christians think about outward religious practices and the hope of life after death?
Matthew 6:1–6 · John 11:25–26Some drug use is played for laughs. How can humor make harmful choices seem less serious?
Ephesians 5:4, 11 · 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22The Final Word
The Dukes is a warm, funny, imperfect comedy about friendship and perseverance. Its sexual references, stealing, and marijuana content make it unsuitable for children and young teens. Discerning adults may find worthwhile humor and heart here. WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For a more family-ready choice, see.
