Review: Punks vs. aristocrats in 'Get Duked!', a raunchy and hilarious British stoner comedy

As a critic, I could detail why the British stoner comedy “Get Duked!” is worth your time — that’s the whole purpose of a review — but whether you actually enjoy it will come down to one unknowable, subjective thing: Does it make you laugh?

“Get Duked!” made me laugh, sometimes embarrassingly hard. And, in these times, that’s about all one can ask for, isn’t it?

Writer-director Ninian Doff begins off a premise based on The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, a real, :”no we didn’t make this up” program through which young adults take part in physical and philanthropic activities — including a multi-day expedition — to improve themselves and benefit society.

Doff’s story imagines the four least likely teens joining forces, reluctantly, to earn the DofE. Three lads know each other through detention: Dean (Rian Gordon), a frequently drunken vandal; Duncan (Lewis Gribben), a disgusting idiot; and William, aka DJ Beatroot (Viraj Juneja), a vain amateur rapper. The fourth is Ian (Samuel Bottomley), a homeschooled nerd.

Their advisor, Mr. Carlyle (Jonathan Aris), drives them to a remote spot in the Scottish Highlands, gives them a map and tells them they have a day to reach a campsite and another day to get to the coast — after which they will receive their reward. Never mind that the boys are ill-equipped for orienteering or foraging or teamwork, the three skills needed to complete the DofE. But that’s nothing when you also factor in the rifle-toting nobleman (Eddie Izzard) who’s trying to kill them.

The chase is exhilarating enough, but it’s the added goofball touches Doff brings to the story. They include: A taciturn farmer (James Cosmo), an overeager police sergeant (Kate Dickey), exploding hashish, hallucinogenic rabbit poop, and a local bread thief.

The four young actors make an engaging, whacked-out ensemble, and Izzard and Dickey (who played the insane Lysa Arryn in “Game of Thrones”) add some veteran comic chops.

But, like I said, the only thing that matters in “Get Duked!” is whether you laugh — and Doff is willing to bend the rules of pharmacopeia and physics to make that happen. With me, he succeeded. With you? That’s the test.

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‘Get Duked’

★★★

Available starting Friday, August 28, streaming on Amazon Prime. Rated R for drug content, language throughout including sexual references, and some violence/bloody images. Running time: 87 minutes.