Film Review: The Dukes of Hazzard (dir. J. Chandrasekhar, 2005)

OK, so I broke down and went to see the Dukes movie. I have to say, it's not as bad as it could be. It's not a non-stop hoochie coochie show, either. It's more of an almost non-stop car chase, punctuated by interludes of hoochie-coo.

No one who's ever seen the tv show needs a plot synopsis. Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds) has a plan to lie, cheat, and steal the good people of Hazzard county, and only those "two modern day Robin Hoods," Bo and Luke Duke, can thwart him. Along the way, the Duke boys commit so many crimes (and torts) that this movie should be a law school final exam question. The car chase scenes are pretty amazing--I'm not sure I've seen a movie with better car stunts. There are arrows with explosives, car crashes, and quite a bit of Jackass-style physical comedy. Johnny Knoxville as Luke has a kind of charisma. But Seann William Scott's Bo is a crazy man in love with the General Lee. Really, the screenplay makes Bo the gay Duke, because he is always clear that the car is a he and that he (Bo) loves it, even wants to make love to it. (I'm not kidding.)

In short, this screenplay takes the basic story and "updates" it by making the characters ridiculous parodies of the characters in the tv show. To the extent that that works, the movie is watchable.

The two characters who suffer the most in this retelling: Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane, who is too evil and thus no longer comic relief, and Daisy. Jessica Simpson is kind of a parody of a beautiful woman--or, perhaps more properly, a farce, in the sense that it's a story of ridiculous body parts in an impossible situation. In the original series, Catherine Bach was sexy but smart. This Daisy is supposed to be smart, but Simpson can't play smart. It's more like if you taught your puppy to imitate human speech, but the puppy has no idea what the words say. Sure, the puppy can say the words, and then she expects her treat. But there's nothing going on other than saying the words.

I won't ruin the Confederate battle flag joke, but it's in there.