Director
Jay Chandrasekhar
Cast
Johnny Knoxville….Luke Duke
Seann William Scott….Bo Duke
Alice Greczyn….Laurie Pullman
Steve Lemme….Jimmy
Michael Weston….Deputy Enos Strate
Michael Roof….Dil Driscoll
Jessica Simpson….Daisy Duke
James Roday….Billy Prickett
M.C. Gainey….Rosco P. Coltrane
Burt Reynolds….Boss Hogg
David Koechner….Cooter
Willie Nelson….Uncle Jesse
Jack Polick….Deputy Cletus
The Movie
Let me start off by saying this: The original TV show wasn’t all that good. It has grown in lore over time, but it wasn’t anything fantastic. It really just gave people a fondness for muscle cars and a new name for short shorts. The movie doesn’t do any better.
Bo and Luke Duke are running moonshine for their Uncle Jessie and generally tearing up Hazzard County. They have a natural enemy in Sheriff Coltrane, who does not like their antics in the least bit.
Coltrane is soon used by Boss Hogg to stop the boys. They do this by shutting down Uncle Jessie and seizing the property. It seems that most of the properties in one section of Hazzard County are being seized.
The boys go searching for answers and soon find out that Boss Hogg is taking all the land so he can strip mine it for coal. The boys soon team up with Uncle Jessie and Daisy to make sure that Boss Hogg doesn’t get what he wants. From there on it is a bunch of silly gags and stunts to save Hazzard County.
The movie has its funny moments but it’s direction and script is the problem. Chandrasekhar is too focused on giving Super Troopers some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ooze to make it mutate. Throw in some hot Jessica Simpson and you have a gold star film. The only problem is that it doesn’t work…at all. Modernizing “Dukes” while trying to play off the old series just doesn’t work. Aiming to make it another Broken Lizard comedy is not a good idea. In the end, while there are spirited performances from the actors, it’s the behind the scenes stuff that kills this movie.
Score: 3/10
The Sound
5.1 Dolby Digital. Sounds real nice.
The Video
“Letterbox” widescreen format preserving the “scope” aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition. Whatever that means. It looked good.
The Extras
Additional Scenes – 1 PG-13 and 1 Unrated. Nothing notable
Gag Reels – 1 PG-13 and 1 Unrated. Usual funny stuff.
The Hazzards of Dukes: Go Behind The Scenes – Typical “Making Of” featurette.
How To Launch A Muscle Car 175 Feet in 4 Seconds – Actually a pretty cool feature showing how they launched the General Lee.
The General Lee Lives – Nice feature about creating the many General Lee’s for the film.
Daisy Dukes: The Short Short Shorts – Creating the shorts for Jessica Simpson. Nothing special.
Jessics Simpson ” These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” Music Video – Gratuitous shots of Simpson in a bikini and getting down? Check!
Overall, the special features aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination, but they are better than the movie.
Score: 5/10
