The Dukes of Hazzard
Review by Clint Morris
If film critics were forced to sit through six weeks of introductory
classes before doodling down their first review, chances are
we'd all be walking in with a pre-conceived notion about Hollywood
junk like The Dukes of Hazzard.
Loud, dumb, flashy and expensive - it's exactly the kind
of film your veteran critic, someone who would obviously teach
such a class, would undoubtedly frown upon.
Well, it isn't exactly art, you see - and by golly, if we
critics-in-training wouldn't then all be prepared to pepper
it in backwash and bitterness.
Thankfully though, there's no such class, and no rulebook,
just an unsaid stipulation that Joe reviewer probably 'should'
despise such nonsense.
I, for one, got off the bus before the final stop though
- deciding not to follow the crowd to the intended destination,
and simply judge some films by how far it can get my gob to
widen.
Granted, this umpteenth classic TV-show-turned-film - there's
been quite a few now, and most of them, sans Mission: Impossible,
The Untouchables and The Fugitive, have been
about as exciting as cleaning the grime out from under your
toenails - isn't going to have you blow-drying your trousers
post-show from all the giggling you'll be doing, but it'll
still get your funnybone pumped - and - Jessica Simpson's
in it, after all.
Dumb, and proud of it, the new Dukes essentially excises
any serious bits the original series (1979) had and hams it
up to the extreme.
It gets a little preposterous at times, and some of the jokes
do go down like a brick tied to a kite, but all in all, it
has reasonable laughs, and you can include Burt Reynolds'
hairpiece in that subdivision if you want.
Like the original John Schneider/Tom Wopat series, the show
centres on a couple of carefree rowdy loons, Bo and Luke Duke
(Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville), who with the help
of their confederate-flag adorned hot rod stay one step of
the local Hazzard County, Louisiana law.
When the boys decide to step up from selling bottles of Moonshine
- with their Uncle Jesse (played by Willie Nelson) - to robbing
the safe of one Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds), the corrupt official
who is plotting to strip-mine the county, things get a little
complicated … and the roads are going to take a beating
for it.
Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville fill the shoes of
their TV counterparts adequately, and seem to be having fun
doing so, but it's the buxom beauty Jessica Simpson, playing
it up as the boy's hotter-than-a-pizza-pocket cousin Daisy
Duke, that'll be most remembered here. Simpson's great at
playing the luscious comic tease, and by gee, those shorts
fit her well. This role will set her star soaring.
While it's a little sad that we now have to shell out fifteen
bucks to see something we used to watch for free on the idiot
box every Saturday night, The Dukes of Hazzard is still
worthwhile. It's about as analogous to the original series
as carrots are to crayons, but still - it is a lot of fun.
And unless your name's Ben Jones you won't be complaining.
Flip open the hood of the 'Dukes and you'll find an well-oiled
engine that's fast, funny, funky, and foxy, with enough horsepower
to shatter a palette of moonshine.
3 out of 5
The Dukes of Hazzard
Australian release: Thursday the 15th of September, 2005
Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson,
Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson, David Koechner.
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar.
Website: Click
here.
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