The Dukes of Hazzard

The main question is not ‘why remake it’ ? but if you’re going to, ‘why not improve on the TV series?’ Obviously one imagines the idea of making a feature-length Dukes of H, may have been hatched after seeing how Starsky and Hutch have enjoyed a rejuvenation. Who’s going to be next Kojak ? Hawaii-Five O ?

So anyway, the Dukes of H takes you back to the world of girls in denim shorts and skimpy t-shirts being whooped over by Hazzard County truckers Luke (Jackass’s Johnny Knoxville) and Bo (American Pie’s Seann William Scott) but before you can say ‘yee-haw boys !’, Bo & Luke are enlisting the help of cousin Daisy (blonde Jessica Simpson) to take on nasty commissioner Hogg (Burt Reynolds) who has an idea to make a personal goldmine out of making Hazzard County into a coalmine. Before long our boys are turning to Uncle Jesse (crooner Willie Nelson) for help too.

Director Jay Chandrasekhar one presumes, thought he just had to recreate the TV world of the Dukes of Hazzard to score points with cinemagoers, as if nostalgia in itself, would be enough. The fact that the plot is aimless, the jokes are wayward, the acting average and there’s not enough of a story, is obviously neither here nor there. I’d like to say that the larking antics of Knoxville and Scott might have saved it but sadly they haven’t, only Willie Nelson seems to come out of this one with any kind of saving grace.

Matt Arnoldi