Let me start by saying that I was a huge Dukes of Hazzard fan when I was a kid and I eagerly anticipated the release of this movie. My first inclination that there might be a problem came when I saw the Jessica Simpson video, These Boots are Made for Walkin. It was then that I began to fear that they had turned the character of Daisy into nothing more than a sex kitten. Then I saw who they had chosen to play Bo and Luke and I was even more concerned. These two ruffians look more like a couple of guys who would rob the local liquor store than the sweet misunderstood ’’good ole boys’’ from the tv show of my youth. The situation with Daisy wasn’t quite as bad as I assumed from the video, but the rest was even worse.
In the tv series, the Duke family rarely actually broke the law. They were generally set up by Boss Hogg and Roscoe. In the movie, they break the law as a matter of course. Uncle Jesse, who was the family patriarch in the series, is now a pot smoking dirty joke telling moonshiner. Every other word out of most of the casts’ mouths is now a curse word. They have a moonshine still in the bathtub. The list goes on and on.
The plot is basically the same as every Dukes of Hazzard plot. Boss Hogg has a scheme to swindle someone out of something and make more money. In this particular case, he has decided to snatch the farms of Hazzard from the townfolk and have Hazzard strip mined. He tries to carry this out with the help of his loyal buffoon Sherriff Roscoe P. Coltrane. I must state that this Roscoe does not offer near the amount of comic relief that was offered by the Roscoe in the series. This Roscoe isn’t funny. He is really just annoying.
I just have to say that I wouldn’t really recommend this movie very highly. I always considered the Dukes of Hazzard to be a family show. This movie is one of the furtherest things from family entertainment. There is vile language, nudity, criminal acts, and gross vulgarity. Unless you are an adolescent boy, this movie is probably not for you.