Dukes of Hazzard

“THE DUKES OF HAZZARD” MARGINALLY ENTERTAINING
Sandra Kraisirideja
Much has been written about the slump in ticket sales at the box office this summer. Some blame the glut of remakes this year, which doesn’t bode well for “The Dukes of Hazzard,” opening Aug. 5.

Since Memorial Day, over half a dozen movies have been released that were either remakes or, as marketing departments like to call them, updates. When did going to the movies become the equivalent of watching TV Land on a really big screen?

“The Dukes of Hazzard” series aired from 1979 to 1985 and one of its most memorable elements was a bright orange 1969 Dodge Charger, named General Lee, that had a Confederate flag blazoned across its roof.

This was before the era of political correctness when the Confederate flag was viewed as decoration and not some statement about race relations in America.

In the movie the flag is still on the car and a few scenes address its perceived meaning. When cousins Bo and Luke Duke. played by Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville, drive into Atlanta the General Lee is viewed with both support and scorn by passersby.

In other words, the Confederate flag and what it represents becomes another way to get cheap laughs.
Scott’s Bo is a car-obsessed nut job who launches into fistfights at the slightest provocation (usually involving the General Lee).

Knoxville’s Luke seems to possess the brains between the two cousins and he comes across as more level-headed. Can this considered a display of acting talent since Knoxville got his start volunteering for inane stunts as creator of the MTV series “Jackass?”

Daisy Duke is played by pop-singer and realty-TV star Jessica Simpson. This is Simpson’s first movie role and she puts her best assets forward.

Mixed in with the movie’s juvenile humor are plenty of car chases and aerial maneuvers. Interestingly those sequences aren’t nearly as entertaining as the clips of all the stunts that didn’t go perfectly that are part of the blooper reel at the end of the movie.

It’s worth watching if you can stay in the theater until the end.

Source: Originally printed in Entertainment Today