Hey folks, Harry here... other than Daisy Duke costume design and the pure exploitation glee of riding the thunder road aspect of the TV show - there really wasn't much of anything to like about this show for me. Now, I love great car chases, but the show never had any, so that's the fun I'm hoping for here, but I never really cared for the casting to the Duke Boys and Daisy in this film. And I can understand the kitsch factor of putting Burt in the Jackie Gleason role from his SMOKEY & THE BANDIT days, which this show was essentially based on. And Willie Nelson as Uncle Jessie is pretty inspired. But ya know... that just ain't enough in my book. Beware of spoilers throughout this review, and remember... this is a test screening review, and comedy is all in timing, which is the entire point of these screenings to hone. Hopefully it'll be entertaining, I just don't anticipate that. Here ya go...
Spoilers throughout:
Now I'm a fan big time of the original ya know, and I remember every Friday skipping everything including dates with hot chicks so I could get my fix of them Duke boys...cuz we didn't have no TIVO then. Some 20 yrs later, here I find myself at the Thursday preview of my righteous communion and blasphemy...how dare they screw up an institution!!!!
I's a fan of Broken Lizard but this ain't a Broken Lizard film.Sure it's director is one, and Kevin H. is an actor in the flic but that's where it stops. They just wrote a draft of the script. And that's where it should have never gone.
From Johnny Knoxville's lame acting abilities and jealousy over not always having a chance to drive the GL...I felt someone (all rednecks included) needs to slap him upside the head. Sean William Scott is bearable as a wannabe NASCAR driver bearing jealousy over some bonehead named JAKE that comes back to Hazzard for a "what the hell were they thinkin" race in the middle of nowhere. Ofcourse the GL joins the race and wins the day...go figure...duhhhhhh!! Who the heck thought up these cars...probably couldn't get support for NASCAR so they pulled 30 cars from garages all over the south and said show up fer free and get a photo op with the "Can't act" Jessica Simpson. Pleaseeeeeee!!!!!!! Ok, when she's driving...someone should have told her to drive off a cliff.
Going to the city, and driving into the campus looking for their geology friends..looking for the answer to their "who's gonna stop Hogg from strip-mining Hazzard"....two hot chicks that steal more screen time than Cooter (not so bad) and Joe Simpson...sorry, I mean his exploited daughter who should be reciting "Who's my daddy" through the whole film.
Burt Reynolds...tieing up a much older Wonder Woman in the Uncle Jesse's house so they could bait the Duke boys is the best moment of the movie...(next to the end)...he should have used the "truth serum" rope hidden under her skirt and thrown it over the exec in charge of this movie and asked "What makes you think Duke fans are this dumb". This guy probably thinks H&R's Puff 'n Stuff could be a big budget trilogy.
So you can tell I didn't like this movie...it sucked. The reaction was mixed but the car looked good, especially after Cooter and his buds restore the decrepid beater the Dukes drive and trash in the opening. Looks like they cared more about the car in this movie than the story. Too bad...film the car for two hrs just parked on the side of the road and I would have been more entertained.
And what about them dragging the safe...!!??? Hasn't anybody heard of pyro. No, we need an excuse to showcase again just how dumb southern boys can be. Well ya know what...sorry!!! we aren't gonna be dumb enough to pay 10 bucks for this when it comes out this summer...
Cooter B
