The Dukes of Hazzard: Unseen DVD Review:

Making there way they only way they know how, Bo (William Scott) and Luke (Knoxville) Duke delivered moonshine around Hazzard County and were the thorn in the sides of Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (Gainey) and Boss Hogg (Reynolds). When Boss Hogg takes the Duke farm after the sheriff plants a moonshine still in Uncle Jessie’s (Nelson), the good old boys go on the run and with the help of their cousin Daisy (Simpson), try find a way of getting the Duke farm back.

Hollywood’s obsession with remaking old TV shows for the big screen continues but can ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ make that jump?

Nostalgia can be a funny thing. Anyone who grew up in the early 1980s will remember the adventures of Bo and Luke Duke as they tore through the county in the General Lee. Everybody wanted to be behind the wheel of that orange Dodge Charger as it made the most impossible jumps to escape Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane and his deputies. Every week the Dukes stopped another one of Boss Hogg’s profiteering schemes but ended up in one or two car chases along the way. The premise for the show was simple but it worked as light hearted, throwaway entertainment that filled the TV channels in the 80s. The problem is that this simple approach doesn’t work too well with modern audiences.

The big screen version of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ follows the formula of the TV show to the letter but the problem is that this doesn’t really offer the audience much in the way of plot. In fact the minute story, which is basically another of Boss Hogg’s money making schemes, is just a way of filling in the gaps between the chase sequences. This might have been all well and good in the 1980s but modern cinema audiences want more.

The essence of the show may well be captured perfectly but some of the casting lets the film down. By having two comedic actors in the roles of Bo and Luke doesn’t seem to work. While we are not expecting these to be Oscar winning roles, the casting of Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott just doesn’t seem right. You can’t really take ever of them seriously, not even as womanising, trouble causing moonshine smugglers because they basically playing themselves not the characters. M. C. Gainey also doesn’t capture the essence of bungling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane and just comes across as more of a thug-like henchman. Burt Reynolds fairs a little better as the nefarious Boss Hogg with the white suit really suiting him but he doesn’t have enough screen time to make as big an impact as the character should have. The character that really captures the essence of the show is Daisy Duke, played by the singer turned actress Jessica Simpson in her first big screen role. She is stunningly beautiful and the character plays on this to get what she wants.

With only the extremely well choreographed car chases making the film watchable, ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ is another TV to movie adaptation that fails to impress. This is probably because the show itself wasn’t that great in the first place and the simple premise of the show just isn’t enough to engage modern more story hungry audiences. Maybe it’s time those good old boys got real jobs and grew up.

Star Rating = * *

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the movie is presented well.

BONUS FEATURES

Daisy Duke: The short, short shorts (4.42 mins)
Director Jay Chandrasekhar, costume designer Genevieve Tyrrell and star Jessica Simpson come together to talk about creating the perfect denim shorts for Daisy Duke.
The General Lee Lives (5.14 mins)
Director Jay Chandrasekhar, stunt director Darren Prescott, stunt driver Kevin Scott, 2nd Unit director Dan Bradley and special effects foreman Elia P. Popov talk about bringing the iconic General Lee to the silver screen.

How to launch a muscle car 175 feet in four seconds (4.50 mins)
Director Jay Chandrasekhar, stunt director Darren Prescott, stunt driver Kevin Scott and world record-holding car jumper Mark Hager talk about the General Lee’s freeway launch and the bridge jump and how they made the Dukes appear to be driving.

The Hazard of Dukes (14.49 mins)
Director Jay Chandrasekhar, producer Bill Gerber, stunt driver Rhys Millen, stunt director Darren Prescott, stunt driver Kevin Scott and stars Sean William Scott, Johnny Knoxville, Jessica Simpson, David Koechner, M.C. Gainey and Burt Reynolds talk about bringing the much loved TV show to the silver screen. The featurette looks at the original TV show, the characters and casting and the driving stunts that made the show such a fan favourite in the first place.

‘Those Boots are made for walking’ music video (4.18 mins)
Willie Nelson joins Jessica Simpson for a promotional music video for the film and the soundtrack.

Additional Scenes (25.30 mins)
A collection of deleted, extended and alternative scenes that shows more of Lynda Carter, longer car chases and a longer finale to the movie.

Unseen Additional Scenes (3.58 mins)
Alternative more saucy versions of the girl’s dorm scene and Bo and Luke getting lucky during the finale of the movie

Bloopers (5.05 mins)
A montage of gags and gaffs, as well as quite a few mishaps during the car chases

Unseen Bloopers (5.22 mins)
A no-holds barred barrage of much more raunchy and downright vulgar bloopers

Theatrical Trailer (1.44 mins)
Watch the promotional advert for the movie

OVERALL

Warner Bros. has done a good job with the DVD transfer of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’. Fans should be pleased with the amount of featurettes included but the exclusion of a commentary track is disappointing however. Good but not as strong as it could have been.



Jamie Kelwick