Review: 'Dukes Of Hazzard' Is Good Ol' Time

'The Dukes Of Hazzard' (PG-13) (out of four)

The "good ol' boys" aren't so good anymore in the big-screen version of the TV favorite "The Dukes Of Hazzard."

In fact, Bo Duke (Seann William Scott) and Luke Duke's (Johnny Knoxville) fun-loving ways are replaced with a bit of larceny and mayhem. But these country cousins' hearts are still in the right place as they try to save Hazzard County from an evil plot by Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds). They are helped out by cousin Daisy (Jessica Simpson) and Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson).

Many of our favorite elements from the TV series are still in place. The Balladeer (sounding a lot like the original -- Waylon Jennings) narrates the boys' misadventures, the action still stops when the boys are in a heap of trouble -- just like a cliffhanger -- and those short-short Daisy Dukes are back, only on Jessica Simpson, they are even shorter.

That is the tone of the entire movie -- it is the TV show, but taken to the next level. Daisy's clothes are sexier, the boys are crazier and Boss Hogg and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane are transformed into bumbling, calculating villains.

The General Lee (an orange 1969 Dodge Charger) is probably the biggest star in the movie. Concessions are made, however, to the passage of time and political correctness. At the start of the movie, the Confederate flag isn't on the top of the vehicle, but it is added later to the derision of the city folk that the Duke boys encounter.

I was surprised at how little a role Simpson had as Daisy. In the series, Daisy was often side-by-side with Luke and Bo as they tried to escape the corrupt forces trying to put them in jail or out of commission. In the film, Daisy is mostly separated from the boys and called upon to use her feminine wiles or a skimpy hot pink bikini to clear the way. There's not much acting needed for that.

Knoxville and Scott both look about as happy as a pig in slop. Knoxville's Luke is a ladies' man with an unlimited libido and a knack for getting into tough scrapes. Knoxville's crooked smile and off-center eyes show just how wild Luke really is.

Scott's Bo has a fire-trigger temper, loves of fun and speed, and is a bit bashful with the ladies. You get the impression that he is just a few pancakes short of a stack.

Director Jay Chandrasekhar ("Super Troopers," "Club Dread") does a good job of creating the look of small-town America, but at one point in the movie, he sends the Dukes to the big city and the fish out of water shtick doesn't go down very well.

But, who cares? The movie moves at breakneck speed with plenty of colorful crashes and colorful characters -- like Kevin Heffernan, a Chandrasekhar favorite, as an armadillo helmet-wearing explosives expert; Michael Weston as the love-sick deputy Enos, and David Koechner as the whiz mechanic Cooter.

The real treat, though, is Nelson. He's nothing like the original Uncle Jesse, but he creates his own unique version that is a lot like Nelson himself. We even get to hear him sing the series theme song, made famous by another country superstar, Waylon Jennings.

Reynolds, however, drops the ball as Boss Hogg. He comes across as just plain mean without a lick of the humor that made that character one you loved to hate.

If you are the kind of person who knows every line of every episode of the original series, you will probably spend most of the movie upset about how different it is.

But if you can let out a "yee-haw!" and go with the flow, you will have a rootin-tootin' good time at "The Dukes Of Hazzard."