REVIEW: The Dukes of Hazzard (3.5/5)

Sorry for the gap in posting. I'm back from the long weekend and I've been to the cinema, so I thought I'd get back into it with a review.

When I was a kid growing up, the Dukes of Hazzard was a regular part of my Sunday afternoon at my grandparents, slotted in right after Sunday dinner and right before CHiPS. I am watching the reruns of the original series at the moment, so I wasn't too sure what to expect out of a remake.

Now, if you know anything of the originals, you're not going to be expecting any deep and meaningful, Oscar wannabe epic thriller are you? Are you? Good.

This is the type of movie you should go to see when you want to watch something you don't have to think too much about. If you don't take it too seriously then I don't think you will be disappointed. It's fun, corny and a few cars get to look very second hand indeed. This is a good old 'stop the bad guy before the clock ticks twelve' type of movie.

How close to the original?

Depends on how you look at it. The story would fit in fine if you shortened it a bit and slotted it right in the middle of series one with the original cast (apart from the fact that at one point Bo and Luke end up a long way from Hazzard). The characters? I'm not so sure:

Roscoe wasn't much good to me. He seemed to be the tough arm of the law, as opposed to the thick sheriff. Then when in front of Boss Hogg, he seemed just to have no character at all.

Boss Hogg was about as good as he could be I suppose. I doubt anyone could replicate the original character.

Enos was his good old bumbling self, although the original character was that in a simple innocent way, rather than in a 'thick as two short planks' way like in the movie.

Jessie Nothing much to say. Spot on.

Daisy's character was also about right (I'm shocked to say).

Bo and Luke were good but they are probably the ones that differ most from the original. In the original even though funny things would happen to them, I thought they had a serious side to them. In the movie I found them a bit 'slapstick'.

The General LeeIt got bent, scratched, smashed up, rolled and jumped, but they did have 13 of the things to play with ;)

All in all a good movie. The characters may differ slightly, but the typical Hazzard storyline compensates for that. 3.5/5