Remake of 'Dukes' is faithful to its namesake and just as low-brow lame

Coming on the heels of "Bewitched" and "The Honeymooners," the big-screen version of "The Dukes of Hazzard" makes Hollywood's summer '05 excursion into TV-land zero-for-three -- zero-for-four if you count "The Bad News Bears," which also had been a television series.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE DUKES OF HAZZARD

DIRECTOR: Jay Chandrasekhar

CAST: Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson, Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson

RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, crude and drug-related humor, language and

comic action violence

WHERE: Alderwood 16, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, Des Moines Cinema, East Valley 13, Everett 9, Factoria, Galaxy Tacoma 6, Galleria 11, Issaquah 9, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema 14, Meridian 16, Metro,Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza 12, Redmond Town Center, Valley Drive-in, Woodinville 12

GRADE: C+

LINKS/TRAILERS
· Official site

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However, while "Bewitched" had Nicole Kidman and the "The Honeymooners" derived from a truly classic sitcom, there can be few expectations of a movie based on the low-brow "Dukes." So it's hardly a fall from grace, and it's here-and-there rudely entertaining.

In case you came in late, the original "Dukes" -- which ran on CBS from 1979 to 1985 -- followed the adventures of two country cousins who roared around the rural South in a souped-up Dodge Charger, constantly butting heads with a corrupt local politico.

In the movie, everything is pretty much the same -- it's an amazingly faithful remake -- except that the sexual innuendo is more explicit, the car crashes more epic, the language fouler and the mythical Hazzard County has been more precisely situated in the state of Georgia.

The bright spot is Seann William Scott ("Dude, Where's My Car?") as Bo Duke. His good-naturedly maniacal manner and early Dennis Quaid killer smile are endearing, to the point where he occasionally threatens to elevate the movie into something special.

There's also one inspired scene in which the Dukes go to liberal Atlanta with a Confederate flag on their car and find themselves a minority, and the object of ridicule and scorn. When someone calls Bo a "hillbilly," he demands to be referred to as an "Appalachian American."

Otherwise, the movie "Dukes" is not much. The good-ol'-boy humor mostly is dated and redundant, the low-tech car stunts are unlikely to thrill today's jaded audiences and the plot -- the Dukes saving the county from being turned into an open-pit mine -- is a yawner.

Jessica Simpson leads the parade of cheesecake (apparently every woman in the South looks like a Victoria's Secret's model), but whatever spark made her a singing and reality-TV star doesn't translate to the big screen. Her beauty looks artificial, her sexuality forced.

The old-timers on board also add little. Joe Don Baker and Lynda Carter make stilted cameos. Burt Reynolds has been impossible to watch since he lost his sense of humor back in the 1980s. Willie Nelson seems comatose. Maybe they should have let him sing.

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.