Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning

The 2005 reinvention of The Dukes of Hazzard fared reasonably well at the box office, but failed to set critics and fans alight. Richard Roeper called it 'the worst film of 2005' and Roger Ebert called it a 'lame brained, outdated wheeze.'

I thought it was a lot of fun, but what does my opinion matter? Unlike Ebert and Roeper, I actually have to pay for my cinema tickets.

Modest the profits may have been, but The Dukes of Hazzard did return on Warner Brother's investment, so in order to milk their cash cow further, they put together a Direct-To-DVD prequel called Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning.

With a budget of only $5 million (less than 10% of the original film's budget) it wasn't possible to bring back the movie's original stars, American Pie veteran Seann William Scott or Jackass jackass Johnny Knoxville. Willie Nelson did sign up for another run as Uncle Jesse, but when he's hard pressed for a buck, he'll do anything. (In 1992, he released the album "The IRS Tapes" specifically to settle his money problems with the Inland Revenue Service.)

The result is a pretty great pop-corn movie, with a fairly generic storyline but a great script. Some of the one liners and gags are hilarious - writer Shane Morris should be working for the Scary Movie team - and the car chases, gratuitous nudity and funny scenes with pigs are enough to satisfy most people's craving for Southern Fried silliness.

This time around Bo and Luke Duke are played by relative newcomers Jonathan Bennett and Randy Wayne. Bo is the handsome blond one, who likes to drive way to fast. Luke is the surly womaniser, who likes to 'blow shit up.'

Jonathan Bennett is actually quite good as Bos and has sharp comic timing. Randy Wayne's Luke is pretty much just ballast in the passenger seat of the General Lee.

And instead of Jessica Simpson, who filled her Daisy Dukes very convincingly in the original movie, the role of the Duke's beautiful cousin is played by April Scott. She's a very, very pretty girl, but looks like she weighs about 85lbs when soaking wet and simply doesn't have the curves (or the chutzpah) to pull off the role of the roughest, toughest gal in Georgia.

But the cast does their job. Joel Moore, as mechanic Cooter, deserves a special mention for his crazy antics and one-liners. Second rate comic Harland Williams steals every scene he's in by clutching an adorable puppy under his arm (maybe Randy Wayne should have tried that.) Nineties sex-idol Sherilyn Fenn has a cameo as Boss Hogg's frustrated wife and looks very good doing it. When Randy Wayne rejects her advances, you have to wonder if his version of Luke Duke has gone all Brokeback Mountain on us.

Highlights include assembling the General Lee (this time around, only the driver's side door is welded shut, purely as a plot device to enable the Duke boys to bundle Boss Hogg into the back of their car) and a scene with the Boss' prize pig balancing on a rooftop. Low spots involve every scene in which Randy Wayne opens his mouth and the final amazing 'jump' by the General Lee, which is very clearly computer edited.

Back in my day, they used to make the crazy jumps like that for real.

Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning is available from Blockbuster and most DVD shops.