Gy Waldron’s The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) was seen by many as a masterpiece and one of the more entertaining shows of the 1970’s and 80’s. When Jay Chandrasekhar decided to take the reins of the 2005 remake, he had to consider the now slightly older audience and how they may feel about his vision of the classic. I have never seen the original show, but from my understanding it veered away from the raunchy humor that was so generously added to this film. This one major difference is just one thing that set the two versions of the Duke’s story apart as this film relied heavily on the use of raunchy humor to entice the audience. It seems, however, that the shenanigans that Luke (Johnny Knoxville) and Bo (Sean William Scott) Duke regularly got themselves into throughout the course of the film were similar to the ones that Tom Wopat and John Schneider got themselves into in the original series. The film, in general, was a lot of fun but seemed to lack the ability to grip the audience and have them truly buy into the story. Nothing that took place was ever particularly emotional and never allowed the audience to become attached to any character(s) or the town that was on the verge of being destroyed. Neither Scott nor Knoxville are often known for their incredible acting ability but for their willingness to portray some of the dumbest characters in television and cinema history and while their performances in this film were adequate their characters were similar to their others. However, it was Jessica Simpson (Daisy Duke) who’s lack of acting ability stole the show. Her purpose in this film was simply to look pretty and provide little to no value otherwise. The actors, in general, however, lacked the emotion needed to attract sizable audiences and the film, as a whole, fell flat. With the exception of the high-octane chase scenes and the other action-packed sequences, the film failed to provide any form of true entertainment. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377818/?ref_=nv_sr_2
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