Cinerant

Hazzardous to Your Health

When Jessica Simpson is the best thing in your movie, you know you're in trouble.

I've never seen Super Troopers or Club Dread, but after having suffered through The Dukes of Hazzard, I have to think Jay Chandrasekhar is the most incompetent director working. To mess up and bastardize this television show as much as he and screenwriter John O'Brien have done takes talent. And I mean, more than just usual death by committee talent. This is the kind of film that makes fledgling filmmakers scratch their heads and go, "Can't I do better than that?"

Forget the plot. The overall logline is very Dukes. The problem comes in tone and setting. First of all, the Dukes were not stupid. Here, instead of having a production that loves who they are, it seeks to make fun of who this family and community are. Everybody with a Southern accent is stupid or corrupt. They're all hillbillies and that's something to make fun of. Not have fun with.

The thing about Dukes that made it so idyllic was that it really didn't have a lot of connection with the real world. Sure, there were references. Sometimes some outside cousin would come to Hazzard County, but very rarely did you ever see the show venture outside the county lines. Not the film. A good portion of the film takes place in--wait for it--Atlanta! Why? It's just another chance to make fun of these people.

And then there are the performances. Seann William Scott can be hilarious. Or he can be obnoxious. Here's he's beyond obnoxious. He actually is physically in love with the General Lee. HUH? Johnny Knoxville is unconvincing and Willie Nelson has so little to do that he doesn't feel real, though he does get to smoke some pot. (Since when did Uncle Jesse do that?) Burt Reynolds primps looking stupid and Lynda Carter is barely there. James Roday? Don't know him? There's a reason. How and why he got this job I don't know. That leaves Simpson. And honestly, she handles herself well. At least in comparison to the rest of the cast.

But the most appalling thing about the movie is that it takes what should've been a fun little family movie and fills it full of sexual innuendo and language that has absolutely no place in the film. I'm not usually prudish. Maybe it's because this is a connection to my childhood, but this film went waaaaay too far in trying to sex things up. It ended up being unfunny, unnecessary, and offensive.

Skip it and pray they don't make a sequel.

posted by cinegod @ 5:22 PM