Another movie take on a former television series and, as seems usual while it is a bit entertaining it doesn't come close to living up to the original. Is it entertaining in its own right? To some degree; in a matinee or wait for the video sort of way. A couple of amusing moments, but if you'd never seen the series then you'd wonder why you paid he same amount of money to see it as the last Star Wars movie. But does itlivce up to the original series? Well, let's see...

First off, I don't think the director has seen a single episode of the original series; his reserch seems to be gleaned from viewings of several movies taking place in the Deep South where the corrupt sherrif is always overweight, because here Roscoe is and overweight and Boss Hogg is skinny. Also Roscoe isn't the sniveling brown-noser that he is in the series, and with Boss Hogg being a skinny Burt Reynolds it kinda makes the scene of him cooking his big lunch completely loose any meaning. Then there's the unconscious attempt at updating; I don't care if this IS 2005, you're in an area of the country perpetually stuck in the 1930s, and no Duke would be using a cell phone. Remember how everyone had a CB radio in the series? It just fits the whole atmosphere, but no CB chats in this thing.

But I think the main problem is mis-casting. Burt Reynolds is either miscast as Boss Hog (he'd do better as a Duke) or given the wrong directives by the director, because he someone seems lackcing and a little bit lack-luster (and we know he has it in him). Willy Nelson is just phooning in his performance as Uncle Jessey (but then, he's a singer not an actor); he tells a a few jokes, then a line of dialog or two, and repeat. The guy doing Roscoe P. Coltrain seems like every other fat sherrif in a southern town as seen in a number of old movies but is NOT the guy from Hazzard County; he doesn't have half the personality as the original. The Duke boys themselves are passable, though that painted-on five o'clock shadow is a bit much, and don't they know that every time the General Less makes a big jump they're suppoosed to honk that dixie-land horn in mid-leap? Finally there's jessica Simpson and the amount of flashing she does, the casualness with which she goes "oh, I'll just seduce him", which makes Daisey seem more of a slut then in the series. Sad to say, though, that the best acting and performance seems to come from Jessica "is this tuna or chicken?" Simpson.

They do have the balladeer in full story-telling mode, complete with the frozen pauses for his remarks (during which I kept expecting it to cut to commercial). This also seems more of an origin prequel, showing how the General got to be the way it is, and also with the boys still running 'shine. They also got Willy Nelson to sing the theme at the end, though (personal preference here), I think that waylon Jennings did it better; Willy is good but everything coming out of his mouth seems to sosund like a love song, he just doesn't have the right timber for this type of ballad (but you can here the original recording in the opening credits. Then finally the end credits has a slew of outtakes, including a momentary cameo involving Rip Taylor.

All in all, some good moments, but it's basically a 2-hour episode of the series cast with second-rate replacements. See it matinee, wait for the vodeo, or go out and rent the original series DVD.