The Dukes of Hazzard - The Beginning DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

So, you saw the 2005 movie with Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson and you thought, hey, what were they like before all that? If you're one of the few people that boarded this train of thought, this The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning - Unrated version is the DVD for you. For everyone else, it's just a cheap, partially entertaining rip-off using a partially talented cast and an overdone storyline.

If you're one of the probably few people who saw this movie premeire earlier this month on the ABC Family Channel, well, let's just say you probably won't see the same thing on this unrated DVD. After watching this "prequel" I'm surprised that they'd even air this on the ABC Family Channel with all the bikinis and moonshine, not to mention the stuff that was unrated. It's kind of odd. It's like watching a show on PBS and then seeing a naughty version of it on Cinemax a month later. But the logic in transitioning it from the small to big screen isn't the only thing that's flawed here.

While the premise of where these Duke cousins came from, and how they came to be in Hazzard County is a trifle bit interesting, it doesn't hold for long as we're back to a lot of the same old Duke tricks that we saw in the 2005 movie and even in the original TV series. We don't much original material here, with the Duke's up to their tricks on the road and with the girls, Uncle Jesse's moonshine, Boss Hogg trying to take down the Duke farm, Cooter being a weirdo gearhead, Enos being a dork pining for Daisy and Daisy, well, being Daisy. The only big change we get is Daisy's transformation from being a bookworm kind of girl to finally shedding her persona, amongst other things.

No-namers Jonathan Bennett and Randy Wayne do an OK job as the Duke boys, but their greenness shows and they have trouble finding the characters as their own, it seems. They continue to miscast Boss Hogg here, with Christopher McDonald here, doing a bit better job than Burt Reynolds, I thought, but still, far far FAR away from the orignal, Sorell Booke's classic rendition of the white-suited conniving county commissioner. They do get a little bit back on point with Harland Williams as Rosco P. Coltrane (and a tiny version of the hound dog Flash), bringing him back to his more gullible self instead of M.C. Gainey's menacing version in the 2005 movie. He probably gives one of the best performances in the movie, and that's just sad. Joel Moore does a decent job as Cooter and Sherilyn Fenn steals the show the few brief moments she's onscreen as Lulu Hogg. Still, anyone who will buy this DVD will likely buy it to get a better look at April Scott as Daisy Duke. She's basically the whole front cover of the DVD, and she has the look down to perfection. Her acting skills are about on par for what the character needs, but it's not like that's saying a whole lot.

Aside from the shoddy acting, the script isn't a gem either. Shane Morris gets us started off nicely with the Duke's background, but once in Hazzard, it's almost like a time warp where nothing can really change that much, no matter how you write it. Morris overuses these Southern metaphors WAY too much like "You're prettier than a blah blah blah on a blah blah blah with a blah blah blah." It's almost like he used those little word magnets, and just threw together random words and phrases to see if they'd work.

As a whole, the movie just doesn't work. Whereas the 2005 movie did set itself apart from the TV show in a decent manner, this one barely put up a fight in this regard. If you really want to see "the beginning" of the Dukes of Hazard, go buy or rent the TV seasons and don't waste your time with schlock like this.

We don't get much here. There's a featurettes gallery with a few different ones to choose from. New Dukes is a little weird. It's a behind the scenes thing, talking about Bennett and Wayne... but everyone is still in character. It's pretty weird. It's just a rundown of the movie in this odd little format and it's just dumb. Daisy's Dukes is next, and it's mainly April Scott, out of character, discussing her short-shorts character. Birth of the General Lee talks about how the famous Charger came to be, along with a bunch of stuff with how many cars they have on set to taking a big jump with the General. That part is kind of cool, to see how they create this jump, but the rest is lame. A Moment With Uncle Jesse is with Willie Nelson and most of the other cast talking about his involvement in this prequel. Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane starts off rather humorously with Harland Williams spying on the Duke boys, and it's pretty damn funny. The rest is just everyone else talking about how it's tough working with him, because he's just so damn funny. He is a funny dude on this too, talking about him not watching the Dukes on TV and other things, and it's probably the best featurette here. Dainty Hogg is a featurette about this big hog that Boss Hogg has. You could easily tell in the movie how fake this animitronic hog was in the movie, so I don't know why they go into it here. They even have someone doing his voice, talking like an actor. It's rather retarded. Dukes in Drag is the last one here, talking about the scene where they "covertly" dress in drag. Also retarded. All of these featurettes last a whopping 31 minutes long and if I were you, I'd skip all of them except the Rosco P. Coltrane one.

The only other thing we get here besides the Trailer is The Music of Hazzard - Featuring Cowboy Troy & John Anderson's Duke Boys Swingin. It's a really weird version of a music video with scenes from the movie cut in with behind-the-scenes stuff from the movie. The music video part isn't even cool, as it's just footage of Cowboy Troy and Company in the studio recording the song. Blah.

The movie is presented in a soft-matted widescreen format, enhanced for widescreen 16x9 televisions.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound format.

It's quite clear who they're appealing to with this package. April Scott as Daisy Duke takes up the whole left side of the DVD, while a much smaller shot of the Dukes, the General Lee and the Boar's Nest on the right side. The back side has a synopsis along with a shot of the boys tearing stuff up in the General along with a special features box that looks like a road sign along with the billing block and tech specs.

If you're really a big fan of the Dukes of Hazzard, I'm not sure how you'll respond to this. On one hand, almost all of the material is the same kind of stuff we've seen before. On the other hand, it's the same material with much less talented talent performing. Sure, we get some semi-decent performances here, but they bring nothing new to the table besides them. The only thing really worth watching is the best thing that didn't change: Daisy Duke's outfit, and April Scott fills it out quite nicely.