Bad Films I Love, Part Two: The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)

When was the last time you saw a movie that knew it was bad and was all the better for it? when was the last time you saw a movie that flipped a middle finger at logic and character development in favor of fast cars, hot chicks, moonshine and rock and roll? The Fast and The Furious, pffffff. The Dukes of Hazzard is that movie!

Now when this came out it got the most poisonous reviews of the whole summer and this was the summer that gave us Fantastic Four, Stealth and The Island. When it appeared in late August 2005 due the bad word of mouth I stayed away. More fool me. The Dukes of Hazzard is a better movie than most of Michael Bay's output including The Island (It's not as good as Transformers or The Rock though).

Now it is a bad movie, its incredibly shallow and mainly concerned with all of the good things in life I mentioned earlier but I think most critics missed the point. The TV show on which this film was based was never 'High Art' it was not made in a period like today where we get the sophisticated likes of Lost, Heroes and Dexter. The esteemed company the Dukes kept (on UK screens at least) were the likes of Buck Rogers, The A-Team, Knight Rider and The Fall Guy. Most weeks the plot of the Duke cousins latest episode revolved around one of Boss Hogg's nefarious schemes, a fist fight and preposterous car chase then followed. The movie version directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, a director whose Super Troopers and Club Dread I didn't really enjoy wisely does not deviate from this formula. Johnny Knoxville who so far has not really had a big break out hit and Seann William Scott who is fast becoming an underrated leading man play the cousin's perfectly with great comic timing and handle themselves well in the action scenes. Jessica Simpson does not get much to do except wear the Daisy Dukes as er Daisy Duke and of course gets the awesome scene in the pink bikini which also featured in the great great music video in a car wash, don't pretend you don't know. Burt Reynolds was born to play Boss Hogg and good ol Burt plays him in classic pantomime villain style. Plus there is a scene where master stoner Willie Nelson (as Uncle Jessie) throws exploding moonshine out of a moving car at pursuing police vehicles. For all the mayhem, destruction and illegal moonshine smuggling on display nobody actually goes to jail come the end and Hogg gets his comeuppance. I mean what's not to love!?

When I saw this on DVD it was between the dead zone of Christmas and January pay day, the period where everyone needs a little pick me up but is too poor to go out and get it. This movie was the perfect film for that period on a dark and cold Monday night. At the end of the movie there is a really exciting and well shot car chase followed by a sing song of the series classic theme. I ended that evening with a huge smile on my face and somehow I knew everything was going to be alright.

So The Dukes of Hazzard is a bad movie I love. It's a rock and roll movie only concerned with living fast, dying young and leaving a good looking corpse but only if there are no consequences.