imdb-6472

Having read some of the other comments here I was expecting something truly awful but was pleasantly surprised. REALITY CHECK: The original series wasn't that good. I think some people remember it with more affection than it deserved but apart from the car chases and Daisy Duke's legs the scripts were weak and poorly acted. The Duke boys were too intelligent and posh for backwood hicks, the shrunken Boss Hog was too cretinous to be evil and Rosco was just hyper throughout every screen moment. It's amazing the series actually lasted as long as it did because it ran out of story lines during the first series.

Back to the movie. If you watch this film in it's own right, not as a direct comparison to however you remember the TV series, then it's not bad at all. The real star is of course the General Lee. The car chases and stunts are excellent and that's really what D.O.H. is all about. Johnny Knoxville is his usual eccentric self and along with Seann William Scott as Cousin Bo the pair make this film really funny in a hilarious Dumb-And-Dumber sort of way the TV series never achieved. The lovely Jessica Simpson is a natch as Miss Daisy, Burt Reynolds makes a much improved Boss Hog and M.C. Gainey makes a believably nasty Rosco P. Coltrane, the way he always should have been.

If you don't like slapstick humour and crazy car stunts then you wouldn't be watching this film anyway because you should know what to expect. Otherwise if you want an entertaining car-action movie with a few good laughs that's not too taxing on the brain then go see this enjoyable romp with an open mind.

This is not a good film. If I'd paid money to see it I would feel cheated. However as a made-for-TV "action" thriller it's a fairly enjoyable romp if you don't take it too seriously. It tries hard to be Air Force One with a bit of Die Hard 2 and Under Siege thrown in, but it fails miserably on it's meagre budget. The film saves on cash by using newsreel footage whenever a touch of realism is called for.

There's the usual group of insane high ranking patriots trying to destroy the world and even an innocent little boy (where would these films be without him?). The main character, a female vice-president, is astonishingly unbelievable in what would normally be a male role. The idea of an attractive female politician single-handedly overcoming a small army of crack troops and CIA-types just doesn't work, I'm sorry.