Ahoy, squirts! Quint here! Boy, I'm glad the word on this flick is lookin' good. I love SUPER TROOPERS to death ("Just order a large, Farva." "I don't want a large Farva... I want a goddamn liter-a-cola!") and I'm one of the few that seems to enjoy the hell out of CLUB DREAD ("You manacled me to my deathbed! You Picadilly whore!"). The idea of this being Broken Lizard's DUKES OF HAZZARD makes me very excited for the flick, but I must confess to having never really watched the show very much. I hope it's as good as the below reviewer says it is!
Long time (six or seven years) reader, first time writing in.
I thought for sure someone would have written in about this by now, but I guess I was the only geek in the house for the screening of the DUKES OF HAZZARD movie on Thursday night.
I, honestly, didn’t know what to expect, and after seeing it, I didn’t know what to compare it to. After I read the review of the trailer and the BLUES BROTHERS movie was mentioned, I realized that that was it. It is (in my opinion) an equal mix of the DUKES OF HAZZARD t.v. show, SUPER TROOPERS, and THE BLUES BROTHERS. That’s it!
I must start by saying that this was a “test” screening, the final product may differ from the one that I am commenting on.
Although I loved Super Troopers, the film pleasantly surprised me. It was hilarious. Johnny Knoxville finally doing well in a comedy and Sean William Scott kicks ass. Willy Nelson was a perfect Uncle Jesse, there’s even a scene with his “signature” little jokes (see Half Baked) and he smokes weed from an apple. Jessica Simpson was hired to wear the outfits (daisy duke’s, and bikinis) and to say three lines which aren’t too embarrassing and she does fine with that. Burt Reynolds was good as Boss Hog, but not great.
It was definitely better than Starsky & Hutch. The soundtrack was awesome, too. Lots of good comedy and car stunts and chases. The plot wasn’t great but it was a decent mcguffin, save the family farm from Boss Hog’s mining and win the local race for honor, respect, and pride. I don’t want to spoil too much.
Warning: Possible Spoilers Ahead!
The film has subtle nods to the TV show without excluding those who never saw it. For example, the confederate flag isn’t on the roof of the car for the first part of the film, it is added after their car is totaled and is given emergency repairs by a group of hillbillies. They also are unable to fix the doors, leaving them having to slide in and out through the side windows. There are also about four or five shots of the car having to jump high into the air, and every one of the situations is unavoidable.
I was surprised at how many “inside jokes” there were. When describing a doomed romance, Sean W.Scott claims “Everything was great, then she pulled a Kaiser Sose on me and like that,” opens fingers near mouth ”she was gone.”
The Super Troopers even make a cameo as University Campus police. They do a scene where they ask a couple of stoned Duke boys what the speed limit is “Ten, ten miles an hour” says one trooper, “Do you know how fast you were going?” says the other, “Eight” claims the first. When this happened, the whole audience went wild with applause and laughter, the director (Jay K-something) was there and was overcome by a big “Aw, shucks” smile and had to move out of view.
The fat dude from Super Troopers does a great part as Cooter who’s a creepy pervert who only wears underwear and a robe. He thinks that the government is trying to read his mind so he makes armadillo helmets to block the signal (there’s more to it, but I’m summarizing).
I don’t want to give too much away. I’ll just say that I hope they don’t change it too much. I hope it does well. And, I look forward to seeing it again.
If you post this, call me Zarty B.
