'Dukes' is silly, loud, dumb, fun

THE DUKES OF HAZZARD — ** 1/2 — Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson; rated PG-13 (violence, vulgarity, profanity, drugs, brief sex, brief partial nudity).

The movie version of "The Dukes of Hazzard" is a lot like the love-it-or-hate-it television show. It's silly, it's big, it's loud . . . and it's most certainly dumb.

Yet the TV show had its loyal fans, and so will this film, which is sort of fun in a slumming kind of way.

This is one of the few movies this summer that hasn't taken itself too seriously, and its resemblance to the "Smokey and the Bandit" films is purely intentional (right down to the closing-credits outtakes, which are almost more entertaining than the film).

However, be warned that it's also very much a PG-13 film, as most of it either revolves around car races and car crashes, or around showing just how little clothing Jessica Simpson can get away with.

Duke cousins Bo (Seann William Scott) and Luke (Johnny Knoxville) are moonshine runners for their Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson). The two often run afoul of the law, as well as Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds), the crooked commissioner of Hazzard County.

Hogg has even used their latest transgression to seize the family farm, and he throws the Dukes in jail. He's planning to use all the neighboring farms for his latest get-even-richer-quick scheme.

So it becomes a race against time as the cousins try to stop him. Luke also needs to defend his local rally championship against a cocky pro racer (James Roday) who's come back to town.

Fans of the television show will find a lot to like here. So will fans of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe ("Super Troupers," "Club Dread"), which did an uncredited rewrite of the script. Director Jay Chandrasekhar is a member of the Lizards, and has a brief cameo spoofing his "Super Troopers" role.

The cast certainly appears to be having a good time. Scott can either be funny or irritating, depending on the material. But here he easily swipes the film from Knoxville, who winds up playing straight man much of the time.

The supporting players, including David Koechner ("Anchorman") and other Broken Lizard members, also get their share of laughs, as does Nelson, who throws out a series of cornball farmer jokes. Reynolds, on the other hand, appears to be on autopilot.

"The Dukes of Hazzard" is rated PG-13 for scenes of comic violence (including fisticuffs, gunplay, vehicular violence and explosive mayhem), crude and sexually suggestive humor (innuendo and references), occasional use of strong profanity, drug content (marijuana use), brief sexual contact, and some brief partial male nudity. Running time: 106 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com