Bo and Luke swear their brains out (everyone does, for that matter). Roscoe is a sadistic, black-glove wearing villain who more closely resembles Angel Eyes from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" than the Roscooooooooooe P. Coltrane we all knew and loved. Uncle Jesse smokes pot. Cooter is a crazy old pervert who wants to get into Daisy's pants. Boss Hogg is actually in decent shape.

If you're a fan of the original show, that paragraph alone should be more than enough to scare you off. If you saw one or two episodes of the original, you probably don't know enough to be scared by it.

Don't get me wrong, "Super Troopers" director Jay Chandrasekhar has put together a decently funny movie that, at times, feels like the parts of Bo and Duke's lives that weren't fit for TV (the opening scene with the moonshine "delivery" and the chase afterwards was great). Mostly, though, it's a crude '70s-ish chase comedy that doesn't look or feel anything like the Dukes of old.

The plot starts off quickly enough, with the aforementioned "delivery" scene and chase, but after Waylon Jennings' timeless tune is played, it's all downhill. A contrived scene as Boss Hogg plants a still in the Dukes' barn, a break-in to one of Boss Hogg's many construction sites, and the surprising revelation of what Boss Hogg is up to.

Afterwards, the funniest scenes in the movie get started as the Dukes go to Atlanta. The best scene in the entire movie happens as Bo and Luke are stuck on a freeway in Atlanta and notice (courtesy of their fellow drivers) that there's now a Confederate flag on top of their car. Afterwards, an awkward scene in a geology lab, quickly followed by a surprise appearance by none other than the Super Troopers themselves, demoted from Spursburry P.D. to UGA Campus Police. Follow this up with a funny, if overplayed, scene in a jail cell, and you have the best parts right there. The rest of the movie is chase scene after explosion after chase scene, and way too closely resembles "Smokey and the Bandit."

The acting suffers from way too much of Jessica Simpson's backside, and not enough of Kevin Heffernan's Sheev. Sheev, one of the film's best characters, was not even in the series, and was written up purely to include one more stereotype in the film, but the armadillo helmet-wearing psychopath is a great one. Fans will remember Heffernan as the oft-suspended Favreau from "Super Troopers," as Chandrasekhar has brought much of the Broken Lizard crew with him. Johnny Knoxville brought a friend along from "Jackass: The Movie" as well, but you'll have to wait until the blooper reel runs during the credits to find out who.

Speaking of Knoxville, his Luke Duke is almost dead-on, if a bit coarser than Tom Wopat played the character. Still, nothing Knoxville's Duke does seems like anything Wopat's Duke wouldn't have in a PG-13 film. Seann William Scott plays off of Knoxville well as Bo, though his Bo is played as more of an idiot who just happens to be a great driver than John Schneider's smarter-than-he-looks character. Overall, Bo and Luke turn out ok, but that's more than you can say for anyone else in the film.

Jessica Simpson's Daisy is revolting, as her breasts do much of the acting. Whereas Catherine Bach's Daisy was a bright young woman who knew that she was, ahem, "well-endowed," and would use her, um, "assets" to her advantage, Simpson's Daisy just comes off as a prostitute. As to the other characters from the series, eh, don't bother trying to compare, because you'll be let down. Willie Nelson, awesome of a guy as he is, wasn't the right choice for Uncle Jesse. He's far too coarse and far too addicted to, um, happy grass for the role. Swearing and smoking pot are two things Denver Pyle's Jesse never would have done, but then again, Denver Pyle's Jesse wouldn't have throw Molotov Cocktails at the police, either. Burt Reynolds is another great actor who was the wrong choice for the role of Boss Hogg. He plays Hogg as entirely too sinister, and seems willing to kill Jesse at one point--something the late Sorrell Booke's character never would have done. Period.

If Roscooooooooooe P. Coltrane was your favorite character from the original series, just don't read this paragraph. No character made me more angry than Roscoe, because he was written as a sadistic, cold, calculating S.O.B.--something the original Roscoe was not. M.C. Gainey does well with the role as it's written, but it's not written anything like James Best's character. If you're counting on Roscoe to be the comic relief he was in the '80s, you're looking to the wrong place. The few scenes which required Gainey to be the comedic doofus Roscoe was are so poorly executed that Gainey simply fails to come across as such.

As if to prove one final time that nothing is sacred, and nothing about this series is above being screwed with, Chandrasekhar ends the film with a blooper reel. Playing behind this blooper reel is "The Good Ol' Boys," the classic theme to the show. Singing this great old tune is not the late Waylon Jennings, but Willie Nelson. The song is barely recognizeable, at best, beyond the lyrics. It's like a final slap in the face to the old series.

I'm reluctantly giving this film three stars and a recommendation, because today's teenage moviegoers will enjoy this updated "Smokey and the Bandit." If you're a fan of the original series, however, like I am, then do yourself a favor and pop in that season 2 DVD instead of going to see the film. It'll leave the same taste in your stomach that Coy and Vance did.

Mercifully, they do not make an appearance.

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older