Dukes Of Hazzard: The Beginning DVD Review

Even bad films can afford sequels these days thanks to DVD and a bit of tricky marketing before releasing a straight-to-video claiming to provide more of the same entertainment, which must have made a decent amount of money the first time around. The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning makes matters even worse being based on a television series as well. Remake/sequels are not as rare as they used to be and the DVD home entertainment somehow manages to pull in enough for these bad films to continue to be made.

Often what is missing in these sequels is a cast to rival the original. This prequel allows for new actors to replace Sean William Scott and Johnny Knoxville for younger actors with nothing going for them but a mediocre resemblance to younger versions of the previous actors. The humor isn’t the same and it wasn’t even that great the first time around. Willie Nelson is the only true remaining actor and he has many more bad one-liners in this film as well. The prequel shows how Bo, Luke, and Daisy all came to live with Uncle Jesse and working shine. This also means the building of General Lee and Daisy’s transformation from brilliant to bimbo in just two scenes.

Nearly the same plot is used as well. Boss Hogg sets out to swipe the best shine from Jesse for the first time in what would become a long rivalry, although there doesn’t seem to be much explanation for the reasons Hogg hates Jesse so much. There are all of the usual elements, including seduction and distraction by Daisy and wild chases by General Lee and the two cousins.

The “unrated” version of the film hardly has enough for a PG-13 rating, but there is some additional scenes of women exposing their breasts, although April Scott, the young Daisy and the girl on the cover of the DVD, remains clothed for the most part. The other bonus of the unrated DVD is some addition bonuses on the DVD, but these are mild as well. The featurettes all try and promote the important elements in the film, such as the stunts and Daisy’s shorts, but none of it is any more original than the film itself.