I have seen precisely one episode of the seminal hillbilly TV series The Dukes of Hazzard and I can't help but think that it's no coincidence that it has the exact same plot as the new film version of said TV series. I could be wrong, but I suspect that pretty much every adventure ever involving hell-raising cousins Bo and Luke Duke had the same plot.
That plot is this: Bo (Scott) and Luke (Knoxville) are the favorite sons of Hazzard County, Georgia, where they sell moonshine brewed by their Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson), protect the honor of their hottie cousin Daisy (Simpson) and cause trouble for local overlord Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds). Hogg, in his latest effort to get those pesky Duke boys, cooks up a scheme to ruin their lives in some way and sort of succeeds at first before it all comes crashing down on him in a way that involves the Dukes racing their iconic Dodge Charger, the General Lee, and Daisy showing a little flesh to distract horny, small-town police officers.
In the movie, Hogg's plot involves seizing all of the land in Hazzard County and strip-mining it for coal, which was also the plot of the single episode I saw. Hogg's plan isn't what's important, of course: It's his efforts to catch the Dukes and the way they're thwarted that makes for the entertainment, and the new movie offers the same car-chasing and ass-wiggling as the old show, with nothing of consequence added to make it worth watching.
Although directed by Jay Chandrasekhar of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (whose other members appear in roles of various sizes), Dukes is not an all-out comedy. Scott and Knoxville mug for the cameras and crack a few feeble jokes, but the funniest part of the movie is the gag reel that plays over the credits. Neither star can create a passable Southern accent (even though Knoxville hails from his namesake town in Tennessee), and Simpson is painfully bad as Daisy, who thankfully is given as little as possible to say.
There are a few nods to modernity (the Dukes meet black people!), but mostly the movie feels tired and rudderless, without a reason for existing other than because someone thought a familiar property was ripe for exploitation. Anyone who doesn't love the Dukes and their repetitive adventures won't find much of interest, and anyone who does is better off watching old episodes on CMT.