I haven't. And, surprise of all surprises, Roger Ebert doesn't like it.
In a way, that's disappointing. With talent like Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Knoxville (the lone bright spot in the otherwise terrible Walking Tall remake), there was potential for a good farce. And Ebert, who never saw the original series and Catherine Bach's Daisy Duke, is not impressed with Jessica Simpson.
I think it was a betrayal of trust to make the movie racy enough to get a PG-13 rating. Dukes wasn't a great show, but it was for kids.
The one movie version of a tv show that I think could really work would be a Partridge Family "reunion" mockumentary in the Spinal Tap/Mighty Wind tradition. The original series was, at least relative to most "family" sitcoms, quite good. But for the movie to work, it would need all of the original cast to sign on (except for the two youngest kids, who are replaceable).
Speaking of movie remakes, perhaps the "best" in terms of quality and style remains Brian de Palma's The Untouchables, with Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert de Niro. As film critic of my high school newspaper, I rated it the best movie of 1987.
It might also be the most anti-libertarian movie ever made. But hey, I was raised in a Canadian public school. How was I to know any better?
James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
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If the movie had been made in France, Ebert would have liked it. At any rate, anyone who hasn't seen even one episode of the series, doesn't have the background necessary to write a cogent review of the movie.
ReplyDeleteG'day! I reckon, in DukesOH, that they should have ditched the actors and just featured the car, a la Herby Goes To Washington, BOO HAR!!! OR howzabout Gilligan's Island Movie, with Keanu as Gilligan, Drew Carey as Captain, Dick Cheney as Mr Howell, Martha Stuart as Mrs Howell, Nicole as Ginger & Paris H as Marianne? The Professor? Hmmm...Steve Hawkins?
ReplyDeleteThe car and Daisy were the attraction to the series. The story line was always stupid. In my town, Roscoe would have gone to the Duke house and killed every last one of them and blamed it on a meth lab.
ReplyDeleteHey--how about a VH-1 "Behind the Music" treatment of The Partridge Family? SNL did a similar parody with Fat Albert, and it was gut-bustingly funny! It included Dumb Donald smoking crack with a couple of whores, freaking out, and trashing his hotel room.
ReplyDelete"Untouchables" had one great libertarian bit in it -- at the end...the last line, as I recall. A reporter shouts to Elliot Ness, "Prohibition's just been repealed! What'll you do now?" Ness (Costner) replies, "I'm gonna get a drink."
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