With a rebel yell, the General Lee rides again. And, for viewers of a certain age, it's an undeniable thrill to see the legendary tangerine Charger back in action, barelling down dusty backroads, executing impossible handbrake turns and shrugging the bonds of gravity to sail majestically through the air as the familiar strains of its melodious klaxon declaim the ante bellum glory of the South.
Would that other elements of this by-the-book retread had anything like as much mojo, suffering as it does from a plot with less meat on its bones than a worked-over rack of ribs. Johnny Knoxville and Sean William Scott may be a tight fit for the raunched-up Bo and Luke (here they're moonshine runners for real, rather than the wimpy reformed characters of TV series). And the choice of C&W icon Willie Nelson for irracible old goat Uncle Jessie and Burt Reynolds, the king of Southern-fried farce, for Boss Hogg verges on genius.
But they’re just not given anything remotely interesting to do. As it is, some piffle about fixing up the General Lee to defeat Boss Hogg in an auto race makes for tiresome interludes of hollering and brawling that simply get in the way of the car chases. Far too much Ho-Hum and not nearly enough Yee-haw.
