646f9e108c Cousins Bo, Luke and Daisy are sent to Hazzard County, Georgia for the first time to live with their Uncle Jesse. Jesse is a farmer and a moonshiner and is constantly battling his old rival Boss Hogg who is the corrupt city commissioner of the small town. This film is a prequel set before the time period established in the 1979 Hit TV Series. In this prequel re-telling of the famous 1979-1985 TV series of the same name, the teenage mischievous Duke boys, cousins Bo and Luke (Jonathan Bennett and Randy Wayne), are arrested for reckless driving and possession of illegal fireworks. They are sent to live with their Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson) at his farm in rural Hazzard County in an unnamed southwestern state. Bo and Luke's orphaned dowdy cousin Daisy (April Scott) soon joins them hoping to find a place in her life. Jesse is also a moonshiner who struggles to make ends meet and soon employs a willing Bo and Luke to be his runners to deliver his 'special' White Lighting whiskey to all parts of the county after observing their driving skills using a fixed-up orange-painted 1969 Dodge Charger which they named 'The General Lee'. But it doesn't take long for Bo and Luke to find a worthy opponent in the form of the cigar-chomping J.D. 'Boss' Hogg (Christopher McDonald), the corrupt city commissioner of the nearby small town and county seat capital of Hazzard who makes it his mission to stop the Duke Boys in any way possible. I was stoked to watch anything Dukes related, but then I was immediately disappointed and disgusted. The acting is terrible and the characters are not likable. The plot was forgettable I don't even know if there was one. There were so many crude and immature jokes and lines, usually sexual. Kids should not watch this movie it's so raunchy. It's nothing like our cherished old time Duke boys show, nothing like it. Willie Nelson is the only highlight of this crappy, abhorrent failure of a movie and they make Uncle Jesse say unacceptably explicit jokes as well. Don't waste your time you will instantly regret investing any amount of time viewing this p.o.s. I've never watched the original Dukes of Hazzard TV series, so I don't know if the 2005 feature film was inferior to the show, but at least it contained somewhat entertaining car chases and a few chuckle-inducing jokes if not much more. The made-for-TV prequel is basically more of the same with a less famous cast and fewer funny scenes.<br/><br/>The story is set in the teenage years of Bo and Luke Duke (Jonathan Bennett and Randy Wayne) and recounts how they first met each other and got involved in the moonshining business in the rural Hazzard County in the southern USA. A local politician Boss Hogg (Christopher McDonald) is blackmailing the boys' uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson) to give up his liquor business but Bo and Luke decide to put an end to such plans, all the while chasing girls and poking fun at the inept sheriff (Harland Williams) in various ways. In addition to the origin of the boys' friendship, we also get to witness the birth of General Lee and the transformation of Daisy Duke (April Scott) from a nerdy wallflower to her famous sexy self.<br/><br/>Most of the 2005 film's main cast doesn't return, and sadly the new actors are no match for the old ones. The two stars are quite bland, and Joel Moore as their mechanic friend Cooter is more annoying than funny. Christopher McDonald is alright in his angry role though, even if his performance is inevitably overshadowed by that of Burt Reynolds in the first film. As a refreshing exception, country music legend Willie Nelson does reprise his role as Jesse, delivering by far the funniest lines in the movie. Besides telling amusing jokes and anecdotes, he also gets to play a couple of songs in a party scene.<br/><br/>The humour is mostly very clichéd and unimaginative. The cross dressing, toilet humour and female nudity failed to entertain me much as it's obvious that the writers haven't even tried to think of any new ways of presenting the same old gags. The series trademark car chases and jumps are automatically slightly entertaining though. Still, the action scenes and Willie Nelson aren't enough to save the movie from being a dull cash-in entry in a series that doesn't look like it was full of masterpieces in the first place. My expectations were so low that I wasn't really disappointed, but I certainly don't recommend The Beginning for anyone but the biggest fans of the first feature film. The unrated version offers a few more scenes containing brief nudity while the r-rated version contains alternate material of these scenes. Both versions have been released in the USA on DVD.