Taking their cue from Catherine Bach's originals - the subject of a hit single - Daisy Duke's hotpants apparently span a mere ten inches from the waistband to the bottom of the thigh.

Other than that, there's little much of note in this retread of the American TV show that filled that what-do-we-do-between-Grandstand-and-the-Generation-Game gap.

Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville play the fast drivin', rubber burnin' cousins delivering moonshine from the boot of their red Dodge Charger, the General Lee.

Simpson's performance as steel-booted sex kitten Daisy Duke puts the women's movement back 25 years while Reynolds never seems to fill the role of the corpulent Boss Hogg as played by Sorrell Booke on TV.

The plot, such as it is, follows the boys' efforts to prevent scheming Boss Hogg, supported by crooked sheriff Rosco P Coltrane (MC Gainey), strip-mining Hazzard County.

Knoxville and William Scott are both decent enough comedy actors - but they're not in the same league as the likes of Owen Wilson or Ben Stiller, who made the Starsky & Hutch remake such a success.

Country legend Willie Nelson looks slightly bemused by his role as the boys' uncle and former wonderwoman Lynda Carter struggles with an underwritten part despite her (waning) superpowers.

The car chases are long...and dull and played out to a thudding dad rock soundtrack while the script never rises above the TV original, which wasn't much cop first time round.

The one scene that promises something - a run-in with a black neighbourhood fuming at their sooty faces and the confederate flag-adorned General Lee - fizzles out, a piece of tired tokenism.

It's all a bit underpowered, bringing nothing new or fresh to the original premise with the main shock its sheer lack of ambition.

Tim Evans