Beverly Hood

Based very loosely on the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 -1971) this movie looked like it might be going somewhere but wentdownhill within the first 10 minutes. Basically a poor hillbilly family win the lottery and move to Beverly Hills. The plot was very poor as was the ham fisted acting. It seemed like a cheap vehicle to showcase the lack of talent of Lavell Crawford and Buddy Lewis. At times it was like a mish mash of comedy sketches. I was fortunate that I only rented this movie, if I'd bought it I would have more extremely disappointed. As it stands this was an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back.

This is a stupidical send-up of "The Beverly Hillbillies" in the utmost meaning of it. I saw this just the other day,believe me when you see it that it is poorly written,poorly acted,and poorly directed,but I'll give it a thumb up for being half funny. It's a crying shame that this did not got straight to a movie theatre(or BET-TV for that manner)because it went straight to video just for that reason. Here you have a bunch of black folks that just get up there and act so darn silly at times,you hardly know what is going to happened next or to follow the storyline for that manner which gets off course. Basically the cast consists of comedians from BET's "Comicview",and actress(or crazy lady)Kim Whitley from BET's "Oh Drama!",and from the UPN series "Sparks". Its a shame that we as a people(African-Americans,some not all of them do this) get a role in a movie and act so foolish at times that we make ourselves look stupid. So pathetic.

NOTE: This movie also features three original members of the girl group Destiny's Children(also known as Destiny's Child before they went big time) with a young looking Beyonce Knowles who is in this movie for about 15 minutes who portrays one of the family members.

Admittedly, this is definitely not going to be anyone's favorite movie of all time, but it isn't the worst movie ever made like some people mentioned in these reviews. Some people just totally lose it when they unknowingly watch a low-budget movie, expecting an all-around stellar movie performance. That is what Hollywood has turned so many people into these days. If you appreciate the efforts people make with the best budget they can get, and you can see through movie budgeting, this movie will be manageable to watch. I must admit though, I gave it a 4 out of 10 for a reason...because they could have spent more time working with the screen writing; improving on the storyline and comedy a bit. If you have the right talent, you can make a funny movie with a home video camera and a basement. I'm not saying this movie was "good" necessarily, I'm just saying that there are plenty of worse movies out there with the same budget I imagine this movie having. This is a good middle-of-the-night movie too. When you are real tired or a little 'partied-out', this movie should seem rather funny. Just see past the low budget part of the movie and watch it for what the filmmakers intended for the movie to become...a 4 out of 10 movie!

This film dictates to an audience below the common denominator. It often does not make sense and is not funny. Somebody just wanted to make a movie and they accomplished that task. As far as entertaining an audience, they failed miserably. Logic is not a strong suit of this picture. Neither are even fair strong story telling, camera work, acting and editing.

You can tell that this movie is low budget, but the premise is relatively believable and has a nice twist at the end. At times, it seems like a showcase of the music on the soundtrack, but those scenes aren't that long. There are a few very funny scenes (almost always the ones with Lavell Crawford or Buddy Lewis involved) but also some bad parts that seem like the actors were improvising poorly or just talking. All in all, if this movie is on cable for free or you see it for $1 on DVD in the store, it's worth picking up just to see the old Destiny's Child all together. If it's going to cost you more than $1 to watch it, I'd say save your money. The way that the cover art looks like something that's been photoshopped is a good indication of the quality of the film.

And if you somehow don't pick up on it, this is supposed to be a black parody take on The Beverly Hillbillies. Most of the Hillbillies characters have a double in this movie (Jed = Red, Ellie May = Pammie, Granny = Papa, Mr. Drysdale and his wife = the uppity neighbors, Jethro = Nathan etc)