Les allumés de Beverly Hills

The Beverly Hillbillies is one of the greatest TV sitcoms of all time. However this remake sadly falls way short. It may even be one of the worst films ever made. The film following it's opening sequence with Jed striking oil and then the familiar ballad goes nowhere after that. Although Jim Varney does do an admirable job as Jed Clampett. It appeared at times that every entire episode of the classic TV series was trying to be compressed into this film. The famous cast of characters from the TV series simply can not be played by any one other than the original actors and actresses i.e. No one other than Max Baer can play Jethro Bodine. Do yourself a favor and pass on this one and find the original TV series on a channel featuring reruns and enjoy those instead.

Making a film from a book or play, regardless of how many times it was previously made is different than recasting an old TV sitcom and turning into a feature film. The difference is that in the first instance the films are based on characters as written down on paper from the mind of it's creator. No matter how many times A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE is remade it always goes back to the characters, not the actors who portrayed them. Audiences will keep going back to the same play or film each time it is recast to see the subtle difference the recasting will change the role. That is why film versions of hit Broadway plays can be so successful. Remaking a TV sitcom is different. The new cast is not portraying the characters as originally written, they are portraying the actors' characterizations. So in films like THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES we are treated to what is essentially a Saturday Night Live style parody. Of course, some of the best SNL skits are parody and it is fun to watch when done well (impressions done well, and of course a good sense of poking fun at a beloved show). THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE was perhaps the best example of this. THE ADDAMS FAMILY was a remake, opting to go back to the original characters as created by Charles Addams in his comic strip. BATMAN and SUPERMAN also went back to their roots in the comic books and skipped most references to the TV show. In THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, the characters of Jed Clampett, Granny and the rest of the clan were created by Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, etc...and I really doubt any of the new cast searched out notes of the characters so much as they just reviewed the old shows. This is all right and in good fun and we have to keep in mind that Jim Varney is not so much playing Jed Clampett as he is playing Buddy Ebsen's Jed Clampett. Recently, someone went ahead and remade Laurel and Hardy (in which the characters and the actors were one and the same). It flopped because it wasn't a parody and the film treated the characters as if the original Stan and Ollie were merely players. THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES does not make this mistake, opting to literally morph the new cast out of our memories of the old cast. This movie has a cast that is hip, fun, and funny (you got to love a film that boasts a perfect, if not quite obvious casting of Jim Varney, Erika Eleniak, and Lily Tomlin--all giving great comedic performances). Is it better than the original? No, and I don't think it was suppose to be. It was just suppose to be a way to laugh at our past, and perhaps give fans a feeling that they are not alone with their adoration of one of the great TV shows of all time.

Hollywood has produced uncountable numbers of remakes of old TV shows from the 1960's and 70's. I can't even begin to count them or make a list. I've seen some of them. A few have worked; most have been dreadful. This 1993 movie based on the 60's series of the same name falls somewhere in between those two categories, probably leaning a bit toward the dreadful side, but not dreadful in and of itself. The basic plot follows the TV story. Hillbilly Jed Clampett (played here by Jim Varney) strikes it rich one day when he was "shootin' at some food, and up from the ground come a-bubblin' crude. Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea." (Couldn't resist!) Suddenly rich after he's paid $1 billion for his land, his family tells him that "Californy is the place you ought to be, so they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly. Hills that is. Swimming pools. Movie stars." (Couldn't resist again!)

So, once more Jed, Granny (Cloris Leachman), Ellie May (Erike Eleniak) and cousin Jethro (Diedrich Bader) are left to the task of settling into their new life with the help of Mr. Drysdale (Dabney Coleman) and Miss Hathaway (Lily Tomlin) and along for the ride we get a couple of villains played by Rob Schneider and Lea Thompson, who set out to get Jed's money for themselves.

This lacked the fun of the TV series. There were parts of it that were amusing. The Clampetts driving along the highway thinking that the middle finger was a California greeting springs to mind, for example. Overall, though, it really wasn't that funny. The cast was so-so. Varney and Leachman were all right. Eleniak, to me, didn't really capture Ellie May's sweet innocence, and Bader as Jethro didn't work for me. Jethro in the TV series was a dumb character, yes, but Bader's Jethro was both too dumb and too underplayed. Bader seemed to think he just had to look and sound stupid and that would be enough. He missed the mark completely. I don't think the Beverly Hillbillies work that well as a movie, either. As a TV series it was fine. You got it in half hour chunks (less counting commercials) and that was enough. Trying to keep it going for over an hour and a half without a break became tiresome after a while.

Dolly Parton was included as herself as, I guess, an entertainer the Clampetts (with their country background) would be familiar with. Aside from being recognizable, though, that didn't really do much for me, since I'm not a big Dolly fan. One appearance that did work, though, was from Buddy Ebsen. He, of course, was the original Jed Clampett on the TV series. It was a rather ingenious thought to bring him back for this movie, this time as the other well known character he played on television - private detective Barnaby Jones from the 1970's, whom Miss Hathaway hires to investigate the plot to get Jed's money. When the Barnaby Jones theme started to play I smiled, because right away I knew what (and who) was coming. Ebsen played it perfectly straight, when everyone else often seemed to be trying too hard for laughs. As a result, he was perfect.

It's not the worst remake of a TV series. Not by far actually. But it can't honestly be called good either, and with the TV series being just perfect at a half hour per episode, this started to get tired even before the one hour mark had hit. There just isn't really enough meat to the Clampetts to make a movie about them. (5/10)

Jim Varney, Cloris Leachman, Lea Thompson, Dabney Coleman, Lily Tomlin, Erika Eleniak, Deidrich Bader, and Rob Schneider star in this absolutely great movie. Every single moment in this movie is hilarious. Jim Varney is great as Jed Clampett who becomes a billionaire once he strikes oil and then decides to move his family to Beverly Hills. Soon Jed finds that people are trying to steal his money. This movie is really funny and features cameos by Dolly Parton, Buddy Ebsen, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. You'll laugh really hard.

"The Beverly Hillbilles" is a disappointment for two reasons: (a), it comes from Penelope Spheeris, who brought us the funny "Wayne's World," and (b), it fails miserably at catching the charm of the television show. Yet with all the negative points of the film, it still manages to come of silly in its own way; it's a bad movie, but not a particularly harmful one, on the other hand.

The late Jim Varney plays Jed Clampett, who--as all we all know--discovers some oil out in Arkansas, becomes a millionaire, and moves his family out to Beverly Hills, California. This is the excuse for some half-brained and ultimately stupid gags that sometimes become so bad it's hard to watch, yet make up for themselves when the film starts to make fun of itself.

Jim Varney fits Jed pretty well, but too many of the actors and actresses seem forced and the dialogue is reminiscent of a straight-to-television flick written by authors with Writer's Block.

Too much of the film borrows from other films we've seen before--and the gags have been done in those films about ten times better. The cast is top-o'-the-notch, co-starring the likes of Lea Thompson, Cloris Leachmen, Dolly Parton, Rob Schneider, Dabney Coleman, and even the real Buddy Ebson in a cameo.

But a cameo by Buddy Ebson cannot save a badly written film.

There really is no excuse for why this film was so bad. It had a good director, an overall good cast, a good script-writer, some good cameos, and good potential for some parody. But instead it comes off dull, recycled and misused, and ultimately a rehash of everything we've seen before, done in a childish and cartoonish way.

So, yes, there are some good parts in the film, but it's not worth sitting through the rest of the film to see them.

1.5/5 stars -

John Ulmer