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The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) Beverly Hills is the most overpriced stretch of real estate on the
planet, but with The Beverly Hillbillies and Beverly
Hills Cop III released in the same summer, it seems likely
that by the autumn the place will be about as desirable property-wise
as a development downwind of a leaky nuclear reactor. And, hard as it
may be to credit, The Beverly Hillbillies is worse
than the Eddie Murphy sequel. In the 1960s, The Beverly Hillbillies
was a surprise TV hit, following the adventures of Jed Clampett
and his brood, dirt-poor Ozark farmers who struck oil and relocated
to California ('swimming pools ... movie stars'), where homespun wisdom,
refreshing honesty and twenty billion dollars made them welcome in the
hearts of the rich and shallow. Aside from the fact that the title scores
seventy points of recognition value in a studio executive demographic
reared on reruns, there is no earthly reason why the '90s should be
troubled with a big screen remake of a show that wasn't actually very
good in the first place. But here it is ... The only thing the film
gets right comes early, with a mercifully straight version of 'The Ballad
of Jed Clampett', the show's memorable theme song (recorded by the blue
grass band who later scored Bonnie and Clyde), rather than (cf: The
Addams Family) some horrible rap arrangement of the same. Things go
from appalling to intolerable as characters are introduced: Jim Varney
tones down his Ernest obnoxiousness as Jed, but the rest of his family
(Cloris Leachman as a game Granny, Erica Eleniak as the unfeasably-breasted
Elly May, Diedrich Bader as big lunk Jethro) go all out for grinning
goodfellowship. Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman fume as the stuffy bankers
who try to introduce the Clampetts into society and Lea Thompson (Howard
the Duck and this in one career!) keeps the 'plot' boiling as the schemer
out to marry into the Clampett millions. Spheeris, who made not only
Wayne's World but the Decline of Western Civilisation movies, would
obviously not get involved in this. The Space Alien Bodysnatcher using
her name does a terrible job of trundling out lame jokes (there's a
topical one about 'Cousin Bill' in the White House), hokey guest appearances
(Buddy Ebsen, the original Jed, pops up as Barnaby Jones) and goofy
hoe-downs. This one racks up such bad karma that it'll be lucky to be
reincarnated as a bacardi ad. First Published In: Film Review (issue unknown) Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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