Head for the Hills

The Beverly Hillbillies

Directed by Penelope Spheeris

20th Century Fox

Hollywood has, in the past, resorted to remakes, sequels, novels and fact-based docudramas to ease it through periodic bouts of creative bankruptcy. After all, why come up with a new idea if you can get a last gasp of life out of an old hackneyed one? The success of "Wayne's World," "The Addams Family" and "The Fugitive" jolted Hollywood executives to the sudden realization that a whole unexplored world of worn-out premises was there for the taking, in the vaults where old TV shows go to die.

Unfortunately, those Hollywood executives didn't realize that it takes more than a premise to make a movie. It takes a plot. It takes a script. It takes a talented cast. Above all, it takes a director who can take these ingredients and move them beyond the gimmick, shifting the perspective ever so slightly to invest an old story with new life.

"The Beverly Hillbillies" lacks all of the above.

Director Penelope Spheeris previously turned several five minute Saturday Night Live skits into "Wayne's World," a movie which simultaneously satirized, defined and influenced the 90's teen culture. In this movie, she seems completely unable to get beyond the shallow, the obvious, and the stale.

By now, we all know the story of how the Clampett clan, after discovering oil in the middle of their Ozark swamp, signs a billion dollar deal and moves to Beverly Hills. Jed Clampett, played by Jim Varney of dubious "Ernest Goes to Camp" fame, decides his daughter, Elly May (Erika Eleniak), who spends her spare time wrestling bears, needs some refinement. So he takes her, Cousin Jethro, and Grannie to Beverly Hills to find a wife who will be a mother to Elly May. Oh, the daring of it all.

Those wacky writers didn't stop there, though. They knew this was a movie, ergo one needed villains. Enter Tyler (Rob Schneider), the greedy banker determined to take those stupid hillbillies for all they are worth, and his scheming girlfriend Laura (Lea Thompson). The tension mounts.

The television show derived its humor from one of the mainstays of the comedic tradition--culture clash. Surprisingly, this is the element most lacking in the film. Considering the rich comic potential in sending up the moneyed elite, the movie's shallow and obvious stabs fall flat, as when the Clampetts serve up road kill at a dinner party. (Where do the writers get this stuff?)

For the most part, however, the Hillbillies fit in surprisingly quickly. Elly May becomes the school heroine and captain of the wrestling team, Jed is sought after as an eligible bachelor, and Jethro is made vice president of the bank. Ever-efficient bank executive Miss Jane Hathaway and her uptight boss Mr. Drysdale, played respectively by the usually talented Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman, fit in so well with the Clampetts that they might as well be adopted into the clan.

Director Spheeris also ignored the key ingredient that compensated for non-existent plot in the old show. The Clampetts, especially Jed as played by Buddy Ebsen, had a warmth and a reliance on basic human values that contrasted nicely with the greedy materialistic world of Beverly Hills. The underlying implication of the show maintained that the Hillbillies, despite their unsophisticated ways, might know a bit more than their high brow neighbors.

The film Clampetts, however, are merely naive hicks who are taken advantage of because they don't know any better. Many of the film's jibes are at the expense of the characters, about their stupidity or their gullibility.

The fault which finally dooms this movies is that the characters aren't even lovable idiots. As portrayed in this film, every character is as flat as a cartoon. Flatter in fact--the Smurfs have more life and vibrancy than this crew. The talented Lily Tomlin, who maintains a perpetual smirk on her face throughout the movie, does not succeed in instilling any sense of personality into her role; the rest of the cast seem to make a concerted effort to stifle any semblance of character in their characters. The only exception in the otherwise lackluster cast is newcomer Diedrich Bader, who outshines the veterans with the energetic and infectious sense of fun he brings to Jethro.

"The Beverly Hillbillies" could have been mildly amusing, or even sharply satirical. It could have departed from its tired premise and struck out on new ground. It didn't. After all, if Hollywood had wanted original thought, what would have justified drudging up this innocuous defunct Sixties TV sitcom anyway?