FlashCallahan Jed Clampett and his family move from Arkansas to Beverly Hills when he becomes a billionaire after striking oil. The country folk are naive with life in the big city, so when Jed starts a search for a new wife there are inevitably plenty of takers and con artists ready to make a lot of money.....Okay, so it's not the best thing in the world, the TV series never really did anything here in the UK, albeit being on a few times after CITV, and at this time in cinemas life, the movie adaptation of a TV was in full swing,thanks to the major success of the previous years 'The Fugitive'.But the makers of this didn't take into account that that film had a brilliant storyline, narrative, and two cracking central performances.Here, much like The Flintstones, released this year too, relied on the name to put bums on seats, and then work the script around the title. The Flintstones failed miserably, as it aimed too high and was more high profile. This is as laid back as the depicted family, and although it's very silly, and utterly forgettable, it's still a bit of dozy old fun.The cast are okay with what they are given, and Varney and Tomlin act everybody off screen. Eleniak is just eye candy, and proves why she never made it big in Hollywood.Schneider and Thompson are the obligatory bad guys, and seeing Thompson in a small role, in a decidedly dodgy movie is pretty depressing, but all in all, its summer fluff.But if you see on TV adaptation from 1994, go with Maverick, its a hoot.

sddavis63 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)

PWNYCNY What a wonderful, silly, entertaining movie! Diedrich Bader is especially hilarious as Jethro/Jethrine, but everyone in this movie is funny. The Clampetts are great. They are the kind of people that one should have as friends. Not only are they nice, they will treat you as a friend. Jim Varney was perfect as Jed and we cannot forget mentioning Dabney Coleman whose performance as usual added to the humor. This is an unpretentious, humorous, entertaining movie and the kind of movie that is not only watchable but provokes nonstop laughter. This special movie compares favorably with the sitcom. Both are humorous without being nasty and both show that nice people can actually finish first. If you enjoy nonstop laughs then this movie is for you.

samcracc I would say Jim Varney (Jed Clampet) Cloris Leachmen (Granny), Erika Eleniak (Elly may Clampet) Diedrich Bader (Jethro Bodine) Lily Tomlin (Miss Jane Hathaway), and Dabney Colmen (Milburn Drysdale)did a great job. I have seen this on ABC family in April I like that movie. His bloodhound is sometimes lazy but he was hunting a jack rabbit Jim Varney is similar to Buddy Ebsen. DOlly Parton did very well with this song called If you Ain't got love. Jim Varney did very well in the Hot Rod Lincon. It's actually different then the TV series. In the Beverly hillbillies movie it was terrible that Larua Jackson wants to steal Jed Clampets money. My favorite part when the orangutan spanks Larua Jackson's butt. One part must of been a problem with getting hitched. Jethro Bodine was hysterical.