‘Hillbillies’ Puts Accent on Corny

For those who live on another planet, “The Beverly Hillbillies” is a story about a man named Jed who becomes a billionaire, says California is the place he oughta be and moves his hick family to the hills of Beverly . . . Hills, that is. Swimming pools. Movie stars. (Rated PG)

Say, haven’t we already heard this story before? Way too often, in fact? Not if you, like the members of the audience surrounding me, know the theme song from the TV reruns by heart, love to sing along with it, and laugh out loud at jokes involving flatulence, gestures of the middle finger and trucks with enormous wheels.

But, surprisingly for the rest of us, the updated movie version of the popular TV show has a couple moments. Like, say, Zsa Zsa Gabor showing up in a police lineup with the Clampetts. Or the pampered teens of Beverly Hills, in all their decadent excess, hearing about a fight in the gym over the fax machines in their cars. Or Lily Tomlin as Miss Hathaway, and Ed Varney without the dopiness of his Vern or Ernest character as the patriarch of the Clampetts. OK, I laughed--I admit it.

And so did the kids around me, even though they came without the baggage of preconceptions. To many of them, it was all new. And if not hilarious, at least amusing enough.

Girlfriends Leslie May, 11; Cori Reichenecker, 12; Kathryn Meeker, 13; Linsey Hansen, 13, and Kelly Schooley, 13, all agreed it was OK. Just OK. Maybe a 3 or 4 on a scale of 5.

“This is a movie you come to for a laugh,” Cori said. “It doesn’t take too long to get into the story.”

“It’s not really a movie you could see again. Maybe in a month or something. But not the next day,” Leslie added.

Only a few of them were familiar with the TV series, having glimpsed it while channel surfing.

What tickled their funny bones?

Granny getting knocked off the moving car and landing in the street. Elly May winning a wrestling match with the captain of the wrestling team. Granny getting electric shock treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

“I thought it was funny how they were driving and this guy flipped him off, and they thought it was a way of saying hi, so when people drove by, they would flip them off. That was funny,” Leslie said.

The usual.

And, of course, there’s always the bit about the guy dressing up like a girl.

The girls said they appreciated the acting, particularly the accents of the hillbillies and the French tutor-impostor who tries to turn Elly May into an elegant woman.

They said there were only a few jokes they didn’t understand. But they did get the movie’s sole subtlety, a double-entendre that surely was not meant for kids. In that scene, the amorous tutor looks Jed meaningfully in the eye, and says, in her French accent, “ ‘Appiness is ‘ard to find.”

Nevertheless, the girls categorized the movie as a good family film overall.

Said Linsey, “It was good, funny and everything, but a little corny.”

And all things considered, we all probably won’t be back now, y’hear?