Starring Christopher McDonald, Janine Turner, Cameron Finley and Erik von Detten Directed by Andy Cadiff Rated PG, with modest profanity and a couple of silly sex references Running time 88 minutes Jack gives this film a rating of 4 out of 10

(Aug. 22, 1997) -- Ward, I'm worried about the Beaver's new movie.

Leave It to Beaver is the latest of the many fondly remembered TV shows of the '50s and '60s to find reincarnation on the '90s big screen -- and the results are kinda cute but far from exceptional.

As remakers of The Brady Bunch, The Addams Family, Dennis the Menace, The Beverly Hillbillies and other old TV sit-coms have discovered, two promising routes are open: playing up the campiness or going for nostalgia.

If you hope to appeal to kids and teens, go for the campy approach. Stress how the show is utterly unreal and irrelevant in today's world. That's what made The Brady Bunch a hit.

If you'd rather appeal to older audiences, make a new and improved period piece and take viewers on a trip down memory lane. The Addams Family is a good example.

The new Leave It to Beaver can't seem to make up its mind which way to go -- so it goes in neither direction. Director Andy Cadiff (of TV's Home Improvement) and his writers have placed the '60s show in a '90s suburban neighborhood. But then they play it straight.

If you thought the original show seemed idealized in 1960 -- with June vacuuming the house in pearls and Ward settling family disputes with the wisdom of Solomon; Wally nervously sitting with a girl at the malt shop and the Beaver conniving to get a bicycle from his parents -- wait till you see how it looks at the approach of the millenium.

Sure, the Cleavers now live in a world of satellite TV, skateboards and desktop computers, but they're still somebody's pipe dream of an all-American family. Except for such trimmings, this script by Brian Levant and Lon Diamond easily could have worked on the original show. Then it would have been a lean, efficient 30-minute sit-com. Here it's stretched to a lax and lazy 88 minutes.

Plot point one: Beaver wants his parents to buy him a new bike for his birthday. He hopes by playing on the neighborhood football team, he'll win his Dad's support, since Ward still harbors delusions about his own days as a player. So Beaver gets beat up on the football field but gets his bike. And then, a town bully steals it.

Plot point two: Wally develops his first case of puppy love. While trying to help his buddy Eddie Haskell meet a certain girl, Wally finds he is falling for her, instead. And since the girl can't stand the obnoxious Eddie, she turns her attention to Wally.

Yes, Eddie Haskell is back, and he's as cocky, idiotic and inept as ever. The character was always one of the best things about the old show, and it's true of the remake. Though the script lacks any edge and the direction is bland, the casting is generally first-rate. Christopher McDonald is a bit more hyper as the father, but he still fulfills all the functions of an idealized sit-com dad. Janine Turner is a remarkable recreation of June, the mother we all would want waiting at home in the kitchen. And newcomer Cameron Finley offers the same sort of innocence and enthusiasm we loved in the original Beav.

Only Erik von Detten's Wally seems out of place. He is much more friendly and helpful to the Beaver than the first Wally ever was. And, frankly, the new Beaver could use the sort of adversarial relationship that originally existed between the two brothers.

Barbara Billingsley (the first June) and Ken Osmond (the first Eddie) make cameo appearances in new roles.

Ultimately, I'm not sure who the new Leave It to Beaver has been made for. Most adults will find it utterly bland, not especially nostalgic, and superficial. Kids, meanwhile, will find little with which to identify in this film. This is especially true of girls. Strong female role models are missing in action.

There's an excuse for archiac attitudes when your kids are watching a 40-year-old show on Nickelodeon. There's no excuse when it's a new movie.