There's a terrible lack of creativity in Hollywood right now. Many of the most successful films are converted from books, the stage, or television. This would not be such a disgrace if there were a good stock of well-made original films to back these up, but unfortunately, there isn't. Having said this, The Brady Bunch Movie deserves commendation for its surprisingly fresh take on familiar characters, the likes of which hasn't been seen since Tom Hanks and Dan Akroyd's Dragnet started the current TV-tocinema craze.

There's not much plot. Instead, the characters exist in a framework woven together from some of the best Brady Bunch episodes and a weak, new story about an evil developer who wants to buy the Brady home to develop a mini-mall. But no one watches the Bradys for the plot.

What we do watch them for is their dorky-yet-lovable naivet". In a world where we are confronted with problems like racism and AIDS on a regular basis, it's refreshing to escape to a time when carjacking was unheard of and families were still functional. However, the non-Bradys in the film don't feel that way. They are all living in the present, and the relative purity of the seventies just doesn't cut it in their world. The Bradys are unknowing outcasts, which makes them that much more deserving of our sympathy.

The actors in the film are all look-alikes of the original Bradys, but even though they aren't identical, that doesn't get in the way. As with all things Brady, the audience suspends its disbelief within the first minutes of the film. The atmosphere is enhanced by several of the original Bradys in cameo roles, as well as other relics from the Brady era, like the Monkeys and the Partridge family bus.

The film carefully incorporates many small details from the television show. For example, the scenes within the Brady abode are filmed in the grainy color familiar from too many Brady reruns. However, the one thing that the movie doesn't transfer from the television show is the laugh track. In a crowded theater, the audience's own laughter propels the movie along at a steady pace, but when the Bradys appear on home video, the film will drag. .