Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)Starring: Jim Varney, Douglas Seale, Oliver Clarke
Directed by: John R. Cherry III
Thanks to a last minute Christmas trip, I was in a place where I didn't get to finish the rest of my Christmas reviews on time. But with 5 days left in the year and 5 days left to go, I plan on fulfilling my holiday duties and will still bring you the reviews I intended. So let's get to...Ernest Saves Christmas. Oh for goodness sake, a movie like this made me really wish I hadn't reviewed a lot of the classics in my first year. This was awful. This was painful. This was insufferably stupid. This was an hour and a half of my time that took a grand total of 2 days to try and get through. Yeah...THAT bad. And I know there's a lot of '80s and '90s people that might find the character of Ernest P. Worrell nostalgic and enjoyable as a guilty pleasure. WAKE THE HECK UP PEOPLE. He's one of the biggest skid marks left on comedy and this Christmas installment of his many "grand" adventures left me wondering why we would bother celebrating this bozo for a grand total of more than 8 films, when we don't even give that many films to some modern action franchises.
Ernest Saves Christmas features the late Jim Varney as Ernest P. Worrell, one of the most annoying movie protagonists you'll ever have the displeasure of seeing. In fact, DON'T see it. Save yourself. Ernest is the worst part of his own movie. And I don't think that's a one-time thing. I'm sure it exists in all his other movies. Now, I'm not tarnishing the legacy Jim Varney left behind. He's been in other things I like (really, just the first two Toy Story movies but...) and admittedly the goal of Ernest is to be obnoxious, so he does what he's supposed to do. He makes funny faces, can do imitations, and that works as comedy to some people. Personally, it's not my kind of comedy so I'm the wrong audience for it. But at least I can acknowledge that even if I dislike it, I can appreciate that the guy was dedicated to his comedic bits for a LOT of movies.There's one thing that actually works really well for the film and it's Douglas Seale as Santa Claus. His story is surprisingly compelling, he's overwhelmingly sweet and charming, and you are actually left enjoying him whenever he's on the screen. Does he have a belly that jiggles like a bowl of jelly? No, but he is certainly a jolly, likable character, so at least there's something redeemable to come out of this pile of garbage.
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Ernest Saves Christmas is one of the dumbest mainstream Christmas movies imaginable. Avoid watching this if you're curious about exploring the Ernest character, it's not worth your time. Only check this out if you are looking for a film with a REALLY good portrayal of Santa Claus. That is the only thing I can even possibly try recommending it for.
Ernest Saves Christmas and movie images are copyrighted by Touchstone Pictures
Dear Nephew,
ReplyDeleteI think you're missing an important point. Ernest is at best only a foil character. He's just there and most of the time missing the point. At the heart of this movie (no pun intended) is the redemption turning point in both Joe Carruthers and Harmony. This movie, silly and brainless as it is, is about all that is important at Christmas time exemplified in where those two finally end up. And, I would argue, for that it deserves more merit as a Christmas movie than Die Hard. ;-)