Now there was already a film that featured Varney dressing and acting like his Ernest character in "Dr. Otto And The Riddle Of The Gloom Beam". But since that was actually a villain who disguises himself as the Ernest character, rather then it being the actual character himself, it doesn't count. This is thee actual first Ernest film in the franchise. And was personally the first film that got my attention to him as a kid when I saw the poster and caught a few short clips of the movie, during an add from videos disturbed by "Touchstone Pictures" on my VHS copy of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". While the film wasn't a hit with critics, it was still considered to be one of his better films among audiences. Is it one of his better films, or is it at least almost as good as the first 19 minutes of the TV Special that disgusted me once those 19 minutes were up; ON WITH THE REVIEW!
Ernest works as a maintenance man at Kamp Kikakee, who dreams of one day becoming a camp counselor. And despite that he is good with kids, and can speak in sign language to the camp's Native American owner who can't speak English, he keeps messing things up because of his idiocy. Ernest does eventually get a chance to act as a counselor when he is assigned to watch over a group of juvenile delinquents that the other camp counselors refused to work with after when they injured one of them. And despite that Ernest is constantly being abused by the kids, he still tries his hardest to get along with them. Meanwhile, a greedy owner of a mining company played by John Vernon wants to destroy the camp site because it has a mineral that is guaranteed to make him richer than he’s ever dreamed of becoming, and tricks Ernest to convince the owner of the camp to sign the deed over to him. It is now up to Ernest, the kids, and the counselors to find a way to get the camp back before it gets destroyed for good.
In my review of "Hey Vern! It's My Family Album", I praised the character of Ernest for his likable personality, and the amount of energy that Varney puts into his performance, even though he's not that funny. And watching him in an hour and a half film where he has to play as his Ernest character all the way through (When in the TV Special, Varney played a variety of characters), I was actually quite surprised for how well he can carry a full-length film as this cartoony character. I'm not at all saying that he's funny, because aside from his comical facial expressions, the humor that he's given to work with isn't very good. But when it comes to personality, he's surprisingly lovable. It's eccentric, but I can't remember a single time where I found him to be annoying (At least in this film). His childlike innocence and naive personality are so sweet and welcoming that even though he fails to be funny, I just find his overall on-screen presence hard not to like. I love how willing he is to befriend this group of kids, despite the many times that they physically abused him. I admire how passionate he is in hopes of becoming one of the camp counselors. But what really grabbed me about Varney's portrayal of Ernest the most is how he was able to make me feel bad for him. When he seems to have given up hope, I never felt like that these moments were phoned in to make us sympathize with him, because Varney delivers the sadness of his character so quietly as he hardly throws any humor into it, that its actually quite depressing. The saddest moment in the whole film is hands down the song that Ernest sings called "Gee, I'm Glad It's Raining", where everything now seems to be lost because of his foolishness. The lyrics, the visuals, and Varney's singing is so downright depressing, that I couldn't believe that something as gloomy as this was ever in an Ernest film! As I was watching this song, I was expecting something funny to happen to keep it from being sad, BUT NO; this whole song sequence keeps its downbeat tone from start to finish. And it doesn't help either that the song takes place after we see Ernest getting the living crap beat out of him, where he begins to ooze out a little blood. I seriously can't believe that Ernest can make something become legitimately depressed!
The performances from the supporting cast are for the most part serviceable at best, but the characters themselves are pretty bland. The group of juvenile delinquents, aside from the short kid that Ernest has a close connection with (which is really not that special), none of them are interesting or identifiable. The camp counselor’s and the camp's Nurse who happens to be the owner's daughter are boring characters that just feel there. John Vernon as the villain is perfect for the role, but is given little to no material to work with. Iron Eye's Cody (No, that’s seriously the actor’s stage name) as the owner of the camp is an exaggerated stereotypical portrayal of a Native American that's pretty offensive, though to be fair, isn't as cringe worthy as I thought it was going to be. And the two idiotic chefs that are working on a machine to create food are easily the most annoying characters in the whole entire movie, especially the one played by Gailard Sartain, who's trying to be as comical and childish as Varney is, but painfully fails at doing so. The characters aren't the worst or anything, since they are (Mostly) tolerable, but they are still forgettable.
The slapstick that Ernest has to suffer feel very hammered in and lack any humor. I hardly ever got the feeling that Ernest was getting into these comical situations by accident or got a sense of the pain that he was suffering. I was mostly under the impression that Varney was doing all this to himself on purpose for how staged the scenes looked. When I see him falling off the ladder as his first gag, it almost looked like Varney made the latter fall on purpose. And when I see him being attacked by off-screen badgers and ants, I was not at all convinced that he was actually being attacked, since Varney's reactions and the way he moves around are painfully obvious that he's pretending to be attacked, and that the people behind the film didn't have the budget to show animals attacking him (With the exception of his Pet Turtle that bites his nose, that seemed just as forced as the rest of the slapstick in this film). We do get some cartoony gags like Ernest being unwrapped from being covered in bandages, and Ernest getting his face caught in a tray, that look funny at first, but then lose their comedic charm for how long those gags drag on. Some jokes have an interesting start but lead to no pay-off, like when Ernest is unknowingly about to set his pants on fire as he's trying to start one. It had a good start, that could lead to Ernest running around wild with burning pants in the middle of the woods, but the joke never happens since the film feels like that his pants smoking as he doesn't notice it should be funny enough. There is however a scene later on in the film where he finally does set fire to his pants, but that gag just quickly comes and goes since he's right by water. The film also has its share of running gags that feel just as half-assed as the film's slapstick, such as the runaway cart that never runs out of gas, nor has anyone tried to stop or even bother to notice; and the characters constantly singing "So Happy Together" by "The Turtles" after when singing it to Ernest's pet Turtle...GET IT! These two jokes that I talked about could have been funny if they were given a proper treatment, but they sadly don't work.
However, as much as I pan the film's humor and slapstick, I will say that the comical climax at the end of the film where the characters fight for their camp was a nice pay-off. It's not laugh out loud funny, and I can't say that I was fully on board with seeing these characters take back their camp, since I hardly felt connected to any of them (Aside from our lead); but it was still a very entertaining and well put together climax that’s actually quite enjoyable. We get a few creative contraptions built by the characters. Some cool explosions. And see previous gags that failed to be funny in early scenes of the film, to now seeing them be used as weapons. It's almost as if the people behind the film were more concerned with making the humor in the climax be the highlight of the film in terms of entertaining comedy where the humor doesn't seem forced and unnatural, as they just simply half-baked the jokes that were shown before the battle. The only issue I have with the climax was the fact that Ernest just suddenly inherits a power by one of the natives that used to roam the camp grounds. They explain the origin of the power in one or two scenes of the movie, but the execution just felt very rushed and not well thought out.
This film has indeed surprised me! Ok it's not funny, the supporting cast of characters is forgettable, and a good half of it felt very half-baked especially in terms of slapstick, and story. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was entertained by it fine, as opposed to being bored or annoyed out of my mind. It's for the most part a pretty harmless film. And aside from the highly entertaining climax at the end, the reason why I find the film to be so enjoyable is Jim Varney as Ernest. He's just too damn likable, despite failing with the comedy that he's given. And the fact that Varney can bring actual emotion to this over the top character when things are looking down for him is very impressive! It's no masterpiece by any means, and I don't really recommend this film to anyone say over the age of 12. But it is indeed an entertaining film that kids will enjoy, where I can understand why this film is considered to be one of Ernest's best.
RATING 2/5
Join me this Christmas Season as I review the Ernest film that many would argue is his best!
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