Shawn Watson Handyman Ernest is called up for jury duty where the crook on trial realizes that he's a doppleganger for his incarcerated boss. After a convoluted switch Ernest if behind bars while his evil counterpart Nash is working night security at the bank, planning to rob it and make moves on Ernest's girl.It's a familiar plot, and the production values are not that great (what's with all the pink lighting in jail?) but Jim Varney's mugging and the story's eccentric imagination make it a fun watch. It's a tighter movie than Camp though, which I felt was a bit of a false start to his big screen adventures.It's hard to believe Varney was only 40 at the time of filming, and that he'd only live another 10 years. As crass as the Ernest movies might be they are a constant reminder of an actor who's abilities were wide, but never got the recognition he deserved.

Aaron1375 Yes, I had the misfortune of watching this film when I was younger at a friends house as his mother was a teacher and she wanted to screen the movie and see if there were any inappropriate scenes that a parent might object to. Well other than the unfunny jokes I think this one was in the clear, well the unfunny jokes and the strange scene where the look a like Ernest hits on a girl. So yes, Ernest gets thrown in jail thanks to a look a like and proceeds to try to escape and there is other stuff to it like him becoming magnetized at one point, shooting electricity, and in a very painful to watch finale flying. There are a couple of jokes, but nothing to much to mention except for the gun carved from soap...I think that is the only scene me or my friend's mother laughed out loud at. This and camp are the only two Ernest movies I have ever seen and from what I have seen in them I am not going to track down the other films. Ernest was good in small doses, but a movie is just to much even when it is as short as this one. I figure though the films made money, mainly because all you need is Varney and a location and a theme and you have your movie.

MartinHafer While saying this is the best Ernest movie is NOT a glowing endorsement, this is a decent film and you could certainly do worse. It's a time-passer, certainly--not a film you run out to rent or buy for full retail! What makes this movie more tolerable is that the movie is not aimed solely at stupid people and small children. No, adults might also be mildly amused by the antics. It certainly isn't high art but for what it is, it works well. So, if your kids are nagging you to see it, give it a chance. It's not bad--really! PS--if you tolerate or actually love this film, also try watching Ernest Saves Christmas. Then, STOP. You'll have seen all the Ernest movies worth watching.

SweeptheLegJohnny2 Though long believed to be Jim Varney's creation, the character Ernest is steeped in literary lore. This stock character was created by the expatriates in Paris during the early twenties. Several scholars have attributed it to Gertrude Stein herself, citing evidence that "Earnst" -- the name taken from Dadist Max Ernst -- was her nickname for specific ubiquitous prostitutes she more frequently solicited. This is debatable, though, since there are three specific short stories by expatriate writers using the stock Earnst character: Fitzgerald's "Earnst Isn't Rich," Joyce's "Day in the Life of the Janitor," and Hemingway's "Dead Whore on a Mountain." All of these stories, and an accumulated history on this character that was passed by some of the great writers of the twentieth century, can be found in the forthcoming "The Importance of Being Earnst," edited by Joyce Carol Oates.It was this literary tradition that led director, former ad executive, and "co-creator" John Cherry to take the dare and approach one of the days finest writers, Philip Roth, to tackle a tale of Ernest. Roth was apparently a fan of the early stories, and he took the opportunity to graft Ernest into a tale he was already writing as an expose on prisons -- a muckraking masterpiece he was concocting in the tradition of Upton Sinclair. But when Roth turned in his first draft, Cherry was surprised to find an all-prose script that involved Ernest being trapped in an Israeli prison with an sadomasochistic literary fan and Roth himself. Cherry rejected the script, citing a lack of "Knowhatimean's," though Roth would later tell confidants that Cherry was simply anti-Semitic.Cherry then gave the script to his pet arragutang to re-write. The simean grafted the script onto the other Ernest movies, including a several references to the ever-present anti-holiday-consumerism themes of "Ernest Saves Christmas." Unfortunately the arragutang, Benny, died before he could finish, and his trainer Charlie Cohen ending up getting final credit.But the tale doesn't end there. Roth and Cherry later reconciled, and this led to Roth contributing to the unfinished "Ernest the Pirate"; supposedly these scenes involve the rescue of a nubile great-granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who was attending Columbia University before being trapped on the high seas. He also worked in thinly veiled criticisms of the Ernest movies in between "Goes to Jail" and "Pirate," including a line that went, "I've been scared stupid, I've rode again, I've slam dunked, I've even been in the army, but I've never been a pirate before. Now, suck my **** while I read Dosteyeksky."