Eric Stevenson This is the last of the many Ernest movies and I'm surprised that the only one I saw before was "Ernest Saves Christmas". It's kind of a shame as that was probably the best in the whole series. The Ernest P. Warrell character started out doing commercials and they made a lot movie series out of him. As you might have guessed, it's really hard to stretch a character that was funny in a few commercials into an entire length of movies. Even sketch comedy doesn't work as badly as that. It's mostly just nothing but childish jokes.It was actually weird to see a 1998 movie about fighting in the Middle East. It actually makes me weirdly nostalgic for that time period pre 911 when there wasn't really a major threat like communism or terrorism. I guess there was still warfare and there always will be. The kid and woman character in the film honestly don't do that bad of a job. Ernest would have been funny as like a side character but to make entire movies focused on him is annoying. At least we got that great Santa. *1/2

O2D I have to admit that I don't really understand where Ernest came from or why anyone thinks he should be in movies.I think he started out doing commercials that weren't funny so of course the Hollywood morons decided he was a superstar.That makes sense.Somehow I managed to make it this long without ever seeing an Ernest movie and now I know why.This movie has absolutely no plot or comedy.I don't think it's technically even a movie.Since I don't know the subtle nuances of the Ernest character, I can't be sure how much of the crap in this movie should have been expected.Was his best friend always in the Army?I guess I will never know.So anyway,his friend tells him he can drive if he joins the army but wanting a girlfriend is why he ends up joining.So he has no problem quickly joining the Army and is immediately driving.Did I mention that almost everyone in the Army wears a different uniform?None of them are even close to the same and most are very ill-fitting.At one point Ernest day dreams and he's wearing a uniform that has the gunnery sergeant stripes upside down.I'm sure everyone who ever served loved that.But Ernest doesn't even wear a uniform, he just wears his True Value vest.His commanding officer does a John Candy impression through the whole movie and it's almost never funny.As far as I can tell, the only joke in the movie was about gummy candy.It was not funny and didn't really make any sense.Did I mention that he joined the reserves who are immediately deployed on a peace keeping mission led by a British soldier?Or that everyone else in the reserves had a machine gun?Or that they left him on a beach and it just cuts to him being with them again?There's also some story line where some guys narrates his sad story and it makes the movie worse.It turns out his son is a black American who dresses like he's in Dexys Midnight Runners.Every other middle eastern person dresses appropriately yet this kid has somehow cobbled together a British hobo costume.If Varney hadn't died there would be 15 more of these terrible movies.Yay death!

jvfunn1 I've always have loved Jim Varney's movies. He was a great actor and one of my heroes and he did good with the character of Ernest. I bought this movie on DVD at Downtown Disney and watched it. I thought that Jim gave a good performance and the plot seemed good but it didn't seem as good as the other Ernest films which I think what the problem was with this one was that they edited too much of Jim's scenes in this movie because I think during the production of this one was when he was starting to get sick with the cancer. Some of the movie was funny and it was pretty cool to see John R. Cherry III act as Ernest's buddy Ben but all in all it just didn't seem to fit the other Ernest movies in my opinion but Jim Varney did a good job playing Ernest one last time. R.I.P. JIM VARNEY 1949-2000! MY HERO!

Elswet Some say they hate this installment of the Ernest line, but let's face it...they only say that because Varney's now gone, and it's the least painful way to say, "Goodbye," to Ernest.This isn't the best, but it's far from the worst of the line. Varney gives it his all, as he always did, and turns out a quality Ernest film for all the fans to cherish.As unlikely as Ernest P. Worrell would be in the Army, is how funny this film really is. This is quite entertaining, and makes for an excellent addition to any Ernest collection.It rates a 6.2/10 from...the Fiend :.