If we did, we would surely see the despair in his eyes, the hopelessness in his soul. Throughout the entire Ernest canon of films and TV commercials, Vern is frequently the victim of Ernest’s friendship, and it’s wise that we never see him. One of this film’s centerpieces has Ernest showing up at his unseen friend Vern’s house and completely annihilating his living room in an attempt to set up a Christmas tree. We are supposed to laugh at the mayhem he provokes, despite the thousands of dollars in property damage and Ernest’s utter lack of remorse for (or even awareness of) his crimes. Magoo type who causes destruction everywhere he goes but fails to realize it. (Ernest is briefly shown to have a “Put the Christ Back in Christmas” bumper sticker ironically, that’s the only time Jesus is referred to in the entire film.)Įrnest is a Mr. Like most of these syrupy concoctions, “Ernest Saves Christmas” is meant to remind viewers of the true meaning of the season, which has something to do with snow, Santa Claus, and capitalism. That is certainly true of “Ernest Saves Christmas,” Varney’s 1988 foray into the genre of un-amusing but harmless holiday films. Varney’s lasting contribution to the world of cinema is his series of “Ernest” films, which include “Ernest Goes to Camp,” “Ernest Goes to Jail,” “Ernest Goes to Darfur,” “Ernest Goes to the Free Clinic to Have Someone Look at This Rash,” and, near the end of his career, “Ernest Goes on Welfare.” These are by all accounts lighthearted, family-friendly comedies unfettered by quality or innovation. For example, Carson Daly isn’t funny, and sure enough, he’s never made anyone laugh. Not everyone can overcome odds like that. He apparently managed to make some of those viewers laugh, too, despite the aforementioned shortcoming of not being funny. He had energy to spare, he could make silly faces, and he was really good at convincing viewers that he was a clueless redneck who said “KnowwhatImean?” a lot. It’s entirely possible that he will do so again.As a comic actor, Jim Varney’s only major flaw was that he wasn’t funny. Then again, Ernest has surprised me before. I have now watched three Ernest movies for this column and while I would definitely be up for watching and writing about more, something tells me we’ve already covered the cream of the crop, and everything after this point is bound to be a disappointment. It made me miss Varney anew, as he had so much left to give when he died at 50 in 2000 from Lung Cancer. I was legitimately shocked at how much I enjoyed Ernest Saves Christmas. He’s not just skinny, he’s slight and while he cares about children and the true meaning of Christmas and whatnot he’s more concerned with finding a qualified successor so that he can retire in peace and finally start playing the field a little. For starters, he is shockingly svelte for jolly old Saint Nick, skinny even. Santa figures prominently in Ernest Saves Christmas but he’s a far cry from Coca-Cola or Norman Rockwell’s Santa Claus. You know that unofficial list of things that have to be in every Christmas movie? Ernest Saves Christmas doesn’t care about any of that shit. What I dug about it is that it is an utterly off-brand Christmas movie, one that brazenly eschews pretty much cliche and convention of the Christmas movie with the exception of some of the ones involving a dude in a red costume flying around the world dispensing gifts. I decided to watch Ernest Saves Christmas because, as its title helpfully conveys, it is a Christmas movie starring Jim Varney as lovable goofball Ernest P. Oh, and I’m delving deep into the filmographies of Oliver Stone and Virginia Madsen for you beautiful people as well. I’m deep into a project on the films of the late, great, fervently mourned David Bowie and I have now watched and written about every movie Sam Peckinpah made over the course of his tumultuous, wildly melodramatic psychodrama of a life and career. That’s also true of the motion pictures and television projects of the late Tawny Kitaen.Ī generous patron is now paying me to watch and write about the cult animated show Batman Beyond and I just finished a look at the complete filmography of troubled former Noxzema pitch-woman Rebecca Gayheart. Or you can be like four kind patrons and use this column to commission a series of pieces about a filmmaker, actor or television show. The price goes down to seventy-five dollars for all subsequent choices. It’s the career and site-sustaining column that gives YOU, the kindly, Christ-like, unbelievably sexy Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place patron, an opportunity to choose a movie that I must watch, and then write about, in exchange for a one-time, one hundred dollar pledge to the site’s Patreon account. Welcome, friends, to the latest entry in Control Nathan Rabin 4.0.
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