Jim Varney died from lung cancer at home in White House, Tennessee, a little less than two years after the release of Ernest in the Army on direct to video. He voiced a character in Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire and appeared in a Billy Bob Thornton movie. The era of Jim Varney playing Ernest ended in a resounding flop. As Varney used to point out, they made these films because the audience was ready to pay for them. There was never an illusion of artistic merit. Varney also seemed to grasp how vital such characters as Ernest are to children. That is what makes this film so uncharacteristic of the entire franchise as well as the last film called Ernest Goes to Africa.
Jim Varney plays Ernest, who makes his living collecting golf balls at a shooting range in Georgia. He has an aspiration to turn into a soldier… which is rather peculiar for someone in the late 40s. One of Ernest’s friends tells him that if he enlists in the Army, they would allow him to drive big machines and that he would not have to engage in any fighting. This appears to be what pushes Ernest over the edge. That changes when the United States Army is sent in to help the United Nations in its mission of barring the Islamic dictator Tufuti from Arizia from taking over the imaginary country of Karifistan. Ernest is subjected to a number of disconnected instances that seem to have no relevance to the main storyline of the movie and what he is doing in it.
This Ernest film I found especially boring and, even with this comment, it isn’t hard to imagine how excruciatingly boring and unfunny this film is when viewed alongside the far better previous films. Ernest is missing for a large part of the film while the story develops the conflict, which isn’t interesting or well executed. I would also have believed that this film bearing the name it does would be stuffed with boot camp comedy. Coupled with an uptight boot camp officer, Ernest could be quite a visual treat. The scope for slapstick humor with boot camp is quite significant. There already exists a good list of movies that barely touch on this topic, so follow on from the good ones. No.
Rather, we are served with this narrative regarding Islamic terrorists that does not joke around. There are quite a few cringe inducing tributes to soldiers that could not have been more amateurish. Ernest rescues an Arab boy during the film and there is a credulous subplot where this child who is supposed to narrate the end of the film as an elderly man, comments how he was raised to be a hot-potato leader in the area. Take a good look at the nine movies that make this franchise and the Ernest series, Ernest in the Army, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how completely far off the track this is. At least this would have qualified to watch as a mega ‘so bad it’s good’ category film. Imagine if Varney had been alive and the film was produced in the post-911 era what kind of horror this film would have been.
Jim Varney died on February 10, 2000. It was around a 30 minute ride from my family home and I was a student a college in Nashville at that time. I am not able to recall when I heard the news of Varney death and how I hosted in sympathy with that news. But it was indisputable that I adored those films of the Touchstone era that I previously relished. Of late, I gathered a lot from a publication devoted to his life- The Importance of Being Ernest that was composed by his nephew.
Varney appeared to be in good spirits and entertaining relatives who had come over to offer their final words. His nephew recalls him treating his uncle like this during every visit, Reason Varney felt Watch collecting as well as knives to be gifted during family gatherings nearly all the time. Varney liked being given some gifts. When he got a chance, Varney would talk about How a Blades were manufactured and the Inside of new Watch Varney bought. Also, according to his nephew, Varney was a follower of Wicca. He never triumphed in Broadway performing arts. He produced some films which the children liked very much
I still consider Ernest Saves Christmas a classic however its ending was disappointing since it focuses more on business than it does on comedy.
There aren’t any eccentric characters such as Pee-Wee or Ernest in this day and age. It was nice to have those eccentric simpletons around, while they weren’t exactly manly they were full of life and enjoyed the company of others. Ernest probably will not be around for many more decades. I would not refuse to watch Saves Christmas and Scared Stupid if the opportunity comes around. I just wish Varney rests well.
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