Chaos in der Schule

With a school threatened with closure to merge with another school, the staff are all told they must have graduated high school. This is no problem for all except janitor Ernest who returns to class to get his diploma. Despite some problems Ernest discovers a machine that makes him smart – but will it create more problems than it solves.

This was my first Ernest film – I have since watched several more (sucker for punishment). As this was my first I came to it with no preconceptions except that I knew it was going to be a silly comedy. In the first 30 seconds we have Ernest dragging a cart across the campus knocking people down as he goes – that sets the mood for the comedy right away. The plot is absurd – the basic set up about him returning to school is daft but when the whole thing about the machine that makes him smart come in it really just gets dumb!

However lets ignore the plot – it's all about the laughs isn't it? Sadly this has very very few good laughs – it has a handful of smiles but no real laughs. Most of the jokes involve someone getting hurt or Ernest mugging around. Really the level of comedy never gets above serving young children. It could easily have served adults too but this is far too basic for that to happen.

Varney himself is a very poor man's Jim Carrey – nothing but mugging and silly voices. The only other cast member that is worth mentioning is a brief appearance by Sarah Chalke who played Darlene in Roseanne and is now in Scrubs.

Overall – if you are between 4 and 11 then this will probably appeal to you. If you are outside of this demographic then you'll be as bored as I was. Another review said `it's a classic comedy like Police Academy 6' – yeah! That's about right…..I rest my case.