Ernest is a janitor at a local college who has caught the exploration bug from history professor Abner. They join together to find the lost canon which is said to contain the real crown jewels. However several other parties are interested in the jewels for their own reasons and Ernest finds himself in a real life adventure.
This is my third Ernest movie and I feared the worst. My first two (Ernest goes to school and Slam-dunk Ernest) were both lame films that put everything into one daft gimmick and had little comedy to speak of. However this is much better. It still has much of the same silly comedy but it has much more to offer both kids and adults.
First of it has a half-decent plot. Not a good plot, but one that can stand up to being watched. Secondly and more importantly, it's funny in a silly type of way. The film still has the daffy physical stuff as it's backbone but at least it's not as basic as the others I've seen. On top of this it also has a handful of good lines that must be aimed at adults lots of references to movies and lines like `I had a preconceived notion once, but then I realised it was just something I'd though of earlier'.
This may not sound good but really it's a lot better than the others. The constant movie references don't all work and some are silly but the truck fight that pays homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark is good and some of the lines are funny. One of the strengths here is that the show is not totally on Ernest himself.
Varney is usually terrible but here his Ernest is less irritating than usual. Instead he is more of a clown than usual. He is also helped by the script which makes fun of him and the way he is annoying and silly `you need a CAT scan' one person tells him, `are you dead' one asks him after a really hard fall `no' he replies `but I might be if I wasn't this close to being a cartoon character'. This type of self awareness really helped the film. Sometime stuntman James is funny and the salesman couple are quite entertaining. Even if the baddies are weak.
OK it's an Ernest movie, so we shouldn't expect the world. But believe me this is much better than the other films I've seen. This will entertain children slightly but it is also amusing enough to distract adults (although it's nowhere near the adult value of Toy Story and the like). Overall I enjoyed it bbecauseI expected so little and it actually had good bits I'd give it a 5.......which considering I gave the other two I've seen a `1' is quite good praise!
