Slam Dunk Ernest

After the first few Ernest movies caught people's attention in theaters, there were a few that went straight to video. "Slam Dunk Ernest" is the only one that I've seen. It depicts the lovable dimwit getting a pair of basketball shoes from an angel who looks strangely like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with the warning not to misuse them.

Quite frankly, I think that they could have ended the series with "Ernest Rides Again" and not made this one. It's not terrible, but I doubt that Jim Varney truly wanted to end his life having made a series of straight-to-video flicks, especially such absurd ones. As for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, I still like to think of him as Roger Murdock. Or as the crier in "The Stand".

PS: Miguel A. Núñez, Jr, played Spider in "Return of the Living Dead".

Clearly, the straight to video route had a little effect on the production value of this movie, but it still proved to be the most interesting of the series. Ernest, with his 70s-style motif and impeccable ability to score at will, proved to be an unusual turn in the series. Kareem Abdul Jabbar made a great cameo. While this wasn't the best in the series, it still ranks as the third best, which isn't too bad.

Ernest is a janitor with a team that cleans the local mall. The rest of the janitors also play basketball in the city league as `Clean Sweep'. When Ernest saves their jobs by accepting blame for an accident they reluctantly agree to have him on their team. After losing them their next game, Ernest is dejected until an angel gives him magic shoes that make him an amazing player. However this causes friction in the team as the chance to play a NBA team looms.

I watched this Ernest movie because I like basketball and I hoped that the game action would cover me just enough to get through the film. However it didn't. The plot here is bad even by Ernest standards. The usual device of the magic shoes isn't used well – I've seen other basketball movies where a kid is blessed in some way and starts playing in the majors – but here it was all dull and unimaginative. Even things like the way the `love interest' goes from bookish newsagent to vamp in one scene with no explanation or reason – it just happens!

The background story of `effort and work over flashy shoes' is really bungled and doesn't come across well at all. The background characters becoming bitter at Ernest hogging the ball is also only played at the very end and isn't used well at all. The basketball games are very poor. Obiviously when Ernest is soaring through the air in absurd ways it's going to be, but even the actual games before he plays are careless – back passes, no 3 point line (although they still score 3's) things like that just show how shoddy it is. The actual shots of Ernest playing are also poor – they get a smile, but they clearly wanted to cut costs so the same shots of him jumping and dunking are used several times over.

Varney is unlikable. Ernest is meant to be a loveable loser we all root for – like Norman Wisdom used to play. However Varney is just plain annoying – when things happen to him you can't help but think `hope that hurt' and I never care if he comes good in the end or not! The actual team are very ethnic – like they were told to overplay the whole black thing! However some ar so-so. Cozart has to carry the moral message himself and does alright while some other faces are familiar from much better fare (Núñez Jnr), and really Abdul-Jabbar, good movie doing Airplane but what are you doing here – the fact that he is in this film is reason enough for us to pay NBA stars big wages now so that they don't come back and take bad acting jobs after they retire.

Overall this made me smile twice and that's it. I know it's for kids but this is too basic for kids. Varney's clowning isn't enough and the lame attempt to wring a message out of it is weak at best.

Although it was a Independent film (which started with the "Ernest" films made after 1991), "Slam Dunk Ernest" is still one of my favorite "Ernest" films (of course trailing the theatrical movies). In the movie, Ernest is being given a special pair of shoes given to him by the Archangel of Basketball (Played by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) that make him a great basketball player, and eventually a star. But in the process, Ernest becomes the arrogant kind of star, and eventually sees himself, and does the right thing to make up for it. Jim Varney does yet another solid job as nit wit Ernest P. Worrell, and the guys who played Ernest's basketball teammates were pretty good too. The movie overall is pretty good, and the best "Ernest" film made after "Ernest Scared Stupid".

Although it doesn't measure up to the "Ernest" films that were in theaters ("Ernest Goes to Camp", "Ernest Saves Christmas", "Ernest Goes to Jail", and "Ernest Scared Stupid"), "Slam Dunk Ernest" is still a good "Ernest" movie. So check it out, you may like it.

I actually like this movie better than I used to cause this movie has a good message and it is one of the more moralistic Ernest movies, the best performance isn't Ernest, it goes to the Mr. Moloch who is a greedy millionare and he wants Ernest to become rich and famous and the downside of this movie is that the girl Erma (who Ernest has a crush on) turned out to be somebody else and I thought that was pretty bad, overall I wouldn't recommend this movie if you're not an Ernest fan but if you're new to the Ernest franchise, watch Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest Saves Christmas and Ernest Rides Again first then work your way up. Overall I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars and I remember that I used to give this movie only 1 or 2 stars.