Too many fans seem to be blown away

Boring

A lot of fun.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

First off R.I.P Jim Varney. Jim Varney was the Charles Chaplin of the 1980's & early 1990's. Jim Varney's goofy alter ego, Ernest was famous for his trademark slapstick humor, countless Bugs Bunny type dress up egos, and dumb humor. Despite, Ernest being nearly stupid, Jim Varney, the actor was a high IQ man. Jim Varney was also a serious Shakespearian actor. He was phenomenal and much admired in the 'circle' of Shakespeare, on a par with Sir Lawrence Olivier.. He said he loved playing Ernest because it was (for him) the direct opposite of doing Shakespeare. Ernest first made his mark doing commericals for nearly everything, it was his work with Coca-Cola that allow the Christmas ad's in the opening of the film. It opens up with Santa Claus (Douglas Seale) arrived at the Orlando Airport. Douglas Seale has one of the sweetest voices, and it's works for being Santa Claus. Ernest P. Worrell works as a taxi driver, and picks him up. Santa Claus is on his way to get a local celebrity Joe Carruthers to be new Santa Claus due to Douglas thinking of retiring. While they are driving, a runaway teenage girl (Noelle Parker) calling herself Harmony Starr joins Ernest and Santa in the cab. Harmony is a horrible character, who lies non-stop on end. However on Christmas eve, her conscience prevails and she reforms her ways. Ernest drops him off to meet Joe, but Ernest discovers that Santa left his magic sack behind in the cab, and Ernest begins a quest to find the old man and return it to him. There is a number of cool scenes in the movie that show Jim Varney's work, one is the POV Vern's house which pays tribute to the original commercials that first introduced Ernest, the audience never sees Vern's face. The other is when Ernest poses as Astor Clementh, an employee of the governor and Harmony as the governor's niece Mindy, and the two help Santa escape from jail when Santa got himself locked up by Joe's boss. The other is when Ernest disguises himself as an Apopka snake rancher (Lloyd Worrell from Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's my Family Album) who sneaks Santa into a movie studio to find Joe again. There are also supporting cast from his TV show days, as Chuck and Bobby (Gailard Sartain & Bill Byrge) that serves as sub-plot as two airport workers trying to control Santa's reindeer. The movie has a strong Christmas theme and the humor will keep a range of ages entertained nonetheless. Ernest is funny without using sex. Ernest also use little violence and harsh language. Very heartwarming, and works for family events. The cut-backs of the film can be the over used of advertising in this movie and re-cuts of older commericals (good example: the pancake on parade), dodgy plot-points, and bad Christmas puns. Director John Cherry and Jim Varney made a good movie for such a low-budget and it's one of the last of the good Ernest movies. Yeah, the Ernest movies are pretty much the ultimate in guilty pleasure crapfests, but this brings out the Christmas spirit in all of us.

Christmas is coming, too bad he's in the driver's seat This is a story about how Santa Claus is trying to find a replacement but he is having trouble doing things on his own so a teenage girl and zany cab driver (Ernest) work together to help Santa save Christmas before it's too late for everyone. Will they succeed? Or will Ernest's accident prone nature destroy their chances.Well out of all the Ernest movies that were out there I found only about 4 of them to be any good and this one is definitely one of the good ones. Jim Varney is a great character actor and I feel bad that he had been caged into this role so many times. Of course he is very good at the role and it shows with this film. The comedy is slapstick in nature but highly entertaining with good character interaciton. The acting is passable overall and the story is a fairly good heartwarming one. At this time of year there are a few movies that I consider classic must see's and this is one of those.

I must confess that I love this film. It isn't high-brow entertainment: the plot is pedestrian, and the production values are minimal. That said, this is Jim Varney's magnum opus, and it is simply a delightful, affirmative and even inspirational statement about the power of belief and the dignity of the individual. Ernest is the epitome of, what St. Francis called, the great fool of God. His child-like simplicity and optimistic belief in the goodness of mankind and the benevolence of the Universe is rewarded with the revelation that Santa Claus does indeed exist. Along the way, he manages to showcase his considerable talent for character-acting and his incomparable comedic timing.Yes, Virgina. There is a Santa Claus! And this film gets played at least once a year in my household, a tradition now of almost twenty years standing. It is a cherished talisman of my family, along with A Christmas Story and the 1951 version of Scrooge.If, while watching this film, you don't find yourself laughing and crying and yearning for a world where Santa really exists, you simply are beyond redemption. (And this comes from a man who counts Unforgiven as one of his all-time favorite films).

This movie started off great; the first 30 minutes are very funny and clever with some interesting characters. That's the good news. The bad news is that the film then gets too repetitive and then it gets downright stupid. What we wind up getting is a Santa Claus with "magical" powers with a lot of New Age baloney thrown in the mix. It's just ridiculous and hardly the kind of "Christmas movie" I would expect from Jim Varney's "Ernest."To be fair, it still had a decent amount of laughs and is profanity-free but just not a film I could recommend.