The fifth "Ernest" film in seven years (with a sixth, ERNEST GOES TO SCHOOL, already in the can and scheduled for an August '94 release), this is the first without Disney's major-studio muscle behind it, and it shows.
A janitor at fictitious southern J. Quentin University, Ernest P. (Powertools) Worrell lives in his own Indiana Jones fantasy world of someday finding a valuable antiquity and becoming rich and famous. Abner (Ron James), a history professor at the university and Ernest's only friend, has a
theory that the true crown jewels of England may be hidden in a giant Revolutionary War cannon buried somewhere near the university. He is mocked by everybody except, of course, Ernest and a famous brain surgeon and shady collector, Dr. Glencliff (Tom Butler).
When the university's regents threaten to fire him for neglecting his teaching duties, Abner abandons his quest. Ernest doesn't, and stumbles over evidence of the cannon, piquing Abner's and Glencliff's interests. Taking Abner along, Ernest goes searching for the cannon, on which he literally
falls. Glencliff appears immediately with a couple of thugs to steal it. However, Ernest liberates the cannon and leads a chase back to the university, also pursued by Abner's greedy, shrewish wife (Linda Kash) and British secret service agents who have caught wind of the find. With Abner's help,
Ernest outwits them all. He finally returns the jewels to the British, who can now presumably throw out those phonies they have been storing in the Tower of London all these years.
With even less plot and cheaper production values than usual, this is comedy for catatonics that will bore even fans of past entries in the series. Virtually the entire film consists of the cannon chase, which is tedious from the start and only gets more so as it goes on...and on...and on.
Apparently the budget was so pinched that the cannon, which never looks very convincing, was about the only major prop the producers could afford, aside from Ernest, who seems to have developed a potentially interesting jaded streak. "I probably would be dead if I weren't this close to being a
cartoon," he mutters after one of the many slapstick assaults he endures, holding his thumb and index finger very close together. In fact, Varney's energetic, uninhibited performances as Ernest have been about all that's held this woeful series together over the years. He is not without genuine
talent, proven most recently when he drew more than a few favorable reviews filling Jed Clampett's shoes in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. The question is why he continues his enslavement to the dunderheaded Ernest, who, outside the films, can still be found all over late-night TV hawking everything
under the sun.
In past big-screen efforts, Varney's had solid support from such character veterans as John Vernon, Charles Napier, Randall "Tex" Cobb, and Billie Bird. Filming in Canada, series writer-director John Cherry III fills out the cast of RIDES AGAIN with amiable, anonymous local talent that tries
hard but is well out of its depth trying to breathe life into the doggedly uninspired material. As writer and director, Cherry continues to be his own worst enemy, consistently showing the slickness of the commercial craftsman he is without any glimmer of ability for writing or orchestrating
sustained comedy. A low budget is no excuse for the sheer lack of inventiveness and originality that has hobbled the series in general and this latest and least entry in particular. leave a comment