Essential Ernest Collectio

This rating applies to the collection, itself...not the works, which are rated individually below. Thanks.

Ernest Goes to Africa: typical B flick, filmed like live television, film quality is horrid, and the premise runs like Jim Carrey's When Nature Calls. This is pretty bad, and the least deserving of the Ernest line, but if you loved Varney, it's worth having, if only to complete your collection...2/5

Ernest in the Army: again, this is not his best work, but it's essential, if you are a fan of Varney. 2.4/5

Ernest's Greatest Hits 1 & 2: This appears to be what was once the little-known VHS entitled, "KnowhutImean?" I can't swear that this collection bears the exact same commercials and TV spots as in the mentioned work, but considering how KnowhutImean? is not available on DVD, this is more than adequate as a replacement, as some of the spots/ads/etc. are along the same vein. 4/5

Vern! It's My Family Album: I was hoping this would be Varney in all his wonderful characters, but alas! it was not. He assumes a few, but these skits and characters were obviously written for this work, and bear no resemblance to the characters we've come to know and love. 2/5.

Your World As I See It: Mildly amusing pomposity on a stick, and something I hadn't expected from Varney. 3/5.

Now, I realize these averages do not add up to 5/5 as I've rated this collection, but seeing as how some of these are hard to find and are superfluous to all but the most avid fan and/or collector, I rate the set itself as a 5/5.

I miss you, Jim Varney. RIP, old friend.

This is a great DVD set for Ernest fans. The two movies are funny but not the best Ernest films, however the Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 and Hey Vern! It's My Family ALbum are worth the purchase alone. The family album is so funny and brings back childhood memories of watching a VHS version. The commercials are even more hilarious and it's fun to look at mechandise from the 80's. Like the old logos of Sprite and Mt. Dew and the McDonald's with all the "M's" in brown and yellow.

First, the synopses and my take on the individual programs:

Disc 1:
Ernest Goes to Africa (1997, 8th Ernest-titled feature, direct-to-video release): Sacred jewels are stolen from an African village and amazingly end up in Ernest's hands back in the States. This lands Ernest and a nerdy waitress he is crushing on in a lot of trouble with the smugglers who are after them. Sure enough, Ernest winds up in Africa trying to save the girl and unwittingly carrying the hot stones around with him.

"Ernest Goes to Africa" is not going to please the casual Ernest fan who loved "Ernest Goes to Camp", "Ernest Saves Christmas", "Ernest Goes to Jail", and "Ernest Scared Stupid", but find his lower budget yet less restrained work too goofy or incoherent. Those mentioned were the first four Ernest big-screen features, and they're great family films! After them came the final theatrical release for Ernest, "Ernest Rides Again", which I remember not being very impressed with as a kid, but may view differently today if I ever get to see it again. The four films that followed were direct to video, and I haven't really seen two of them ("Slam Dunk Ernest" and "Ernest Goes to School"). Incidentally, there was also a 10th film that was nearly finished when Varney was tragically taken from us in 2000, "Ernest the Pirate". But, back to the film at hand, "Ernest Goes to Africa" may have actually been filmed in Africa, but it is so low-budget and poorly written (plus, they keep referring to a python as a cobra...) that I have to call it the worst Ernest film I've seen so far. Then again, I have liked all the others, but this one is pretty bad. I'm not saying it isn't enjoyable. Varney is as Ernest as ever, and he gets to do some of his great old characters here, but everything else about the film is such a mess that overall it's a flop for anyone except the true Varney fan. Luckily, everything else on this DVD set is far better.

Your World As I See It (1994): Pompous, well-to-do Astor Clement (Jim Varney) hosts a series of clips featuring Varney's best-known characters as his commentary on various subjects and how they relate to the low-class, common man.

This is referred to as a feature by some, though it is under half an hour and, to me, gives every impression that it is a collection of segments of some sort that were made to be shown separately, as each subject covered includes a new host introduction and exit for not just the brief skit, but himself as well. I have no idea, if that was the case, what they were actually initially created for, but it could have been anything. In fact, these clips might be much older than 1994. Anyway, as they are lumped together, they provide a fine example of Varney's amazing talents at portraying different characters and are pretty enjoyable to the Ernest/Varney fan.

Hey Vern! It's My Family Album (1983): This was Ernest's first program, for lack of a better word. It's just under an hour and was released to video, but I believe it was also aired as a TV special and probably created for that purpose. It's also known as "Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's My Family Album". Here we have Ernest visiting his friend and neighbor, Vernon, and showing and telling him all about great family members from his family album, leading into skits in which Varney plays his various relatives. These aren't the characters you might be expecting either (whom you'll find in "Your World As I See It"), these are characters like frontiersman Davy Worrell, military pilot Ace Worrell, meanest man in the world Lloyd Worrell, the hilariously hip carnie Billy "Boogie" Worrell, the southern gambler Retch Worrell, and kindly old Pop Worrell who is on a slow-moving mission to take young Ernest fishing.

"Hey Vern! It's My Family Album" is probably going to be considered by most Ernest/Varney fans as the gem of this set. This program alone is worth the meager price of this collection! It is a fantastically funny showcase of Varney's talents in a sweet, very "Disney's Goofy" kind of presentation (appropriately so, as now that I think about it, Ernest was pretty much a live-action version of Disney's Goofy). I have a vague memory of seeing at least part of this on TV as a kid and loving it then too. An interesting thing to note is that the Pops/Young Ernest relationship is portrayed again very similarly in "Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration" (1990), something I so wish would get a Walt Disney Treasures DVD release. Incidentally, there is also supposed to be an "Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain" program from 1989, according to the Internet Movie Database. As a Disney fanatic, I'd be interested in seeing that!

Disc 2:
Ernest in the Army (1998, 9th Ernest-titled feature, direct-to-video release): Ernest wants to do manly things like drive big vehicles, so he decides to join his two best friends in the Army Reserves (now, he sounds like Donald Duck, who joined up because he wanted to fly, ha). Low and behold, his unit is sent to the Middle East to try and stop a mad dictator with a devastating weapon! While there, Ernest meets a young boy who grows very attached to him and believes Ernest is the liberator of prophecy that his father had told him of. Of course, there's a girl involved too, an attractive television reporter, and Ernest ends up on a rescue mission to save her.

Surprisingly, "Ernest in the Army", despite being released right after "Ernest Goes to Africa" and from the same filmmakers, is a far better movie. Except for one or two moments I could have done without (and the budget issues), this one might have even fit among Ernest's big screen releases. The jokes are that much funnier and the overall movie (though not outstanding) so much better, even if Varney doesn't let loose with all his characters in this one. Incidentally, it seems like the only time they really married a good story with full use of Varney's talent was in "Ernest Scared Stupid", but this one is still a very enjoyable watch and a happy addition to the set.

Ernest's Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and Vol. 2: These are two separate collections, just under a half hour each, of some of Ernest's classic television commercials, plus a few bloopers. Ernest hocks everything here from dairy products and sodas to natural gas and local news teams.

My take on "Ernest's Greatest Hits 1 and 2": These are a must-have for the Ernest fan! They're a fascinating and fun look at Ernest's early days as a national pitch man for an advertising company. I was even thrilled to see a few commercials for my local news stations (the ones for the Valley's channel 5, which is down here in SOUTH, South Texas)! It was weird to see the local weather, sports, and news guys I grew up with again, and so young again! Not to mention interacting with Ernest! Ha, one of the guys shown quit the news because he won the Texas lottery!

So, that's everything on this excellent 2-disc set from Mill Creek Entertainment. That's right, I said 2-disc set (which combines the content of the previous, single-disc releases: Ultimate Ernest and Maximum Ernest). Apparently, a lot of people have seen this as a 3-disc and/or 4-disc set, but I bought this just the other day as a 2-disc set at the local retailer that everyone knows and loves for a mere 5 bucks. It was a steal at that price for all this great Ernest material! Like I said though, this is for the hardcore Ernest/Jim Varney fan, not the guy who only likes a couple of the theatrical flicks. And go into this one expecting to get the most enjoyment from "Hey Vern! It's My Family Album", "Ernest in the Army", and "Ernest's Greatest Hits".

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