- Joe Carruthers
"I KNOW it's feathers!"
- Santa Claus
Ernest P. Worrell has been a strange enigma for me. I loved the character as a child, nearly tearing the abused reels of the VHS tape of Ernest Goes to Camp. Shortly after Ernest Scared Stupid, I just reversed my thinking suddenly and gave a cold evil eye to his direct-to-video entries. Now as an adult, I should be wearing the rosy-colored nostalgia goggles but I still haven't given the character and his film series a full pardon. Ernest Saves Christmas has been the one with most trouble, as I have differed on my opinion often, both now and when I was a kid.
My current review, and hopefully final, is that Ernest Saves Christmas is simple dumb fluff. It has some really painful padding to it and annoyingly aggressive humor. At the same time, the film does have a good heart and is aware of its shortcomings.
Ernest is introduced as a taxi driver this time, who is lucky enough to pick up the real Santa Claus from the Orlando airport. He also picks up a street smart girl named Harmony Star, who says that her name is going to be famous. Oh, the sad sick jokes that come up from that line. Anyway, Santa Claus is in Orlando on a specific mission: to transfer the job and his magical powers to a former child television host named Joe Carruthers. Why he waited two days before Christmas is never explained. The movie then slows to a crawl into a High Noon rip-off with Santa acting very stupid, too many cut-aways to a B-plot with Ernest's recurring supporting players Bobby and Chuck, and a cameo from Vern until Ernest has to scream his way to save the holiday.
The film stretches to fill out a hour and a half running time. Despite the fact that Santa's original name is later found out to be Seth Applegate, he instead just has to be referred to as Santa and make himself look crazy. Harmony does nothing until she steals the magical bag for no real reason since she already found out that it only contains toys. The Bobby and Chuck storyline is a mobius strip of the same gag: reindeers fly on to the ceiling, Chuck jiggles his eyes and whines. The only truly likable character is Ernest, who spots potential problems and takes charge of the many situations. However, his mugging and lame comedy during the finale as he drives the sleigh is just a headache to endure.
Despite these plot holes and big errors in judgment, the film is an okay breeze until the end and is competently made. Douglas Seale, who's more well known as the Sultan in Aladdin, is a fine pick for Santa and he does well trying to bring sentimentality into the picture. I truly had more fun with Robert Lesser, who plays the agent of Joe. He has that perfect 80's slimeball touch as he hams up every scene. I also enjoy the plotline with the film within the film, "Christmas Sleigh/Slay." The best scene is when Santa walks into the test filming as if he's Norma Desmond. He beems a wide smile as he sees Joe overacts his emotions until a Christmas tree alien monster bursts in to attack him. And what better way to end this scene with Santa punching out the Jeff Daniels doppelganger director.
Ernest Saves Christmas has always been a rubberband movie for me. I enjoyed/hated it as a kid, and despised/slightly enjoyed it as an adult. I think the above quotes sum up the film; You can lambast it as nothing more than frivolous, but it's aware of its status. There isn't much harm.
TOMORROW'S ENTRY: Did I say slope? I meant an elevator shaft. We head into the harmful horrors of children matinees with a talking tree.
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