Ernest Goes To Camp/Ernest Goes To Jail/Ernest Scared Stupid (1987/90/91/Mill Creek Blu-rays)

 

Picture: B-/B/B     Sound: C     Extras: D     Films: B-/C+/B

 

 

I hold some very fond memories of the Ernest films, all of which I watched routinely in my youth.  Many adults at the time had quite an aversion to them, which I never quite understood.  All of the movies are pretty wholesome, and devoid of the type of crass humor that is accepted and seems to be almost mandatory in children's films of today.  Sure, there aren't many main characters that are as blissfully stupid as Ernest P. Worrell, and the plots aren't anything to rave about, but people always seemed to forget that these were indeed movies meant for kids.

 

That said, I feel that the late Jim Varney's character is finally getting his due.  With many of my generation growing up and having kids of their own, it seems like the old series is finding some new life as more Ernest fans come out of the closet.  Mill Creek is in a great position to capitalize on this, and has been doing so by releasing several different sets featuring different movie combos for some time now.  Most recently, they've presented the three films covered here, which you can buy individually on Blu-ray, or get Ernest Goes To Camp and Ernest Goes To Jail as a single disc Blu-ray double feature.

 

My personal favorite of the bunch would hands down be Ernest Scared Stupid, which was always a Halloween essential in my house while I was growing up. Any young monster lover would thrill to the title sequence, which features Ernest acting in terror to clips from many public domain monster movies.  The evil troll that Ernest accidentally unleashes in the movie looks decent enough to be a candidate for appearing in a real B-horror film, but won't be too scary for young children.  Add to that a fair amount of snot, goop and slime, and for a kid who grew up watching Little Rascals shorts and movies like The Goonies and Monster Squad, you'd have a recipe for a great film.

 

The earlier two movies here are pretty run of the mill stuff, and never captured my imagination quite as much, though I still enjoyed them.  Of the two, Ernest Goes To Camp would be my next pick with “Goes To Jail” a distant third.  Still, if you're picking up one of them, at the low price point these are being offered at, you might as well get the others to keep them on hand for a rainy day viewing.

 

The Blu-rays are bare-bones affairs, with no special features to speak of.  Video quality is surprisingly pretty good, though “Goes To Camp”, the lone film presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 loses points for being given an interlaced presentation rather than in full 1080p digital High Definition like the latter two films, both of which happen to be shown in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  Audio is passable, but for Blu-ray it could be way better – each of the three movies has been given only a lossy 2.0 Dolby mix save DTS-MA lossless 2.0 Stereo on Jail.  Pro Logic does not bring much out in the way of surrounds either.

 

Considering the content of the films and the cost of the discs, most people will be happy enough with how things are on these releases.  I personally don't believe that anything better will be coming down the pipeline anytime soon, so my best advice would be to enjoy what you've got.

 

 

-   David Milchick