Latest / Nashville Movie Dispatch / Movie Review Rewind, Ep. 51: Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)

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Movie Review Rewind, Ep. 51: Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) · Nashville Movie Dispatch

0:10
Speaker 1: Flipping back the calendar to highlight Yesteryear's fine us while
0:14
Speaker 1: exploring the vast archives in cinema history. This is the
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Speaker 1: movie Review Rewind podcast on Nashville Movie Dispatch.
0:39
Speaker 2: Happy Halloween. Here from the movie Review Rewind podcast on
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Speaker 2: Nashville Movie Dispatch. I'm Stony Keeley. You can follow me
0:47
Speaker 2: on Twitter at Stony Keeley. Collectively at sobers Network and
0:51
Speaker 2: of course Nashville Moviedispatch dot substack dot com for all
0:55
Speaker 2: of our film reviews and film podcasts. Joined by our
0:59
Speaker 2: good friend Outdoor so Bro.
1:01
Speaker 3: Again.
1:02
Speaker 2: Last month we did the podcast on hot Rod that
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Speaker 2: was a fun trip down memory lane. This one, I
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Speaker 2: think a fun trip down memory lane for a different reason.
1:12
Speaker 2: We're gonna be talking about Ernest Scared Stupid, released in
1:15
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one, starring Jim Varney as of course, the fabled,
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Speaker 2: the prolific Ernest pe Worl character and a bit of
1:27
Speaker 2: a childhood nostalgia here because I don't want to speak
1:31
Speaker 2: for you, but for me, this was something that I
1:36
Speaker 2: think we watched in kids club every summer when it
1:40
Speaker 2: would rain outside or we had to stay in the
1:42
Speaker 2: library or something like that. They pop on an Earnest movie,
1:47
Speaker 2: a staple of halloweens as a kid, but also like
1:54
Speaker 2: just kind of scary too. This is like it had
1:58
Speaker 2: the right vibes Ernest Scared Stupid did. I've been wanting
2:03
Speaker 2: to go back and rewatch this movie for for quite
2:06
Speaker 2: a while now, because they aren't really easy to come
2:10
Speaker 2: by if you're not paying to rent them, or if
2:13
Speaker 2: you don't own a copy of them, and you don't
2:15
Speaker 2: see too many copies of the Ernest movies just out
2:18
Speaker 2: in the wild somewhere anymore. I happen to find a
2:22
Speaker 2: DVD out at our good friends at danger Zone Video
2:27
Speaker 2: their shop, they had Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Scared
2:31
Speaker 2: Stupid and Ernest Goes to Jail in one DVD set,
2:35
Speaker 2: and I bought it and was like, this is my
2:37
Speaker 2: chance to relive it. It just so happens to coincide
2:41
Speaker 2: with this past summer. At the Bellcourt Theater downtown, they
2:47
Speaker 2: ran a series of film films called Nashville a City
2:52
Speaker 2: in Film, and part of that series was Ernest Scared Stupid.
2:56
Speaker 2: There's one Wednesday night in June where they showed it
2:59
Speaker 2: on thirty five millimeter, which for those listening that might
3:02
Speaker 2: not be familiar. Thirty five millimeter is like what they
3:05
Speaker 2: shot stuff on, you know, back in the I think,
3:08
Speaker 2: like the sixties and seventies, So it had an old
3:11
Speaker 2: vintage quality to it really enhanced the experience, and it
3:16
Speaker 2: just kind of felt like, you know, what, the time
3:18
Speaker 2: is right to relive this movie. So I went back
3:21
Speaker 2: and watched it. I was surprised at how well it
3:24
Speaker 2: held up after all these years. I think it's a
3:27
Speaker 2: much better movie than it's given credit for. I think
3:31
Speaker 2: I have a new sense of appreciation for Jim Varney.
3:35
Speaker 3: It was.
3:35
Speaker 2: It was a lot of fun to relive this one.
3:37
Speaker 2: I don't have kids, but I know you do. I
3:42
Speaker 2: don't know what the trolls and everything these days. If
3:46
Speaker 2: you know, we were kind of desensitized to this kind
3:49
Speaker 2: of stuff. We were just like thrown in the deep
3:51
Speaker 2: end early on. I don't know if that's your approach
3:54
Speaker 2: with this film, but I'm curious if you know this
3:57
Speaker 2: is something that like you're eager to relive with your kids.
4:00
Speaker 4: At some point.
4:01
Speaker 3: I am.
4:02
Speaker 4: I had hoped when I jumped into this, I was like,
4:04
Speaker 4: I wonder if this if he's ready for this, my son, Yeah,
4:08
Speaker 4: and just not yet. I just you know, ten years
4:12
Speaker 4: ago might have been a little different twenty years ago,
4:14
Speaker 4: and you know when we were kids, it definitely was different.
4:17
Speaker 4: Now they were showing this at school, Yeah, and I
4:20
Speaker 4: recall that, like everyone loved And I don't know if
4:23
Speaker 4: that's just a regional thing because this was a southern situation.
4:28
Speaker 4: They call him in Nashville.
4:30
Speaker 2: They call him in the film the Great Redneck.
4:32
Speaker 4: Hope, right, So I don't know if everyone in the
4:34
Speaker 4: US has the same appreciation and like, oh, it's we're
4:40
Speaker 4: just like connection with earnest movies in general. I think
4:43
Speaker 4: the other earnest movies my son is ready for it, probably,
4:46
Speaker 4: but the Scared Stupid one just the troll thing I
4:49
Speaker 4: can remember as a kid being like this one always
4:52
Speaker 4: had a much different vibe and like, thinking back, like this,
4:56
Speaker 4: this really is like a combination of a good horror
4:58
Speaker 4: film that just happened to get financed by a milk company,
5:02
Speaker 4: you know, Like it's just it's very weird and it's
5:05
Speaker 4: so funny. But I feel like we are doing a
5:07
Speaker 4: disservice to Jim Varney by not starting this podcast off with.
5:11
Speaker 3: It e.
5:14
Speaker 4: Which our jaws will never go to the range of his.
5:17
Speaker 1: No.
5:17
Speaker 2: I don't know how he's gotta he had to have
5:20
Speaker 2: been able to dislocate that thing and just have it
5:23
Speaker 2: unhinged just swinging from his skull. Jim Varney man, I
5:30
Speaker 2: don't know even where to begin with him, Nashville legend,
5:34
Speaker 2: Jim Varney theater kid. Growing up, it just happens to
5:41
Speaker 2: like fall into this earnest character that started out in
5:46
Speaker 2: commercials for like regional dairy companies. Yeah, so there were
5:51
Speaker 2: like multiple dairies throughout the southern United States that just
5:56
Speaker 2: he made a commercial as this earnest character wants. People
5:59
Speaker 2: got a hold of it, and we're like, this is brilliant,
6:02
Speaker 2: this is awesome.
6:03
Speaker 4: We need this everywhere and.
6:07
Speaker 2: Vern Yeah, and here in Nashville, the dairy obviously Purity
6:12
Speaker 2: Purity Dairies still the best chocolate milk in the game.
6:15
Speaker 2: If you ask me, I still I'm not drinking chocolate
6:19
Speaker 2: milk unless it's Purity Dairies.
6:21
Speaker 4: But uh, that's the childhood proper, that's the elementary school propaganda.
6:25
Speaker 4: It is.
6:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is.
6:26
Speaker 2: They showed us this when we were kids, and we
6:28
Speaker 2: carried it with us. We've been buying it ever since.
6:31
Speaker 4: You know what. That's probably why they when the milk
6:34
Speaker 4: shipment went to the school, there was probably a copy
6:37
Speaker 4: of Vernestcured Stupid with the milk shit. Watch this, kids
6:41
Speaker 4: will getting more milk.
6:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's it's it's interesting, man to see. I
6:49
Speaker 2: don't know, like maybe this is what going viral looked
6:52
Speaker 2: like back in the eighties when there was no Internet.
6:55
Speaker 2: But it was just you see this guy on a commercial,
6:58
Speaker 2: you think I want that too. He did a lot
7:01
Speaker 2: of mostly commercial work early on with the character.
7:06
Speaker 3: Then he it.
7:07
Speaker 2: Spirals into a show, a series. I think it was
7:11
Speaker 2: just a few episodes that I don't think was ever greenlit,
7:15
Speaker 2: but kind of got some traction there and eventually develops
7:18
Speaker 2: into these movies that I think you're right about it
7:22
Speaker 2: being a regional thing because everyone that I know, like
7:26
Speaker 2: from the South, that's my age, knows who Ernest is.
7:29
Speaker 2: But I married a woman from New Jersey and when
7:32
Speaker 2: we started prepping for this podcast, I was like, we're
7:35
Speaker 2: gonna relive Earnest Scared stupid, just like blank stare you know,
7:39
Speaker 2: And I'm like, did you did you watch the Earnest
7:42
Speaker 2: movies when you were a kid. She's just like, no,
7:44
Speaker 2: I don't know what this even is. And I was like, Oh,
7:48
Speaker 2: that's a bit of a gut punch, So I do
7:51
Speaker 2: think there's there's something to that. But Jim Varney having
7:56
Speaker 2: like the theater background was like performing on stage Shakespearean
8:01
Speaker 2: stuff when he's like seventeen years old. It shows up
8:04
Speaker 2: in the earnest movies and and all of his like
8:08
Speaker 2: wild characters that they cut to, which is something I
8:11
Speaker 2: wanted to bring up. You talked about this film in particular.
8:16
Speaker 2: It's such a weird tone at times because these trolls
8:21
Speaker 2: look scary. I mean they should, like they're repurposed masks
8:25
Speaker 2: from the Killer Clowns from Outer Space movie that they
8:28
Speaker 2: used for this film. We go from these trolls like
8:33
Speaker 2: sprouting from a tree and growing and invading to suddenly
8:36
Speaker 2: Jim Varney in dressed up like an old lady with
8:40
Speaker 2: a neck brace on, to you know, like Roman soldier,
8:45
Speaker 2: and it's just back and forth. It's like, no, wonder,
8:49
Speaker 2: this is just feels so weird. This is almost scarier
8:53
Speaker 2: as an adult because you're just like what they.
8:57
Speaker 4: Get to that point, like what it makes sense? I mean,
9:01
Speaker 4: it makes sense as much as it can because there
9:04
Speaker 4: but it's one person doing the same thing and it's like,
9:06
Speaker 4: how do you get this onto paper? But then I
9:09
Speaker 4: realized there's only three people who've pulled this off. Yeah,
9:14
Speaker 4: Jim Varney, Eddie Murphy, and Tyler Perry.
9:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, So it's.
9:24
Speaker 2: It did give me a deeper sense of appreciation for
9:27
Speaker 2: his talent rewatching this film and kind of going back
9:32
Speaker 2: and just realizing, like, man, this guy had some real
9:36
Speaker 2: some real chops, And I think knowing it now, like
9:40
Speaker 2: looking looking back at his legacy in the entertainment industry,
9:46
Speaker 2: you do kind of see like there was a guy
9:49
Speaker 2: that's kind of born for the theater deep in.
9:52
Speaker 3: All this this stuff.
9:53
Speaker 2: It just so happened that he struck gold with a
9:57
Speaker 2: marketable character that he could really build a career off of.
10:01
Speaker 2: Passed away in two thousand at fifty years old from
10:04
Speaker 2: lung cancer. The story was that he was on set
10:08
Speaker 2: working on something developed a cough that he thought was
10:12
Speaker 2: just a cold, but it was very persistent. He goes
10:15
Speaker 2: to the doctor, they tell him he has lung cancer.
10:18
Speaker 2: Passes away at fifty years old at his home and
10:21
Speaker 2: here in White House, Tennessee. But he was working at
10:26
Speaker 2: the time on a script, a screenplay for a movie
10:30
Speaker 2: about the Hatfields and the McCoys, and he had been
10:34
Speaker 2: expressing an interest in stepping out of the roles where
10:39
Speaker 2: he's type cast as this fumbling redneck idiot. Good as
10:45
Speaker 2: he may have been in that role, he wanted to
10:48
Speaker 2: do more dramatic stuff. And I think that's part of
10:52
Speaker 2: what makes the Jim Varney story so tragic, is that
10:56
Speaker 2: we never got to see that. Like I asked you
10:58
Speaker 2: before we started recording this, I'm like, man, what does
11:01
Speaker 2: the Jim Varney version of Adam Sandler's Uncut Gym's look like?
11:05
Speaker 2: Or what does the Jim Varney version of Jim Carrey's
11:08
Speaker 2: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind look like? Because I
11:11
Speaker 2: do think it's clear now. When I watch these movies
11:15
Speaker 2: as a kid, I just think Ernest is a really
11:17
Speaker 2: funny guy. When I watch it as a thirty nine
11:21
Speaker 2: year old adult, I think that dude had some real
11:25
Speaker 2: fucking talent that I don't know if he ever truly
11:29
Speaker 2: got to show what he was capable of.
11:32
Speaker 4: And I don't know if there's anyone out there right
11:33
Speaker 4: now that has that same range or capability. Because I
11:36
Speaker 4: was thinking about this too, of like, yeah, thank this
11:37
Speaker 4: is what we were used to as a kid, it
11:39
Speaker 4: wasn't that it wasn't abnormal, yeah, because we had ernest.
11:42
Speaker 4: But I'm thinking like now, for my kids generation and
11:45
Speaker 4: maybe a little bit before, like in the past ten
11:47
Speaker 4: years or so, there hasn't really been a thing like this.
11:51
Speaker 2: No, I mean I don't I don't know who. Who
11:56
Speaker 2: comes to mind. I mean maybe it's if it's it's
11:59
Speaker 2: just because.
11:59
Speaker 4: We I just don't think they allowed anymore. Maybe I
12:02
Speaker 4: don't know.
12:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe you're not allowed.
12:05
Speaker 4: To because it's it's very creative, and that is process
12:08
Speaker 4: is back to you know. You and I last month
12:11
Speaker 4: spoke about comedy and the dangers that is associated with
12:16
Speaker 4: risk taking in the industry. Right now with comedy, I
12:19
Speaker 4: think it's the same way they can't afford to be risky.
12:22
Speaker 3: Yeah.
12:24
Speaker 2: I draw a parallel a little bit to Paul Rubin
12:28
Speaker 2: and the Pee Wee Herman character as well. Yeah, and
12:32
Speaker 2: of course he has gone on to to take roles
12:36
Speaker 2: that do kind of show a little bit of his
12:38
Speaker 2: range and talent. I just, man, I got to thinking
12:45
Speaker 2: about it to the point you just mentioned thinking about
12:49
Speaker 2: guys in that mold. I don't know who, if anybody,
12:54
Speaker 2: is that guy today that that pee wee Herman that Earnest.
12:58
Speaker 2: It kind of feels like these guys are are byproducts
13:03
Speaker 2: of a forgotten era almost.
13:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there are, like when they start their
13:07
Speaker 4: acting career at this point, the ones that are in
13:10
Speaker 4: like in the industry right now, they like not say typecasted,
13:15
Speaker 4: but they're already in a genre. Yeah, and they're stuck
13:17
Speaker 4: there like they're they're molded for that, whereas Ernest was
13:22
Speaker 4: or Jim was just different.
13:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
13:26
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting to think about it in terms
13:29
Speaker 2: of filmmaking today, IP reboots, sequels, legacy sequels, prequels, all
13:37
Speaker 2: that stuff. Thinking about how wildly popular this character was,
13:44
Speaker 2: I do wonder has there ever been any discussion of
13:49
Speaker 2: reviving this character? Like why hasn't there been an Ernest reboot?
13:53
Speaker 2: And I think there's a couple of things at play.
13:55
Speaker 2: Go ahead, you've got a thought, I.
13:57
Speaker 4: Would only allow it's one thing to I'd allow Aid
14:00
Speaker 4: be in supportive. I don't think you can replace him.
14:02
Speaker 2: I don't think so either. I think we're just having
14:05
Speaker 2: a fun thought exercise here. But the ultimate conclusion is,
14:08
Speaker 2: how dare you try to replace I'm not having let's
14:13
Speaker 2: let's uh, let's put that one. Let's keep that one
14:15
Speaker 2: in the can. I think there are a couple of
14:17
Speaker 2: factors at play, though. I think for one most importantly
14:21
Speaker 2: is I don't I really don't know who that guy
14:25
Speaker 2: is that could be Jim Varney and apply that that
14:29
Speaker 2: clear theater background, with the sense of humor, the sense
14:33
Speaker 2: of timing, the how expressive he is you talked about
14:36
Speaker 2: the jaw swinging off off the hinges basically, and how
14:40
Speaker 2: expressive he is with his eyes, his hands.
14:42
Speaker 4: And it's not just that ability, but thinking behind the
14:46
Speaker 4: scenes of doing that take over, take over, take over,
14:49
Speaker 4: take it has that endurance to to be that creative
14:53
Speaker 4: consistently and yeah, just get burned out from it.
14:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I don't know, you know, I just don't
15:00
Speaker 2: know who that guy is right now, and I'm struggling
15:04
Speaker 2: to think of anybody that could fill those shoes, which
15:06
Speaker 2: is a massive problem if you want to reboot this character.
15:10
Speaker 2: I think there are probably guys that would be worth
15:12
Speaker 2: a shot at.
15:14
Speaker 3: The earnest character.
15:15
Speaker 2: But I also think that we're talking about going back
15:20
Speaker 2: to the nineteen nineties and even decades before that.
15:25
Speaker 3: And I just to talk.
15:27
Speaker 2: About something we've mentioned in Passing already. It's like the
15:32
Speaker 2: stereotypical redneck. At a point in time in pop culture,
15:38
Speaker 2: people had a fascination with Southern people. You think about
15:42
Speaker 2: the show like He Haul, and you think about stuff
15:45
Speaker 2: like Ernest and the Beverly Hillbillies and stuff like that.
15:50
Speaker 2: There was sort of a stereotype of Southern people that
15:53
Speaker 2: was portrayed on screen that I don't know. I don't
15:58
Speaker 2: know if it's acceptable today. I don't feel like you
16:01
Speaker 2: see it a whole lot anymore where there are shows
16:04
Speaker 2: or movies that are just portraying Southern people as just dumb,
16:09
Speaker 2: fumbling rednecks anymore.
16:10
Speaker 4: So I do think as the main character, Yeah, yeah,
16:14
Speaker 4: it's still prevalent, and it's a lot of times I've
16:17
Speaker 4: seen it. It's it's kind of like the last option
16:21
Speaker 4: people have as as a bad guy. Yeah, a random
16:24
Speaker 4: I think you could have a movie in Canada in
16:27
Speaker 4: the woods and the guy living in the woods is
16:30
Speaker 4: from somehow, his accents from Alabama, Like, yeah, it doesn't
16:33
Speaker 4: make sense, but it's that's that's acceptable. But you're right,
16:37
Speaker 4: there's not like a Southern themed bumbling yeah, just or
16:42
Speaker 4: just a I don't know, just that kind of character.
16:45
Speaker 4: You're right, I think there was a there was a
16:46
Speaker 4: phase in time that that was hot.
16:50
Speaker 2: So ultimately the conclusion for an Earnest reboot is one
16:57
Speaker 2: Jim Varney kind of irreplaceable in that role. I don't
17:01
Speaker 2: know that anybody could touch it the way that he
17:05
Speaker 2: did and put the care and craft into it. I mean,
17:08
Speaker 2: think about the dedication you'd have to have to take
17:12
Speaker 2: a character that was just drawn up for a commercial
17:15
Speaker 2: for a milk commercial. And I think the first dairy
17:18
Speaker 2: that he advertised was in Texas, if I'm not mistaken,
17:22
Speaker 2: But to take that and turn it into basically a
17:27
Speaker 2: film franchise, because there are several of these Earnest films
17:31
Speaker 2: out there, and reliving this has made me want to
17:35
Speaker 2: go back and relive all of them. But you don't
17:39
Speaker 2: have that guy in that role, and I don't know
17:43
Speaker 2: who you would even give a shot to at this point.
17:47
Speaker 2: And then two we don't know, like does the general
17:52
Speaker 2: public even have an interest in this style of content anymore?
17:55
Speaker 2: Like is the fascination with the South as these these
18:01
Speaker 2: comic characters. They were not looking at Southern people as
18:06
Speaker 2: basically putting on a show.
18:08
Speaker 3: For us anymore.
18:09
Speaker 2: And I think ultimately this kind of goes in the
18:13
Speaker 2: file with things that are just confined to a certain era. Yeah,
18:17
Speaker 2: lost the time, but I'm okay with that in this
18:20
Speaker 2: case for sure. Yeah, so let's let's talk about the
18:25
Speaker 2: movie itself. I first of all fired up the DVD
18:29
Speaker 2: and the credits, playing that theme song. I don't know
18:32
Speaker 2: who did the music on. This all filmed in East Nashville,
18:36
Speaker 2: so you know you're the music city. Maybe you just
18:39
Speaker 2: got the right team based out in Nashville to do this.
18:42
Speaker 2: But I thought the opening theme song and the introductory clips,
18:47
Speaker 2: the opening credits where they're borrowing scenes from other classic
18:50
Speaker 2: horror movies shout out to in there, Yeah, I didn't
18:54
Speaker 2: remember it either, but I thought, man, that that goes
18:58
Speaker 2: pretty hard. This is this kind of feels like a
19:02
Speaker 2: bit of of nineties nostalgia here in and of itself.
19:05
Speaker 3: And we'll say credits.
19:07
Speaker 4: Prior to the credits opening the Touchstone Pictures. Yeah, the
19:12
Speaker 4: scene and like the little I don't know, the little
19:16
Speaker 4: animation kind of goes through and it stops in the
19:19
Speaker 4: circle that I hadn't seen that since I don't know when, Like, yeah,
19:24
Speaker 4: it's been so long, And that took me back to
19:26
Speaker 4: it just immediately. My mind was like, Ooh, a movie's
19:28
Speaker 4: about to start, you know, because that was what it
19:30
Speaker 4: was when you saw that as a kid. There's a
19:32
Speaker 4: few of those production companies that had like an intro
19:35
Speaker 4: that was like Ooh, this is gonna be good. Yeah,
19:38
Speaker 4: and that's one of them.
19:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was that was really fun. Had some
19:44
Speaker 2: fun with that. I the first thing I remembered when
19:48
Speaker 2: I thought about this film, aside from like the poster,
19:51
Speaker 2: the DVD cover or whatever it was of Ernest popping
19:54
Speaker 2: out of the pumpkin, was the troll. I mean to me,
19:58
Speaker 2: like that was the thing about the film.
20:01
Speaker 3: Probably.
20:02
Speaker 2: I saw some people on letterbox mentioned this when they
20:04
Speaker 2: were discussing the film, and I never really thought about
20:08
Speaker 2: Ernest Scared Stupid in this venue, but it's you look
20:12
Speaker 2: back at it and you're kind of like, man, I
20:15
Speaker 2: feel like this is probably what got me into monster
20:19
Speaker 2: movies as a kid. So when you think about it,
20:23
Speaker 2: not that you know this is something you should strive
20:25
Speaker 2: for getting your kids into horror movies, but as horror fans,
20:31
Speaker 2: you're impacted at an early age by it. It's films
20:35
Speaker 2: like Ernest Scared Stupid that kind of serve as a
20:38
Speaker 2: gateway to some of the more scarier stuff and this
20:42
Speaker 2: to me. I looked back on it, and I do
20:44
Speaker 2: remember thinking like, Man, I like I got into Monsters
20:51
Speaker 2: because of Ernest, Scared, Stupid and the Troll.
20:54
Speaker 4: I think there's there's two films and they just happen
20:56
Speaker 4: to come out in similar to I don't know when
20:58
Speaker 4: the other one came out, but in our childhood that
21:01
Speaker 4: just like imprinted Halloween, Halloween theme, Halloween fun, trick or
21:08
Speaker 4: treating on a fun night. But also and somehow they
21:13
Speaker 4: made this seem almost like a New england Ish kind
21:17
Speaker 4: of film Halloween themes, even though it was a Nashville
21:19
Speaker 4: But what I'm talking about on the other film is
21:23
Speaker 4: hocus Pocus. Between those two, I think it just set
21:27
Speaker 4: the vibe for kids in the eighties and nineties kids
21:32
Speaker 4: of what Halloween feels like. Yeah, and I don't think
21:36
Speaker 4: that's been recreated.
21:38
Speaker 2: I feel like hocus Pocus is kind of largely considered
21:43
Speaker 2: the nineties kid nineties nostalgia Halloween vibe movie gold standard.
21:52
Speaker 2: And so I did kind of catch myself comparing this
21:54
Speaker 2: film to hocus Pocus in a lot of ways. And
21:59
Speaker 2: by the time I got to the of it and
22:00
Speaker 2: I was like this kind of blows hocus pocus out
22:03
Speaker 2: of the water. Yeah, I mean, in my opinion anyway. Also,
22:07
Speaker 2: you mentioned like the Halloween vibes. Again, don't have kids
22:12
Speaker 2: in school myself, but my mom was a teacher's aid
22:16
Speaker 2: for forty some odd years before she retired, and I
22:21
Speaker 2: did like the scene early on in the film where
22:26
Speaker 2: they are in the classroom and the little girls like
22:29
Speaker 2: sharing a story and all that. You see the Halloween
22:34
Speaker 2: decorations up in the classroom, and I know from my mother,
22:38
Speaker 2: like that's not something they do anymore. They can't decorate
22:41
Speaker 2: for Halloween in the schools anymore. And it just kind
22:44
Speaker 2: of took me back to when you would have those holidays.
22:48
Speaker 2: They can't decorate for Christmas, they can't decorate for Easter,
22:50
Speaker 2: none of that stuff anymore. But that was such a
22:53
Speaker 2: big thing in my childhood that I think kind of
22:56
Speaker 2: shaped the way I am even today, when like we
23:00
Speaker 2: decorate the house for all the holidays. I burn candles
23:05
Speaker 2: based on the season, and you know, right now we're
23:07
Speaker 2: burning pumpkin stuff and at Christmas will burn stuff that
23:11
Speaker 2: smells like Christmas trees. And I think part of that
23:16
Speaker 2: is from how comforting it felt to think back to
23:20
Speaker 2: the security of those childhood days and when things like
23:24
Speaker 2: this happened and you don't really get that anymore. And
23:27
Speaker 2: there's a part of me that kind of wonders if,
23:30
Speaker 2: like how that impacts the kids these days.
23:33
Speaker 4: And I think something deeper there that it's subconscious unless
23:36
Speaker 4: you're unless you've been in the industry, is that they
23:40
Speaker 4: did a great job with the set. All the way
23:42
Speaker 4: they're out was lighting, set, decoration, wardrobe. One thing I
23:49
Speaker 4: want to point out as we kind of like moving
23:50
Speaker 4: into the movie, especially like it starts off with Ernest
23:53
Speaker 4: was kind of always known about his tinkering abilities and stuff,
23:56
Speaker 4: all the contraptions. Yea, his cleaning had multiple mob and stuff.
24:00
Speaker 4: He's like the like the eighties and nineties, like that
24:04
Speaker 4: was the high tech stuff that was like in the shows,
24:07
Speaker 4: and it was the fun adventure movie kind of thing.
24:10
Speaker 4: Was always like all these contraptions, and as a kid,
24:14
Speaker 4: like in the treehouse contraptions and stuff on the kid,
24:17
Speaker 4: you're like, that's what I want to do. I want
24:19
Speaker 4: to build a treehouse that has and like Pee Wee's Playhouse,
24:23
Speaker 4: bringing back Paul Rubins of just like all the the
24:26
Speaker 4: fun uh what do they call it. Oh the whatever,
24:33
Speaker 4: like the automated thing that go at each little step.
24:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's that called.
24:38
Speaker 4: I don't think it's talking about gold Ruge Goldberg thing anyways. Yeah,
24:46
Speaker 4: just like a mouse trap kind of situation of all
24:50
Speaker 4: the things falling in place, and it's just and it's
24:52
Speaker 4: not high tech. It's just stuff that the film crew,
24:56
Speaker 4: like we're you know, the the crew put together. Yeah,
25:00
Speaker 4: and it's just it's still cool. And like in the
25:02
Speaker 4: garbage truck he gets himself trapped. There's something I highlighted
25:05
Speaker 4: here was with the baby doll.
25:09
Speaker 3: He's talking.
25:10
Speaker 4: He's like, don't do it, Ernest, I'm sorry, but I
25:13
Speaker 4: gotta no one's gonna know. And he throws it in
25:16
Speaker 4: to like stop the gear and he says, I think
25:20
Speaker 4: I wrote it down. He said, uh no, I just
25:23
Speaker 4: said baby doll say, but he's I think the baby
25:25
Speaker 4: dog goes now where you live, it crushes its head.
25:29
Speaker 4: I was like, you can't do that, No.
25:30
Speaker 2: You can't, which I think is one of the things
25:34
Speaker 2: that kind of makes films like this stand the test
25:38
Speaker 2: of time is when you have like the dumb slapstick comedy,
25:43
Speaker 2: but you have those moments where it's like this is
25:46
Speaker 2: clearly a kid's movie, but you have those moments where like,
25:50
Speaker 2: if you're watching it as an adult, you're kind of like, yeah,
25:53
Speaker 2: we're laughing, but man, this is kind of kind of
25:56
Speaker 2: dark if you stop and think about it. He's talking
25:58
Speaker 2: about like using a baby to stop a gear from
26:02
Speaker 2: from grinding.
26:03
Speaker 4: But he's having like this this argument with himself, Yeah,
26:09
Speaker 4: should I do this? Even though you know it's like
26:10
Speaker 4: it's just fake. But he's like he's pretending like it's real,
26:13
Speaker 4: and he's like, no one will ever know.
26:15
Speaker 3: It's it's so stupid.
26:20
Speaker 2: There's a lot, there's a lot in this movie that's
26:22
Speaker 2: so stupid.
26:23
Speaker 4: And the dog is controlling that rim Shots controlling the truck.
26:26
Speaker 3: The shot the clerk.
26:30
Speaker 2: I just I love the scene where he backs over
26:33
Speaker 2: the troll where it's it just it looks like a
26:36
Speaker 2: skip from Jackass where they just run this troll over.
26:40
Speaker 2: Ernest is in the back of the truck and then
26:43
Speaker 2: it cuts to rim Shot driving the truck and he's like,
26:46
Speaker 2: you got.
26:46
Speaker 3: Him, rim Shot. I'm like, what are we? What are
26:50
Speaker 3: we doing here? You can't help but laugh, You can't
26:52
Speaker 3: help but laugh.
26:56
Speaker 2: I I do think the man, I feel like I
26:59
Speaker 2: had a no there. Oh the production stuff, that's where
27:02
Speaker 2: I get into, Like you mentioned, I do think I'm
27:07
Speaker 2: kind of surprised by how well made of a movie
27:10
Speaker 2: it is because it's the scene where he runs to
27:13
Speaker 2: the sheriff's house at night, and I just I remember thinking,
27:17
Speaker 2: like how well lit the house was, that it almost
27:21
Speaker 2: looked like something out of a horror movie. And I
27:24
Speaker 2: think that alone, like being able with the lighting and
27:28
Speaker 2: with the set design to just kind of set the
27:31
Speaker 2: vibe automatically where we don't even need a plot to move,
27:35
Speaker 2: we don't even need lines delivered to just feel like, oh,
27:39
Speaker 2: this is a creepy movie set in Halloween. The stuff
27:43
Speaker 2: where they're walking through the forest and the fog over
27:48
Speaker 2: the ground and everything. I mentioned the look of the
27:50
Speaker 2: troll several times. A lot of this felt just like
27:55
Speaker 2: and you can see and you can see the care
27:59
Speaker 2: and the craft that went into building this setout. And
28:03
Speaker 2: I think that's one of the things that you don't
28:05
Speaker 2: appreciate as a kid. Of course, you're just there to
28:08
Speaker 2: watch and laugh. But like I said about really appreciating
28:13
Speaker 2: Jim Varney's talents, it's watching this through a different lens.
28:18
Speaker 2: Being on the earth for thirty nine years at this
28:20
Speaker 2: point and thinking, man, they put some thought and care
28:24
Speaker 2: and hard work into this thing to make this such
28:27
Speaker 2: an iconic film.
28:29
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think one thing too, is just like the
28:31
Speaker 4: old the phrases and stuff that they used the kids
28:35
Speaker 4: back and forth, and it's like, can we bring back
28:37
Speaker 4: calling people butt heads?
28:38
Speaker 2: Oh dude, I bought or I jotted down several lines
28:44
Speaker 2: like Ernest was low key and awesome shit talker, Yeah,
28:48
Speaker 2: with come on, snot what I got something for you?
28:51
Speaker 2: I love that I got some of your lips. I
28:53
Speaker 2: got something for you. Yeah, how about a bumper sandwich
28:56
Speaker 2: booger lips?
28:57
Speaker 4: Yeah? And when he first saw the troll and first
29:00
Speaker 4: when it first came out of the ground or in
29:02
Speaker 4: the tree, came out of the tree, Ernest's first response
29:06
Speaker 4: when he saw it goes, I sure hope you're from Keebler.
29:10
Speaker 3: So good.
29:11
Speaker 2: I don't know how much of this was written, how
29:14
Speaker 2: much of it was Jim Varney on the fly? Uh,
29:17
Speaker 2: but I that was one thing I jotted down who
29:20
Speaker 2: wrote the Ernest character? Because it's actually pretty good, Like
29:23
Speaker 2: there are some stuff in there that Again, I don't
29:26
Speaker 2: know how much of it I would have got. When
29:29
Speaker 2: he says something like I watched Hulk of Mania three times.
29:32
Speaker 2: When he's talking about his chops is like a fighter.
29:34
Speaker 2: It's like I know tai Chi Chow Mayne and I
29:37
Speaker 2: watched Hulk of Mania three times, once on slow mo
29:40
Speaker 2: or something like that.
29:41
Speaker 3: And I'm just like, this is this is good shit.
29:43
Speaker 4: Man.
29:44
Speaker 3: This isn't like kids movie stuff. This is actually good shit.
29:47
Speaker 4: And another one the uh when he's in the store
29:51
Speaker 4: and the troll follows him in and the guy this
29:53
Speaker 4: the clerk at the store freaks out, like freezes up, yeah,
29:56
Speaker 4: and you can't talk and goes, oh charades, I love Charrette. Okay,
30:00
Speaker 4: super scary something. And then he pulls out a shotgun
30:03
Speaker 4: and he goes, you really play for keeps with yours?
30:07
Speaker 3: So it's so good. Yeah.
30:10
Speaker 4: Also, where did the troll get a knife?
30:13
Speaker 3: I don't know, but that thing was just.
30:14
Speaker 4: Came out of nowhere. He's got a half sword half knife.
30:17
Speaker 2: There's there's a darkest timeline version of this film that
30:21
Speaker 2: is like actual gory horror that I think would be
30:27
Speaker 2: equally as jarring as the cut scene from fighting trolls
30:31
Speaker 2: to an old woman in a neck brace. Yeah, You're
30:34
Speaker 2: just like, what is this fear and loathing in Las Vegas.
30:37
Speaker 2: What do we have on here? I let's see what else.
30:42
Speaker 2: Getting through my notes here, talking about one thing I
30:46
Speaker 2: jotted down, I just had a thought, it's a damn
30:49
Speaker 2: shame that we never got a Jim Varney stand and
30:52
Speaker 2: deliver kind of action franchise. Yeah, so I feel like
30:55
Speaker 2: he had some chops there where it could have been
30:58
Speaker 2: some funny stuff. But like I want to see him calling,
31:03
Speaker 2: you know, people on a battlefield booger lips and just
31:07
Speaker 2: fist fighting.
31:08
Speaker 4: Maybe Jim Varney got the call instead of Bruce Willis
31:10
Speaker 4: for die hard.
31:11
Speaker 3: Oh man, God, that would have ruled. That would have
31:14
Speaker 3: ruled go ahead.
31:17
Speaker 4: Sorry, Tom and Bobby.
31:19
Speaker 3: Tom and Bobby forgot about them. I forgot about them,
31:22
Speaker 3: which I believe.
31:23
Speaker 4: Is Vern from the from the milk commercials. I think
31:26
Speaker 4: Bobby is Vern, I remember. Yeah, I think he's looks
31:31
Speaker 4: like he doesn't have any teeth.
31:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd have to look that up because I can't.
31:35
Speaker 2: I can't remember more more quotes from the film, talking
31:41
Speaker 2: about like when he goes to the lady's house that
31:45
Speaker 2: he's asking her to clean up. Yeah, yeah, out robbing
31:51
Speaker 2: graves or biting the heads off chickens or whatever kind
31:54
Speaker 2: of voodoo. Yeah, like biting the heads off chickens. That
31:59
Speaker 2: that's funny. And then uh yeah, I jotted down I
32:02
Speaker 2: thought her front yard looked kind of cool.
32:04
Speaker 4: I can remember so like a lot of little things
32:07
Speaker 4: that came through here that I just remembered. I remember that,
32:10
Speaker 4: and and I so when I went into this, I
32:12
Speaker 4: was worried that it would all look super cheesy now,
32:15
Speaker 4: which some of it kind of does. But but I
32:18
Speaker 4: thought it was going to be a chore. But it
32:20
Speaker 4: wasn't at all. Like it just brought back so much
32:22
Speaker 4: charge now And like when the kids had their own
32:25
Speaker 4: little haunted house thing they built, like I can remember
32:27
Speaker 4: that as a kid and the bullies came and like
32:30
Speaker 4: broke it. I can remember vivid things from different pieces
32:33
Speaker 4: here and there that I forgot what it was from,
32:35
Speaker 4: and I remember now that it was from Ernest. But yeah,
32:38
Speaker 4: the art, the art work that the set design and
32:40
Speaker 4: stuff was great on all these things.
32:42
Speaker 2: I I think the physical comedy still still kind of rules.
32:47
Speaker 2: I think when he opens the garbage truck door and
32:50
Speaker 2: hits himself in the face, it's like the stupidest like
32:53
Speaker 2: for no reason, yep, you don't even need that stuff
32:56
Speaker 2: in there, but it made me laugh so hard when
32:59
Speaker 2: he los the troll with his car door too. The
33:02
Speaker 2: trolls like sneaking up on him and he just unknowingly
33:05
Speaker 2: just swings the door open and just bodies the troll.
33:08
Speaker 2: I also think that was the first time that I
33:11
Speaker 2: think you really realize the size disparity between Ernest and
33:15
Speaker 2: the troll is. Pretty early on, I remember thinking like, oh, man,
33:19
Speaker 2: like this is so funny that Ernest is so scared
33:21
Speaker 2: of this thing when he could just pick it up
33:23
Speaker 2: and throw it. Like just that's what I'm saying, Like
33:26
Speaker 2: there's a dark version of this film where Ernest just
33:28
Speaker 2: picks this troll up by the feet and just swings
33:31
Speaker 2: him into.
33:31
Speaker 3: A tree, just breaks him in half. Kind of deal.
33:34
Speaker 2: But I think I've been watching too much too much
33:38
Speaker 2: Earnest and the dissonance between scary and old woman in
33:42
Speaker 2: a neck brace, So maybe that's where the idea comes from.
33:45
Speaker 2: But I did think there was a lot of funny
33:48
Speaker 2: stuff like that, like the the idea of weaponizing pizza. Yeah,
33:54
Speaker 2: like throwing pizza at the at the kids was like, man,
33:59
Speaker 2: I got to thinking, I think this is the movie
34:02
Speaker 2: that probably got me into wild treehouses because I was
34:05
Speaker 2: a treehouse kid.
34:06
Speaker 3: I always wanted one.
34:07
Speaker 2: I would get sit down on pieces of paper and
34:11
Speaker 2: just draw out like blueprints for treehouses and take them
34:14
Speaker 2: to my parents and be like, can you make me this?
34:16
Speaker 2: And my dad would be like, son, that tree is
34:19
Speaker 2: fifty feet tall. Like I can't get up fifty feet
34:23
Speaker 2: in the air and build you a treehouse.
34:24
Speaker 3: So no.
34:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, And like that contraption, the Pizza Slinger and the
34:28
Speaker 4: canned food Shooter, like it was essentially like a PVC
34:33
Speaker 4: version of the cannon from American Gladiators.
34:37
Speaker 3: It was yeah, yeah, that was so so cool.
34:41
Speaker 2: But that's you know, kind of being in touch with
34:44
Speaker 2: with like the kids at the time, Like we were
34:46
Speaker 2: all into those kind of gadgets and the tree houses
34:50
Speaker 2: and all that stuff.
34:51
Speaker 3: So again, just.
34:53
Speaker 2: Kind of smart, smart writing, smart filmmaking that I wasn't
34:59
Speaker 2: really expecting to pick up on when reliving this Jim Varney,
35:05
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the Ottoman Empire, Botswana history lesson we got.
35:09
Speaker 4: Yeah.
35:10
Speaker 3: I just continue to be.
35:12
Speaker 2: Impressed by how well he really owned that kind of
35:15
Speaker 2: stuff and how it wasn't just the slapstick, redneck humor
35:20
Speaker 2: of Ernest that he put into these these films and
35:25
Speaker 2: let's see. Oh yeah, the last note that I have
35:29
Speaker 2: that we haven't talked about is the Purity Daaries product placement.
35:33
Speaker 2: Glad to see that Ernest appreciates gas station food as well.
35:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, there was one whenever he finally accepted his fate
35:43
Speaker 4: as being the one to take it on because Miss
35:45
Speaker 4: Hackmore said the Great Redneck Hope and he goes the
35:49
Speaker 4: Great Redneck Hope. He just embraced his destiny. But also
35:56
Speaker 4: feel like at the end it happened twice, like he
35:58
Speaker 4: thought he was done fighting it, and then the big
36:01
Speaker 4: troll came back, and like all these kids are essentially dead.
36:05
Speaker 4: Yeah right, and the parents don't know that they can
36:08
Speaker 4: come back. Yeah, they essentially just lost their kids. And
36:11
Speaker 4: Ernest beats this thing and they're all cheering them on.
36:14
Speaker 4: They're circling around, everyone's celebrating.
36:16
Speaker 3: Have you forgotten?
36:18
Speaker 4: And the kids start coming out and they're like, oh yeah,
36:21
Speaker 4: it's like what kind of afterthought?
36:24
Speaker 3: Well, listen, it was nineteen ninety one.
36:26
Speaker 4: Yea, well, that's true. They didn't know where the kids
36:29
Speaker 4: were the whole freaking week.
36:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
36:32
Speaker 2: It had been you know, that was just a regular
36:34
Speaker 2: old Tuesday back then. So yeah, that concludes my notes
36:38
Speaker 2: on Ernest Scared Stupid. I would encourage people of our
36:42
Speaker 2: age to go back and relive this one. Jim Varney
36:47
Speaker 2: a Nashville icon. The Ernest character a Nashville icon. This
36:53
Speaker 2: movie held up surprisingly well to me. Is there anything
36:56
Speaker 2: else you got in the notebook that we need to
36:58
Speaker 2: empty before we get out of here?
36:59
Speaker 4: No? I want to encourage everyone to get watch the
37:02
Speaker 4: rest of the Earnest because I'm going to as well.
37:06
Speaker 4: Is it brought it back? And I can remember some
37:08
Speaker 4: clips from other movies here and there that I'm like,
37:11
Speaker 4: I need to watch it and uh and just see
37:14
Speaker 4: because it's there's gotta be some gold in there that
37:15
Speaker 4: we never caught.
37:16
Speaker 2: And that's what I'm saying. Man, I'm gonna go back
37:18
Speaker 2: and rewatch them. What is your what does your ideal
37:21
Speaker 2: Halloween look like?
37:22
Speaker 3: These days?
37:25
Speaker 4: So we're at that point of like the kids getting
37:28
Speaker 4: to an age of like, let's get into the mood,
37:30
Speaker 4: you know, forween and stuff. And I feel like decorations
37:33
Speaker 4: and stuff have come back. Like for a while in
37:36
Speaker 4: our neighborhood at least there was nobody was trick or treating.
37:39
Speaker 4: Kids weren't coming out. I don't even sure if any
37:40
Speaker 4: kids were there. But now with the the movement in
37:43
Speaker 4: this Nashville area, I feel like in the past few
37:45
Speaker 4: years there's been a big Halloween presence.
37:49
Speaker 2: Lights, decorations out in the front yard. I feel like
37:52
Speaker 2: there's been an uptick in recent years and that kind
37:54
Speaker 2: of stuff.
37:55
Speaker 4: So we're trying with that. I like getting into the mood,
37:57
Speaker 4: but we haven't been able to find like that. Everything's
38:00
Speaker 4: either super demonic, religious related scary, which I'm like not
38:05
Speaker 4: really into, or it's super gory, which you can't do
38:10
Speaker 4: with the kids either. Yeah, and there's not really a
38:12
Speaker 4: kid's version thing other than like Hotel Transylvania, that cartoon.
38:17
Speaker 4: So like I'm thinking back to like hocus Pocus Ernest,
38:20
Speaker 4: So I feel like hocus Pocus might be ready. I
38:24
Speaker 4: don't think Ernest scared stupid is he's quite ready for
38:26
Speaker 4: mm hmm. Just because of the troll situation. Even though
38:29
Speaker 4: you know, I was grown I was raised differently. I
38:32
Speaker 4: happen to have a parent who told me that Pennywise,
38:34
Speaker 4: a clown lived under my bed, so you know, things
38:37
Speaker 4: were different in those days. So so I'm trying to
38:41
Speaker 4: find that balance. But I think this year it's it's
38:44
Speaker 4: been a little bit of a mix of getting ready
38:46
Speaker 4: for that nostalgic you know, trying to I mean, I
38:49
Speaker 4: don't want us to like just force our nostalgia down
38:53
Speaker 4: the throat, but I feel like the kids nowadays don't
38:55
Speaker 4: have their.
38:55
Speaker 2: Own even like Nicktoons back then. Yeah, the Halloween episode.
38:59
Speaker 4: Yeah that's true. But it might be cyclical, you know,
39:02
Speaker 4: those kind of things might come back, but we'll see.
39:05
Speaker 2: Our ideal Halloween. We usually take a six pack of
39:08
Speaker 2: beer and a cooler out into our cul de sac
39:12
Speaker 2: and sit with a couple of our neighbors and pass
39:14
Speaker 2: out candy all night. And that's that's pretty It's pretty
39:18
Speaker 2: good with me. So hope you're all whatever you're doing
39:21
Speaker 2: out there on this fine Halloween, staying safe, staying responsible.
39:26
Speaker 2: This has been another festive episode of the movie Review
39:30
Speaker 2: Rewind podcast. He's outdoor, sobro, I'm Stony Keeley. This is
39:34
Speaker 2: Nashville Movie Dispatch. You can check out all of our
39:37
Speaker 2: work at Nashville Movie diispatch dot com. And until next time,
39:41
Speaker 2: you stay classy moviegoers.