Netflix pick for 2/2/2015 – ‘Ernest Saves Christmas’

What better way to celebrate the month of February than a Christmas movie from 1988? More specifically, one involving a buffoonish character born from the world of regional television commercials who then went on to have a string of movies centered around him, including this one about finding a new Santa Claus. Even more specifically, I am talking about “Ernest Saves Christmas.”

A really smart person once wrote about “Ernest Saves Christmas:”

The movie is competently made, so there is no awkward camera work, bad lighting or overly bad acting. Whether or not the humor works for you is something else all together. There is definitely comedic gold when Ernest pretends to be someone else. Worrell seems to be some sort of idiot savant when it comes to disguises, especially since they work each and every time. The rest of the Ernest humor comes from his “wacky” slapstick, some of it funny and some of it not. There are a decent number of scenes dedicated to Chuck and Bobby, the Airport storage agents, who get sufficiently freaked out by the reindeer but then oddly get adjusted to them very quickly. The final scene of the movie hints that maybe a spin off movie (or TV series) could have been made of Chuck and Bobby dealing with various holiday -related icons come to life, but alas that will forever be a dream. The movie is simple and predictable but also kind of sweet and endearing, and as far as Christmas movies go, you could do a whole helluva lot worse.

Okay, it was me. I wrote that.

So here is “Ernest Saves Christmas” on the Netflix Instant. Enjoy!