Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's My Family Album

Although not a great example of cohesive film making, this film is a great example of what can be done when fun is included in the making of a piece of entertainment. This is also a great platform for Jim Varney's great talent for range and voices. He plays almost every character, and it is great fun to watch him go from the bumbling Ernest to Uncle Lloyd, the meanest man in the world, to the dozen or so characters he does as Corporal Davey Worrell. Come on, it's just for fun. If you find it, rent it, and prepare to belly laugh. Jim Varney will be missed. We need more of that silliness in Hollywood today.

Back in my single days, my roommates and I had every line memorized from the skit where he portrayed every single character in a frontier standoff between the occupants of a fort and the dreaded "Beige foot"

His true gift was mimicry; in that one skit he portrayed every conceivable war movie stereotype; John Wayne, Walter Brennan, a British officer, an Irish soldier, "Cookie" the fort's cook, and an assortment of others. In one of his later movies, Earnest Goes to Jail, he slips into the roll of Sylvester Stallone and then James Mason w/o missing a beat. He just had an amazing gift. The sad part is most people just think of him as the bumbling kid movie star

We'll miss you big guy....

Even if you think the Ernest movies are stupid, this movie is much more a showcase of Jim Varney's characterization talent. He's got a rubber-band voice and a face that moves in every possible direction, and each scene in this movie takes Ernest's seed of an idea in some really interesting directions. It was really nice seeing a movie where whoever has copyright control over the Ernest character finally said, "Okay Jim, why don't you go nuts," which is basically what happens here: just a string of scenes about Ernest's relatives or ancestors where Jim Varney plays basically everybody. Definitely worth renting on a Friday night.

This video contains some pretty amazing skits. Some are amazingly funny, and some are so amazingly bad that it just makes you shake your head.

The most alarming of the skits is the Corporal Davy Worrell sketch. This is done so well it's downright scary. It's a magnum opus of schizophrenic behavior so real you have to wonder why he didn't wind up in the rubber room next to Jonathan Winters. The "Meanest Man in the World" segment has pretty decent acting. And the string of non-sequiter utterances during the Pops Worrell skit is one for the ages.

Others, in particular the "Billy Boogie" segment, are absolutely dreadful and embarrasing to watch. Trust me, this is why the "FF" button was invented. Even worse than the "Earnest" movies, if you can imagine such a thing.

The production values are pretty awful, but that doesn't really detract. I actually lived very near most of the locations in central Kentucky, like the repro Fort Boonesboro in the Davy Worrell segment. I ran model boats in the creek in the Pops skit, and I have seen the abandoned bus in which Queequeg lives. Talk about a brush with fame!

This is one movie that any Jim Varney fan or Ernest fan should not pass up!! Ernest is digging through stuff in his attic and comes across his family album and reminisces about the people that are photographed in it. My personal favorite is the sketch about pop worrell and young ernest going on a fishing trip ( it is a hoot!!!) All of them are funny and Jim Varney displays his talent at personifying different characters. Another one of my favorites is Rhetch worrell and the poker game ( oh my goodness, you can't beat this one, it is so far fetched that it is funny). If I say anymore, i'd be saying too much. Anyway my main point is that this "movie" ( not really but kind of) is worth watching even if you are not a Jim Varney or Ernest fan. It is one that the whole family will laugh at until the end and you will want to watch it over and over again. If you find this one anywhere on the net, buy it, this one is rare and it is worth the time and effort that was spent on finding it.