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.

My favorite parts of Ernest movies is when he plays several different characters one after another. This one has the mother of them all with him doing about two dozen different people in a sketch of his relative Davey Worrell. A real knee-slapper as he changes from one guy to another guy without letup. A great watch.

Like all the Ernest movies, this video has some very hilarious parts as well as some inane parts. But does it matter? No. As a Ernest fan, I really watch something with Ernest to see what bone headed move he'll make next. In this video, Jim Varney plays some of his relatives. Some of it is a little annoying, but it's mostly just plain fun.

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!