X
  • 1990
  • PG
  • Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
  • 1 h 21 m
  • 1990
  • PG
  • Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
  • 1 h 21 m
Ernest Goes to Jail

Summary Bumbling Ernest P. Worrell is assigned to jury duty, where a crooked lawyer notices a resemblance with crime boss Mr. Nash, and arranges a switch. Nash assumes Ernest's job as a bank employee, while Ernest undergoes Nash's sentence to the electric chair. But instead of killing him, the electrocution gives Ernest superhuman powers, enabli...

Directed By: John R. Cherry III

Written By: Charlie Cohen

  • 1990
  • PG
  • Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
  • 1 h 21 m
  • 1990
  • PG
  • Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
  • 1 h 21 m

Ernest Goes to Jail

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
40
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Bumbling Ernest P. Worrell is assigned to jury duty, where a crooked lawyer notices a resemblance with crime boss Mr. Nash, and arranges a switch. Nash assumes Ernest's job as a bank employee, while Ernest undergoes Nash's sentence to the electric chair. But instead of killing him, the electrocution gives Ernest superhuman powers, enabli...

Directed By: John R. Cherry III

Written By: Charlie Cohen

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
40
0% Positive
0 Reviews
73% Mixed
8 Reviews
27% Negative
3 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
40
0% Positive
0 Reviews
73% Mixed
8 Reviews
27% Negative
3 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
60
Kids will love it but adults may find it just too silly to sit through.
By William Thomas FULL REVIEW
50
Ernest Goes to Jail is a cute picture, good for what it is, which isn't much, but that's OK. [07 Apr 1990, p.C3]
By Mick LaSalle FULL REVIEW
50
Whether you're won over depends on your own taste for ineptitude. Like the others in the Worrell saga, Ernest Goes to Jail is a movie with couch-potato stylistics and switching-channel logic. Watching it is like sitting with a lukewarm TV dinner for an hour or so, while somebody tries to pound you into a Smurf. [09 Apr 1990, p.F12]
By Michael Wilmington FULL REVIEW
50
Ernest Goes to Jail is directed by John Cherry, the adman who created the character. And hard as it is to admit it, Cherry is getting better -- better at making endearing an annoying pea-brained pitchman.
By Rita Kempley FULL REVIEW
40
This is the kind of film most of us don't really want to admit we've seen, let alone laughed at. Nevertheless, Ernest Goes To Jail gives Varney fans more or less what they expect, and they keep coming back for more.
FULL REVIEW
38
Ernest Goes to Jail is no yuk-a-minute - it's more a yuk-a-half-hour. [06 Apr 1990, p.4D]
By Susan Wloszczyna FULL REVIEW
25
The script tries to work up sympathy for a character who’s not much more than the bastard trailer-park spawn of Jerry Lewis. Sadly, this is everything you ever thought an Ernest movie would be.
By Ty Burr FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company Touchstone Pictures, Silver Screen Partners IV
Release Date Apr 6, 1990
Duration 1 h 21 m
Rating PG
Genres
Tagline Guilty of Maximum Fun in the First Degree!
Website https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ernest-P-Worrell-Fan-Page/268524573186343
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