John Cherry Movies

Slapstick handyman Ernest is in love and wants to buy a bauble for his gal Renee, so he goes to a local flea market and buys a couple of shiny faux jewels. He has no idea that they are real and that they were stolen from a sacred African idol by a crooked adventurer. He also does not know that a villainous Arab prince is impatiently waiting for the stones to arrive. and so he thinks nothing of making the cheap "rocks" into a yo-yo. When the explorer's henchmen discover that the witless Ernest has the jewels, they kidnap him and his girlfriend to the "Dark Continent" where they have all kinds of crazy, comical adventures. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In Ernest Goes to Jail, Jim Varney returns as leering idiot savant Ernest P. Worrall, star of scores of TV commercials and feature films. Varney also takes on a second role in the film: an unrepentant, cold-blooded murderer named Felix Nash. When Ernest serves on the jury for Nash's murder trial, Nash arranges for look-alike Ernest to go to jail, while he stays on the outside to plan a major bank heist. Fortuitously for the criminal, it's the same bank where Ernest works as a security guard. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When Santa Claus decides to retire, he appoints a washed-up kiddie show host (Douglas Seale) to take his place. Along the way, the real Santa ends up in the slammer on Christmas Eve, and it's up to goonish, glad-handing Ernest P. Worrall (Jim Varney) to bust him out. Varney plays a handful of supporting characters, including a slick-talking attorney. This film was followed by Ernest Goes to Jail. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The U.S. Army's most unlikely soldier, Ernest P. Worrel (Jim Varney), finds himself responsible for saving the world when he and his troopmates are sent out to take down a tyrant. As with other entries in the Ernest series, this one is filled with plenty of low-brow, slapstick humor. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A young boy with a habit of daydreaming discovers that reality has caught up with his imagination -- with a vengence -- in this comedy-adventure for the whole family. Bobby (Seth Adkins) is an eight-year-old boy growing up on a remote community in the rural Midwest with his mother (Dee Wallace Stone) and grandfather (Charles Napier), who are struggling to keep the family farm afloat. With few friends and not much to do besides his chores, Bobby entertains himself by retreating into a world of fantasy, where he battles cowboys and spacemen and can always outsmart the bad guys. One day, the town looks as if it's about to be hit with a freak storm, as dark red clouds fill the sky, but it turns out that a portal in time has appeared in the atmosphere, and who should drop through but Jezebel Jack (Tim Curry), a swaggering pirate (or, as Jack prefers to put it, "an adventurer of independent means") from the 17th century. Bobby rescues Jack and gives him a place to stay in their house; the boy is happy to have an interesting new friend. However, where pirates go, trouble follows, and it's not long before the ship of a gang of rival pirates follows Jack through the window in time, and Bobby must join forces with Jack as they defend Bobby's home against a pirate ship sailing through the wheatfields. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy return -- well, sort of -- in this comedy for the whole family. Bronson Pinchot plays the look-alike nephew of Stan Laurel, while Gailard Sartain appears as a man who bears a striking resemblance to his uncle, Oliver Hardy. Just like their uncles, when the younger Stan and Ollie get together, comic chaos is the inevitable result, especially after the duo travel to South Africa and encounter a mummy. F. Murray Abraham also appears in this film, which is not a biography of Laurel and Hardy or a remake of one of their classic films, but a new story inspired by the characters they created. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi