
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993                   TAG: 9311140007
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

LET'S HOPE `ERNEST' NEVER RIDES AGAIN

There's an outfit in New Jersey called Troma. The good people there make some of the cheesiest movies imaginable, the kind that appear on late-night cable TV channels or as video originals. For years the company has been considered the bottom of the barrel in the movie business.

Now, with the release of one film, Troma's coveted position has been usurped by Emshell Productions. Their first feature, "Ernest Rides Again," really does set a new standard of cheap filmmaking. This one is so bizarre and amateurish that it defies description.

Jim Varney plays his TV commercial character, Ernest P. Worrell. Here he's some kind of assistant to a history professor who believes that the crown jewels of England were brought to this country during the Revolutionary War and remain hidden inside a huge cannon buried somewhere in Virginia (actually Vancouver, Canada).

After Ernest is attacked by power tools at a house that's under construction (don't ask why or how), he and the professor set out in search of the cannon. The professor's wife, an evil doctor, several British secret agents and two vacuum cleaner salesmen are following them.

Once they find said cannon, Ernest is trapped atop it and the thing starts rolling around the scenic Vancouver countryside with all of the aforementioned characters in pursuit.

It's all so ridiculous and inoffensive that it's probably meant for children, though they can find more intelligent and mature comedy on Saturday morning television.

Ernest Rides Again: *

An Emshell Productions release playing at the Valley View Mall and Salem Valley 8; 98 min. Rated PG for mild comic violence.

by CNB