Jim Varney was a genius. Let’s just start there. If you grew up in the late eighties or early nineties, you knew Ernest P. Worrell. He was the rubber-faced neighbor who talked to "Vern" and somehow stumbled into saving Christmas, surviving jail, and fighting trolls. But then 1993 hit. Disney, or specifically their Touchstone label, decided they were done with the "KnowhutImean?" business after Ernest Scared Stupid didn't quite hit the financial highs of its predecessors. This led to a weird, scrappy turning point in the franchise: the Ernest Rides Again movie.
It was a gamble. Honestly, it was a massive one.
The film marked the first time the character went "indie" (relatively speaking) through Emshell Producers. It’s a movie that feels fundamentally different from the Disney-funded trilogy. It's rougher. It's weirder. It’s also the very last time Ernest would grace the big screen in a wide theatrical release. After this, everything went straight to the dusty shelves of Blockbuster Video.
The Plot Nobody Remembers (But Should)
Basically, Ernest is a janitor at a college. That’s a classic Ernest setup—give him a blue-collar job and let him destroy the equipment. He teams up with a history professor named Dr. Abner Melon, played by Ron James. Melon has this crackpot theory that the real Crown Jewels of England weren't in London, but hidden inside a massive Revolutionary War cannon called "Goliath."
It sounds like a bargain-bin Indiana Jones. It sort of is.
The movie spends a staggering amount of its 96-minute runtime with Ernest literally straddling this giant cannon as it careens down hills and through highways. If you think that sounds like a thin premise for a feature film, you're right. But Jim Varney’s physical comedy is what keeps the engine humming. He does this thing with his face—a sort of elastic contortion—that makes even a scene about a runaway piece of artillery feel like high art for seven-year-olds.
Why the Box Office Failed
The numbers are grim. Ernest Rides Again grossed about $1.4 million. Total.
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Compare that to Ernest Saves Christmas, which pulled in over $28 million. The drop-off wasn't just a slide; it was a cliff. Why did people stay away? Part of it was the branding. The title "Ernest Rides Again" doesn't tell you what the movie is about. Ernest Goes to Camp? Simple. Ernest Goes to Jail? You get it. Ernest Rides Again? Rides what? A horse? A bike? A giant cannon?
Marketing was a mess.
Without the Disney machine, the film didn't have the same reach. It felt "smaller." The production moved to Vancouver to save money, and it shows. The sets are sparse. The "special effects" are largely Jim Varney being hit in the face with things. This was the moment the "Ernest Cinematic Universe" (as some fans ironically call it) lost its luster for the general public, even if the hardcore fans still defend it as a cult classic.
A Technical Mess or Low-Budget Charm?
Filmmaking is hard. Making a comedy about a giant cannon on a $3 million budget is harder. Director John Cherry, the man who basically birthed Ernest from an advertising agency in Nashville, was trying to pivot.
- The movie uses a lot of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" parodies.
- There’s a strange, almost mean-spirited villain in Dr. Glencliff.
- The opening sequence features metal objects chasing Ernest, a direct callback to the magnetic gag in Ernest Goes to Jail.
The movie was shot back-to-back with Ernest Goes to School. You can almost smell the exhaustion of the crew. It’s a scrappy production. They used replica cannons rigged with jet-fighter starter engines to make them move. Think about that for a second. In an era before CGI was cheap, they were literally driving giant metal tubes down Canadian backroads. It’s dangerous. It’s silly. It’s quintessential Ernest.
The "King of England" Misconception
One of the weirdest trivia bits about the Ernest Rides Again movie is the ending. Ernest actually ends up with the Crown Jewels on his head. Because he can't get the crown off, the British authorities—very logically, of course—declare him the King of England.
It’s a bizarre narrative leap.
But it highlights the character's core appeal. Ernest is the ultimate underdog. He goes from cleaning floors to potentially ruling a monarchy. It’s a live-action cartoon. If you try to apply logic to why a janitor from the South is suddenly the British Sovereign, you’ve already lost the game.
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The Actionable Legacy of Ernest
If you’re looking to revisit the Ernest Rides Again movie, don't go in expecting The Godfather. Go in for the slapstick. Varney was a classically trained actor who could recite Shakespeare but chose to make kids laugh by getting his finger stuck in a bowling ball.
How to watch it today:
- Check the secondary market: Physical copies (VHS and DVD) are often found in "4-pack" collections.
- Look for the "Brain Drain Challenge": If you can find the old promotional materials, they actually used this movie in schools to teach history. It’s wild.
- Pay attention to the sidekicks: This was the first film to feature Duke Ernsberger and Jeffrey Pillars, who became staples in the later direct-to-video era.
Next time you see a copy of this flick, don't just scoff at the 14% Rotten Tomatoes score. Look at it as a piece of independent film history. It was the "little engine that could" of 1993, even if it eventually ran out of steam.
Practical Next Step: If you want to see the peak of the franchise, watch Ernest Goes to Jail first, then watch Rides Again to see how the tone shifted once they left the studio system. You'll notice the camera work gets tighter and the humor gets significantly more surreal as the budgets shrank.