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The Jerk (1979)

Director: Carl Reiner
Writers: Steve Martin & Carl Gottlieb (screenplay)
Cast: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams
Genre: Comedy


"A simple minded, sheltered country boy suddenly decides to leave his family home to experience life in the big city, where his naivety is both his best friend, and worst enemy."

The Jerk
is not the best written film in the world and it's not the best acted and it's certainly not the best film ever made...But so far it takes the cake for making me laugh out loud the most times. Yes it's stupid...like a Will Ferrell movie, but I like Will Ferrell!

For me The Jerk worked because it was just Steve Martin doing the dumbest things one could think of...and for some reason that made me laugh. Especially the whole gas station scene was funny. I loved how he was soooo stupid that when Jackie Mason tells him he can stay in a backroom, he thinks it's the men's room. OMG, and there's a dude in there taking a leak and here's Steve Martin all excited about how he's going to decorate the men's room with shelves and furniture. Then he looks at the bathroom stall and exclaims, 'this must be the kitchen' t..then he opens the bathroom stall door and in a happy go lucky way says, 'no' ha!



Is Bernadette Peters a peach or what? I love the applique jewelry, I mean that's actually pretty cool and stylish if you think about it. To bad she didn't wear that ensemble to a nicer restaurant, one that didn't have snails on the plate!

I seen this first run at the movie theater and have seen it many times, it's good stupid fun!