The Jerk (1979)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Steve Martin, believe it or not, was at one point a philosophy major. He seems like such a down-to-earth comedian that fact only comes as a surprise, and yet, he does have that certain casualness and lightness about him, like someone who knows but just doesn't care anymore. This film was co-written by Steve Martin, and it feels very Steve Martin. It's silly at levels you may've never experienced in cinema, to the point you may downright feel like turning it off after watching the first few scenes. But wait for it. It comes. The point when you feel like you want more of it, it's so random and bananas and totally, totally silly, and because it's so coherent with itself, you'll find yourself completely into it. This isn't plain stupid - it's going somewhere, and is a very well built comedy. It's just its comedic content is so completely unique you'll need a time of acclimatization before you really grasp at what level the film's humor is performing. Excellent comedy with meaning (somehow) - completely reckless, remote, and such a refreshing and contagious sense of humor.

Watching Steve Martin in The Jerk, I cannot help but be amazed. Martin has undoubtedly created THE dumbest character ever to appear in a movie. As Navin R. Johnson, he is dense enough to not realize that he's adopted- even though his whole family is black! He's the kind of guy who will gladly accept a ride to the end of the fence, and considers making $1.10 an hour as a gas station attendant to be a dream come true. He's too stupid to understand that a girl who will tattoo your name on her butt after the first date isn't exactly a high class woman.OK. So he's dumb. So dumb in fact that he could never exist in real life. Anyone who takes the actions he takes, and goes through the experiences that he goes through, can only be a fictional construct. Usually this is fatal for a movie, because audiences cannot suspend their disbelief. This is especially true when the film has no real plot, but is merely a series a series of loosely connected scenes, as this movie is. Such are the trademarks of a box office bomb.But here, with Martin in lead, it works. The Jerk is so over the top, and Martin plays dumb so successfully, that it's hilarious, believable or not. The entire film is on the level of a middle school production, and it's something of a one joke movie, but it's just plain funny from beginning to end.I love his movie, and I laughed every minute, but I'm at something of a loss to explain its success. I guess if you play dumb enough, there's no telling what you can accomplish.

Sweet Comedy from Carl Reiner and Steve Martin that is Not Flawless, but Darn Near. Like Most Comedies Not Every Joke Works, but Darn Near. Happily Absent are Relentless Vulgarities that Infiltrate Comedies Nowadays.The Stream of One-Liners and Sight Gags ("We built a bigger house.") that are Sharp and Senseless Make this One of the Most Enjoyable Movies in the Genre and it Holds Up Quite Well Decades After its Release.When Two Great Artists Team Up like Martin and Reiner and Deliver Such a Delightful Humorfest it Renews the Faith in What Movie Comedies Can Deliver at Their Best. What Makes this Work so Well is the Combination of Cutting Edge Satire with Lovable Characters. It is Special and Not that Common with Comedies.While Steve Martin's Career Choices are a Very Mixed Bag (Martin has said that only one third of His sixty odd Films makes Him proud), this is the One of That Launched His Checkered Filmography and is Routinely Considered a Great Debut and has been Rated One of the Most Popular Comedies of All Time.Not Perfect, but Darn Near with Many Quotable Lines and a Joy to Behold. Ironically, Steve Martin and Carl Reiner are Both Underrated but the Best of Both Need to be Rediscovered and Re Evaluated for a Fresh Perspective and a New Respect, Especially Considering what has Passed for Success in the Genre and Made Zillionaires of Mediocre Talents in Recent Years. Adam Sandler are Your Ears Burning?

"The man-child" has become one of movie and television's most worn- out tropes. Whole careers have risen and fallen almost entirely within its milieu. Adam Sandler has probably played that particular character— the oblivious adult male with the mind of a mental patient or small child who always gets the girl and usually finds his way into fame and fortune in the process—the longest, and with the most mixed results. But Steve Martin's performance as "The Jerk" was one of the first, and it remains one of the best that the subgenre has ever seen. Martin's character really isn't a jerk, at least not the way most people use the word; he's just utterly dense, reacting to each new situation with gleeful incomprehension. Martin is a physical actor, using his long legs and body to dance as dorkily as his "wild and crazy guy" character from SNL, but his comic timing is also impeccable. In some of the funniest scenes he uses that sense of timing over a period of minutes, using a technique that's been called "anti-humor" in which a joke goes on and on and on until it isn't funny, and then it goes on some more until it becomes funny again. Not everyone can pull it off, but Martin knocks it out of the park twice in this 94 minute movie, both times in monologues delivered to his costar Bernadette Peters. Not every scene is as funny as these, though. The first act, which sets up a surprisingly sweet relationship with his adoptive family from the Mississippi delta, is something to be endured, especially the cheap reliance on racial stereotypes (the worst involves a lowrider). But when the plot finally gets going, the laughs do too.