The Jerk

I just watched my first full length movie on hulu and would first like to mention that this service and the others like it aren't going to kill the DVD any time soon. Even with my high speed internet in a college town, the picture stopped pretty often to "buffer" itself, and of course the resolution was no match for the full screen of my beautiful 15" apple computer. But most importantly, when you have to create a login to watch an R rated movie like The Jerk, you sort of expect it not to be a censored version of the movie. One of the most pervasive jokes in the movie is a dog named S***head, but in this movie his name was dubbed to Stupid. This completely changes the joke, and though it might not be extremely funny in my opinion the original way, it certainly doesn't hold up to repetition when it's just Stupid.

Given this movie's cult classic status (see, e.g., episode 14 here), I was actually a bit worried to watch it. I expected not to like it very much, because most of the time my humor isn't the same as a 12 year old boy's. And while I love the SNL spawn of Blues Brothers [music in link], I don't buy into the idea that all SNL touches is gold.

Thank goodness it was just a rehash of a lot of Steve Martin stand-up routines that I already knew and loved, like Cat Juggling, which is on the marvelous record A Wild and Crazy Guy. Like some of the best comedies, the plot seemed a loose connect-the-dots between gags and jokes for the starts of the show, a formula that worked well for a standup comedian like Steve Martin. With some great lines ("You know, you can tell so much about a person from the way they live. Just looking around here I can tell ... you're a genuinely dirty person," "That guy gypped me; he put daisy stems on my roses!" and yes, I'll even give you "He HATES these CANS!" ), Martin really carries the movie to a loveable place, and somehow even the incongruity of Bernadette Peters in such a slapstick movie seems part of the joke rather than a factor working against it. And, really, who wouldn't laugh at those juggled cats?

Then again, it was kind of a rehash of routines I already knew, like his bit about what happens to a guy when he tries to ask a girl out (frankly, I like the stand-up version better). It's a good movie if you've never heard it before, and a decent one if you have, but even with a running time of 1:35 some of the jokes feel tired by the end.

I can't say I love this movie, at least my first time around. Although it does seem obvious to me how it would get better the more times you see it, just waiting for the next of your favorite oh-so-quotable lines to come around.

2.5 stars

P.S. A little research revealed that the cable-edited version I saw did include some scenes not in the original, like the Tilt-a-Whirl scene (which I felt went on too long) and the cracked leather airplane seat conversation (brilliant). Don't know if that changes anything, but for any aficionados I may have offended with this review, maybe that's the difference. Well, that and all that buffering.