40
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60EmpireWilliam ThomasEmpireWilliam ThomasKids will love it but adults may find it just too silly to sit through.
- 50The New York TimesCaryn JamesThe New York TimesCaryn JamesErnest Goes to Jail so resembles a high-spirited cartoon that it is likely to be more amusing to children and less painfully obnoxious for parents than its predecessors.
- 50Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyErnest Goes to Jail is directed by John Cherry, the adman who created the character. And hard as it is to admit it, Cherry is getting better -- better at making endearing an annoying pea-brained pitchman.
- 50Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneErnest movies would still seem to be an acquired taste, but this one affords the adult viewer a few unexpected pleasures.
- 50Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonWhether you're won over depends on your own taste for ineptitude. Like the others in the Worrell saga, Ernest Goes to Jail is a movie with couch-potato stylistics and switching-channel logic. Watching it is like sitting with a lukewarm TV dinner for an hour or so, while somebody tries to pound you into a Smurf. [09 Apr 1990, p.F12]
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleErnest Goes to Jail is a cute picture, good for what it is, which isn't much, but that's OK. [07 Apr 1990, p.C3]
- 50The Seattle TimesThe Seattle TimesLast week, it was Ninja Turtles. This week, it's Ernest. And Ernest, quite frankly, is an improvement. It's more colorful, cartoonish, imaginative. And it feels like a movie, not just an advertising ploy. [07 Apr 1990, p.C5]
- 40TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThis is the kind of film most of us don't really want to admit we've seen, let alone laughed at. Nevertheless, Ernest Goes To Jail gives Varney fans more or less what they expect, and they keep coming back for more.
- 25Miami HeraldMiami HeraldThe film is never arresting, though it's arrestable -- throw it in the clink and throw away the key. [13 Apr 1990, p.G11]