The Jerk (1979)

The Jerk (1979)

Directed by: Carl Reiner

Starring: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, M. Emmet Walsh

Okay, before I even get into this movie, I want to mention that this is my FIVE HUNDREDTH MOVIE on this blog! Five hundred movies in just under fifteen months… Yeah, I guess I watch WAY too many movies. Anyway, I knew this was coming up and wanted to actually watch a GOOD movie for number 500, and it turned out I hadn’t seen The Jerk in the last year. I have no idea how that happened. This movie is awesome.

Navin Johnson (Martin) was born a poor black child, but he works his way up from gas station attendant to carnival weight guesser, to multimillionaire inventor. When he loses all his money, he learns that all that really mattered were the people who loved him. People who loved him and were competant, that is.

This is Steve Martin’s first big movie, and it’s basically based on his stand-up, which is also hilarious. I’m not exactly sure why he was never in another movie as perfect as The Jerk again (don’t get me wrong, he’s been in some awesome movies), but I think it’s that whole “first album” syndrome. You know how most of the time, bands that make it big still have their first album as their best? It’s because they’ve had their whole lives up until then to write all the songs and make all the music, and everything else is only a couple years to work from. I think The Jerk is something like this; this movie pretty much has all of Martin’s grade-A material from the 70’s in it, and after this he pretty much had Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and then he almost exclusively played the straight man for a long, long time. Steve Martin is not a straight man. I mean… comedy-wise. Shut up. Also, I’m sure having Carl Reiner directing didn’t hurt one bit. That guy is also hilarious.

I guess my point is that The Jerk is one of the single funniest movies I’ve ever seen in my life, and if you haven’t seen it, then you… are the REAL jerk.