“Ernest Saves Christmas” is an alright entry in the overly silly and generally not very good “Ernest” set of films as it focuses less on our good at heart moron and instead on its setting; Christmas.

“Ernest Saves Christmas” has Ernest P. Worrell as a taxi driver and after a blundering drop-off, he picks up probably the most interesting passenger he’ll ever pick up; Santa Claus himself (Douglas Seale “Aladdin”). Also, on the way he meets a bad attitude girl named Harmony (Noelle Parker “Look Who’s Talking Too”). Together these eccentric characters must help save Christmas and get Santa to find a replacement in the form of a children’s entertainer (Oliver Clark “A Star Is Born”). Santa has his reindeer come for a visit as brothers Chuck and Bobby (Gailard Sartain “Ernest Goes to Jail”, Bill Byrge “Ernest Scared Stupid”) must look after them.

Jim Varney (“Toy Story”, “Ernest Goes to Jail”) gives a lot of passion and at times while he isn’t funny you can sense he’s really trying. I absolute love it though when he impersonates other people including a stuck-up governor’s assistant and an old lady; I found it just laugh out loud funny. Douglas Seale is wonderful as Santa; he embodies the character perfectly and is truly one of the greatest onscreen Santas. Harmony is an interesting character as she starts off as a little brat but slowly you find there’s more to her and she actually goes through a lot of change, which I find very compelling in a movie. Oliver Clark is believable as the children’s entertainer named Joe, who is destined to become the new Santa. Chuck and Bobby are okay.

All-round although the film is very daft and quite twee at points, the movie does try to embody the spirit of Christmas and is a generally cheerful movie and I think some young children will think it’s okay.