The Jerk, Too (1984 TV Movie) User Reviews

Comedy minus the comedy

[Papa_Legpa · 5 February 2004]

I can't believe this movie exists.

Me and my friends ran into it on TV and watched the whole thing.

This movie really does address problems of the first "Jerk". For example, the first Jerk didn't have enough silly crosseyed faces. Thankfully "the Jerk Too" makes up for this in plentiful amounts. Also the original "Jerk" had too many jokes. Luckily, "the Jerk Too" knows when to draw the line. The jokes fly by at about one every 20 minutes, whew, just enough time to catch your breath in between laughing so hard! At the crosseyed faces!

Why is this movie so dark? I don't mean grim or gothic. I mean they seemed to only have key lights and left out the fill lights. Every scene has pitch black backgrounds, where you can only see the actors in the foreground. Ever notice how movies with a lot of pitch black makes you want to go to sleep? Or at their best, make you feel like they are hiding something, something mysterious or scary. This is how the Jerk makes you feel -- sleepy and afraid.

The music is bizarre. The first half of the movie is a horrible 70s comedy soundtrack...wacky light hearted music that comes and goes whenever it feels like it. It usually covers up the long montages of city scapes that take up a lot of time in script-deprived films like this. BUT THEN the music starts turning more into an 80s sound...pumping bass and fake heavily reverbed drums. Very odd.

The most fascinating scene was the classic Hobos vs. Bum dramatic monologue towards the end of the movie. Sure, there aren't ANY jokes in this very long scene, SURE, it doesn't help further the plot, it has nothing to do with the main character, and it brings up issues that were otherwise completely absent from the rest of the film. But on it's own, without the context of the bad movie, it's a pretty interesting scenario. I just can't figure out what it's doing in this movie.

Basically when a bunch of hobos are together and planning a way to rescue the jerk, one hobo declares opposition to the plan. "Why should I help him, nobody helps us!" The lead hobo then goes on a VERY lengthy speech about the difference between a hobo and a bum. It is VERY repetitive and adds NOTHING NOTHING NOOOOOTHING to the film. IT'S SO WEIRD.

So to sum up : No jokes, no lights, a lot of "Hobo #3" character development in one scene.

OH MY GOD...

[krpangburn · 1/10 · 8 January 2004]

I'm going to spend as much time on this review as the writers did on the script. This is easily THE WORST sequel EVER made.

They KILLED Navin Johnson. Not only was Mark Blankfield's performance GOD-AWFUL, so was everyone elses!! The physical comedy was forced, flat and predictable. The script seemed to have been written by mongoloid monkeys using the pen names Ziggy Steinberg and Rocco Urbisci. How the producers managed to squeeze out such vile cinematic excrement is beyond me. They even managed to make veteran actor Ray Walston look like a talent-less buffoon. Director Michael Schultz should be ashamed of himself.

I want the 96 minutes of my life I spent watching this befouled memory of a brilliant comedy back so I can try and convict everyone involved for this cinematic atrocity.

The guy who thinks it's better than the original must have been in this one.

[jedgould · 1/10 · 11 November 2005]

You can never have seen either film and still know that The Jerk Too is a disaster. The question is not, "How did it get made," because if you throw money at anyone and tell them to make a film, they will do so.

No. The question is "Why, oh why, did Steve Martin allow it to be made?" I think he needed the money to fight a nuisance lawsuit and was determined it not cost him anything. He knew the sequel was going to be so frightful, that out of pride, he wouldn't even count it's royalties as income.

The only way this sequel could not be an embarrassment is to have had Carl Gottlieb and Steve Martin revive the nation's favorite poor black family.

And "dcreasy2001" (aka Mark Blankfield?): It's just transparently obvious that you worked on this film in some sad capacity, and the only way you can feel better about your involvement is to be the sequel's lone cheerleader as an IMDb user comment. I was praying for you to veer over into satire, but alas, you were really making an effort at spin. Why not 10 stars?

This film sucks

[peaceinpractice · 1/10 · 14 November 2020]

Nothing is related to the original, it is awful don't watch

How is this a sequel?

[beetle-259-554148 · 1/10 · 22 November 2023]

In the event that you ended up here without having seen the first movie, please watch The Jerk first and this movie never.

Despite this being called The Jerk, Too, it in no way whatsoever advances the plot of the first movie, first and this movie instead starting over with Navin leaving his sharecropper family. I was like "Okay, so it's a remake?" but it's not even that; Navin never ends up at Jackie Mason's garage, never invents Opti-Grab, never gets rich, and never gets sued into bankruptancy. He never even becomes a jerk!

Instead, he and Marie already know each other as pen pals and he basically becomes Rain Man for two scenes before he finally gets around to infiltrating Marie's wedding since the guy she's marrying is misogynistic twit. There's also a musical number that comes out of nowhere and serves no purpose aside from padding out the film. The only thing that brings even an inkling of excitement is a car chase where a Cadillac limousine somehow can't catch up to an ice cream van.

Literally the only connections this movie even has to The Jerk are the title, the main character is named Navin and was raised by a poor black family and his love interest is named Marie. No Mr. Hortunion, no sadistic biker babe, no Opti-Grab, no mansion, not even S***head the dog appears. Unlike The Jerk, the black family never appears again after Navin leaves. Aside from the obvious stuff like they're both feature-length movies, both have humans in them, etc, this movie is completely unrelated to the first. Literally the only reason anyone even knows it exists is because of the name.

Mark Blankfield is wasted here. Check out Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again if you want to see how funny he can be.

Terribly underrated

[neo-180 · 8/10 · 30 July 2005]

I'm on the opposite end of the previous comment.

First of all, I don't think this was intended to be a straight sequel to "The Jerk". I mean, it's not titled "The Jerk 2"... it's "The Jerk, Too", which leads me to believe that while a lot of the character names are the same, it actually revolves around a completely different person.

Think about it: Virtually no connection to the previous movie, other than character names; a totally different story; different cast; and the fact that it's a partial musical.

I say give this movie some credit. It does have plenty of laughs in it.. Mark Blankfield at his prime.

Ugh...(sounds of wretching)

[thebishop2 · 8 January 2004]

Never in my life have I ever seen such a pile of garbage!

How can you take a classic and try and make a TV sequel out of it? I only saw half of this movie (I'm still trying to watch it, though it's painful....very painful) and I haven't even attempted to laugh once. It's on par with Short Circuit 2 and Weekend at Bernies 2 as worst attempt at a sequel ever.

We appear to be following the adventures of Nathan Johnson, played by Steve Martin in the original. In this one, they found a very unfunny guy named Mark Blankfield to play the part. The guy is as funny as a cardboard box. I've seen him since and there's no question to why he's never made it bigger, though there is the question of how he made it in the first place, if you can call this making it. He's out to impress Marie's family, who are suddenly well to do themselves. How Marie went from Bernadette Peters to this chick, I don't know. All he does is try to give stupid looks, but they just come across like he's constipated. He keeps telling Marie that he's Navin Johnson over and over, like it's funny he can't recall she already know him. The people look like their counterparts as much as George Clooney looks like George Plimpton.

Hijinks ensue. Nothing is funny, though. It's almost like they decided to make it a drama with some slap stick action tossed in, but I somehow know they're trying to be funny, which is just a horrible feeling. Somehow Ray Walston was suckered into this film (perhaps he had a debt to pay or a house to re-finance, who knows) along with Jimmie Walker, who was probably just thankful for the work.

I just want to know who the guy was that sold his soul to get this 'movie' done. It's truly horrible.The acting is on par with porno.The charm of the first film is completely lost on this miserable hunk o'junk. If they had named it something else, I don't think anyone would have ever thought it had a connection, I mean none at all. There's only one grade to give this movie, and that's the 9th level of Hell. May God have mercy on they're souls. Amen.

I think it's even FUNNIER than the original!!

[dcreasy2001 · 8/10 · 30 October 2005]

Honestly, when I saw this movie years ago I immediately wanted to turn it off. As I sat there for the next 10 minutes or so, I realized that the actor playing Navin stole the show. His facial expressions and comedic demeanor makes me shake my head as to WHY he hasn't been in more comedies. He has this "Marty Feldman" thing going for him but MUCH, MUCH more talent...taking nothing away from Marty. The movie really shocked me by how close it was to the original Jerk, but then again, it was SO MUCH MORE. I really think that if this movie was released first, and I saw the Steve Martin movie 2nd, I'd think the 2nd was a cheap rip-off. I know it sounds like a BOLD statement, but it's true. I actually like Steve Martin a great deal, but his performance is 2nd to the actor in The Jerk Too. I wish I could get a copy of it for my collection. I urge you to see it if you can find it.

WHAT?

[mattattac78-1 · 16 April 2004]

Okay The Jerk is one of my all time favorite movies. I will even go as far to say that it is a standard for comedies. When I was watching cable a couple months ago I saw this pile of crud and I disturbed by every single second of it. First I laughed at how bad it was, then I was compelled by the fact that it could not get worse, but it did.

I Should have known though look at the cast. First you have Stacy Nelkin who stared in the most insulting chapter of the Halloween series (part 3), and you have Mark Blankfield in the title role. Now he was okay in Robin Hood men in tights, but come on the guy was in Angel 3.

Do yourself a favor and never put yourself through the pain of seeing this... well I was almost going to call it film but that would be an insult to every other movie ever created. Just don't watch this.

MUCH better than The Jerk

[brian_rice67 · 8/10 · 4 December 2005]

This movie is far better than the original The Jerk. I would highly recommend it to anyone who like quirky humor. We have incorporated almost as many lines from this movie into our daytime discourse as we have from Monty Python.

The card game with the hobos and then with Mr. Suicide. The scene at the dinner table and his distaste for turtle soup. The original The Jerk was too choreographed ans staged. While I like Steve Martin, he seemed like he was trying to hard. The Jerk Too is a spoof and will be enjoyed by anyone. The Jerk Too is family friendly unlike the original The Jerk.

Great Movie

[jonathanuhe · 1 December 2008]

The Jerk Too is a great family film with Innocent laughter about the simple things in life. It's about a very naive fully grown man with the mentality of a seven year old. Navin Johnson is the man that does not know what is going on, which direction to take, how to get there or how long it will take, but he has already started walking.

The humor in this character is something that everyone can relate to. Everyone at some point in their life has felt the exact same way as Navin only everyone else was at least a decade and a half younger.

Those of you who were disappointed in this film, please keep in mind that it was written by the exact same people who wrote the first film. It was not a flop, a stolen idea, or any kind of spin off, they just wanted to do it differently. And they chose to do it differently.

Also keep in mind that it is not a sequel to the first movie. You can not watch both movies and see a common ground between the two main characters. Completely different characters, completely different plots, completely different movie altogether.