The Jerk (HD DVD)

Surreal to the point of silliness, "The Jerk" captured the atmosphere of comedy perfectly in the 70's. Before Robin Williams broke through to a larger audience on the big and little screen, Steve Martin was THE JERK. As dense as a brick, Martin doesn't so much as act like a jerk as become one. Opening like a variation on all those Hollywood tales where the hero of our story is down on his luck but soon to be redeemed (of course, this IS a comedy so it's unlikely he'll get the redemption we expect because, well, that wouldn't be funny), Navin Johnson (Martin) mentions at the beginning that he was "born a poor black child". Adopted by a poor African-American family living in poverty, Navin is horrified to discover that not only is he adopted but he's always going to be Caucasian and have absolutely no rhythm. Navin discovers he does have rhythm after all ("praise the Lord!") when he listens to a radio playing dance music from the time. Navin eats his Twinkies, learns the difference between sh-t and Shinola and hits the road hoping to be rich. Armed with the advice his family gives him ("God bless the working man...and remember never trust whitey!"). He hitchhikes getting his first ride which takes him to the end of a fence getting about twenty feet away from home. Needless to say, life is more than an adventure for Nathan and his dog Shithead; it's a vocation.

Receiving a very nice transfer, "The Jerk" looks typical of a film from the late 70's with noticeable film grain and while the colors aren't quite as vivid as I would have thought, they're acceptable. This is the first widescreen presentation for the film so that's something to be thankful for. There's quite a bit of analog debris in the form of dirt (in fact it looks as if this is exactly the same transfer as the previous edition). The 5.1 remastered Dolby Digital Surround Sound mix has nice presence but (not surprisingly) it doesn't use the format particularly well.

In addition to the original production notes from the previous edition and theatrical trailer we also get 1 extra and 1 featuring footage cut from the film. "The Lost Filmstrips of Father Carlos Las Vegas De Cordova" is a "continuation" of the film within a film where we see Martin play various characters doing things like verbally abusing a plant, dressing a bulldog in a clown suit as the audience cheers and takes pets in a bizarre parody of cock fighting. It's really footage that was cut from that sequence. "Learn to Play `Tonight You Belong to Me'" includes sections where you can learn to tune a ukulele (something I've been dying to learn), play it, play along with the Ukulele Gal and, finally, play along with the jerk himself. It's bizarre to say the least. The last bit is just a scene from "The Jerk" where Navin serenades his sweetheart at the beach.

No commentary track from Martin or Reiner. Honestly, you'd think they were embarrassed by this film! Or, maybe they weren't asked to do it or wanted too much money. While an improvement on the original edition of the film, that improved is slight at best. The featurettes are pleasant diversions but the real reason to get "The Jerk" is that this is the first time it's been presented in widescreen. The image quality could have been cleaned up quite a bitas there's quite a bit of analog debris that appears early on in the film. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this unless you're dying to have the widescreen version of this classic comedy.

Comedies rarely get great critical acclaim and so called slob comedies get even less acclaim than romantic comedies but this is one of Steve Martin's best comedies. I'd rate this one almost on a par with Planes, Trains and Automobiles and All of Me. If you are a Steve Martin fan this should not be missed. If you are not generally a Steve Martin fan I would still recommend it if you liked movies such as Tommy Boy and Caddyshack. This is of the same ilk, more of the wild and crazy guy Steve Martin than the Father of the Bride Steve Martin most younger people might be familiar with.
I'd rate this movie about an 8 as far as comedies go, in the top 40 of my all-time favorite comedies and somewhere below the Music Box, Monty Python's the Holy Grail and Love and Death but above Cabin Boy, Fletch and Bad Santa. There at least a half-dozen laugh out-loud scenes.
One of my personal favorite scenes in this movie is when he's on the beach with sexy Bernadette Peters serenading her with a ukelele.
No reason for getting the movie on HD other than the fact that I have an HD dvd player, I saw it on eBay for a reasonable price and wanted to add the HD version to my collection. I guess probably most movies look better on HD/blue ray but standard definition would probably be sufficient for all except the most demanding viewer. Although HD lost the war vs blue ray HD prices are genrally lower and I'm not technically knowledgeable enough to describe or see the difference in quality. As far as I'm concerned HD won the war for me (apparently comparable quality for less $$$).
Stay away from the cans. He's mad at the cans.

This is the classic Steve Martin movie - very clever. One of the funniest movies of its era. If you like Steve Martin, you'll love this movie.

Steve Martin in hilarious! Movie is just stupidly funny! If you are looking for a sort of Dumb and Dumber then this is your movie. Except nobody does it like Steve Martin. There are some inappropriate parts for small children but overall this is a family movie.

This movie doesn't have the greatest HD transfer. I think a regular DVD through an upconverting DVD player would look about the same. That said, with the price of HD DVD's so cheap it makes sense to buy the HD-DVD. This is a classic movie, get it and laugh. If you don't laugh, maybe your sense of humor is to sophisticated, but for someone who likes the 3 Stooges type of humor you'll like it.