The Jerk

The Jerk
released: December 14 1979

• Director: Carl Reiner
• Leading characters: Steve Martin - Navin R. Johnson, Bernadette Peters - Marie Kimble
• Comedy
• Rated R for sexual suggestion and language
• #654 on list

After discovering he's not really black like the rest of his family, likable dimwit Navin Johnson runs off on a hilarious misadventure in this comedy classic that takes him from rags to riches and back to rags again. The slaphappy jerk strikes it rich, but life in the fast lane isn't all it's cracked up to be and, in the end, all that really matters to Johnson is his true love. *taken from Netflix

John's first reaction to seeing this movie in our Netflix playlist was, "I dont want to watch that! I've seen it before and it was stupid!" Turns out, he confused this movie with another one they played during one of my art class work shops, he had never actually seen The Jerk.

This movie will have John and I quoteing it for years to come.
Steve Martin is a hoot, this is his first starring role and praised not only as Martin's best comdeic efforts, but also one of the funniest motion pictures of all time. Now I wouldn't say funniest just because I think The Hangover takes that title, but I'd have to say it's up there.

He names his dog Shithead and John and I were rolling on the floor laughing when Navin tells his sweetheart to jump in the tub with him, Shithead jumps in and Martin yells, "Not you Shithead!!" In fact I'm chuckling about it as I type this. I think it's just the name that gets to us. This is now John's new nickname for the dogs, he thinks he's a riot.
Another scene Navin is leaving saying he doesn't need anything to make him happy, but then stumbles upon silly things and then he decides he does need it. "I dont need anything but my paddle ball game, my lamp,and  my ash tray and that's it! I dont need anything else...except for this chair, I need this chair..." This scene, in fact, is the cover of the movie case.

So John liked the movie after figuring out he'd never seen it :) we'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.