Jerry Lewis: The Original Jerk
1980-01-30
$3.4M
91 min
In Jerry Lewis's first film in a decade, he plays Bo Hooper, an unemployed circus clown who can't seem to hold down a job. The film opens with a brief montage of clips from past Lewis movies. He then moves into a succession of jobs that he gets himself fired from including a gas station attendant and a mailman - all with disastrous results.
I thought Hey! Jerry Lewis is funny right? How bad could this be? It's horrible. Fifteen minuets in and I am not even cracking a smile. Believe me, I like a good classic comedy. Especially some good tame light-hearted humor. But this was just horrendous.
The movie is essentially a bad sketch comedy film with various scenes of Jerry Lewis making a jackass out of himself. He stars as an out of work circus clown looking to fulfill various odd jobs. Each ending in disaster. Much like the disaster that this movie ended up becoming.
It's horribly dated, horribly offensive, horribly under-funded, horribly acted and written. It's just plain horrible. It might be the worst movie of 1980 and it's only my second feature in.
Jerry Lewis is way past his prime and just can't find the groove. I read that the producers had actually wanted to market this as competition for the superior Steve Martin picture, The Jerk. Taglines were actually written as The Original Jerk. Can you believe that! THE ORIGINAL JERK_!_
