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Poster for The Jerk

The Jerk

A rags to riches to rags story.

1979 · 1h 34m · R Comedy
Directed by Carl Reiner

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Overview

After discovering he's not really black like the rest of his family, likable dimwit Navin Johnson sets off on a hilarious misadventure that takes him from rags to riches and back 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.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
82%
Tomatometer
Rotten

Its humor is successful and unsuccessful by turns, and although Comedian Carl Reiner is the director, the instinct here is to give most of both credit and blame to Martin.

John Skow, TIME Magazine
Fresh

An artless, non-stop barrage of off-the-wall situations, funny and unfunny jokes, generally effective and sometimes hilarious sight gags and bawdy non sequiturs.

Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh

The comedy runs out of steam when the jerk makes good, but laugh for laugh it's probably a better investment than 10.

Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Rotten

We get the sense at times that the cast and crew arrived at a location, found the script bankrupt of real laughs, and started looking around for funny props.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh

The laughs aren't steady, but they're persistent, and the film moves fast enough to compensate for its unevenness.

Janet Maslin, New York Times

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