The Jerk backdrop

The Jerk poster

Quick Info

Rating

6.9/10

Release1979

Runtime1h 34m

StatusReleased

Budget$4,000,000

Revenue$100,000,000

Production

Universal Pictures

Aspen Film Society

Movie

The Jerk

1979

1h 34m

6.9

Comedy

Synopsis

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.

Similar Movies

Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven

During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent school teacher.

The Olsen Gang Never Surrenders

The Olsen Gang Never Surrenders

Egon plans to exploit knowledge gained during his latest term of incarceration. By stealing the unmanipulated financial records of DanInvest he obtains the majority of the stocks in the department store Magasin du Nord, just in time for their closing sale. The attempt to get the red suitcase that will save the day they rob the main vault at the EEC headquarters in Brussels and end up hijacking a tank.

Giants and Toys

Giants and Toys

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies.

It's Not Me, It's Him

It's Not Me, It's Him

Pierre Renard is the blackboy of the writer George Vallier. At the time of a reception, the Italian actor Aldo Barazutti takes him for the writer and proposes to him to come to work with him in Tunisia with the development of a scenario. In fact Barazutti wants only to flee her wife to find her mistress Valerie. Misunderstandings when Vallier joined them. They must flee in the desert a jealous husband...

Men in Black

Men in Black

The stooges are three doctors who graduated medical school by being in it for too many years. They come across such problems as an overly chirpy nurse, a mental patient, and a combination to a safe swallowed by the hospital superintendent in the course of their attempt to get through the day.

Out the Gate

Out the Gate

After a turn of unfortunate events in Jamaica, Everton leaves his home to make it big in the music business in America. Everything is not a bed of roses in Hollywood, but with struggles and perseverance he finds love and success, only to have it all threatened when the Don of LA (Paul Campbell) wants his dues.

Sidewalk Singer

A man plagued with tragedy fights to rise up from the ashes and restore his life.

Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles

A town—where everyone seems to be named Johnson—stands in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, robber baron Hedley Lamarr sends his henchmen to make life in the town unbearable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor, so Hedley convinces him to send the town the first black sheriff in the west.

The Man with Two Brains

The Man with Two Brains

A brain surgeon marries a femme fatale, causing his life to turn upside down. Things go more awry when he falls in love with a talking brain.

The Goodbye Girl

The Goodbye Girl

After being dumped by her live-in boyfriend, an unemployed dancer and her 10-year-old daughter are reluctantly forced to live with a struggling off-Broadway actor.

Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith

Jonas Nightengale is a fraudulent Christian faith healer who makes a living travelling around America holding revival meetings and conducting 'miracles' with the help of his friend and manager, Jane, and their entourage.

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

After spending decades living in the shadow of his more famous and successful sibling, Consulting Detective Sigerson Holmes (Wilder) is called upon to help solve a crucial case that leads him on a hilarious trail of false identities, stolen documents, secret codes... and exposed backsides.

Breaking Away

Breaking Away

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his three friends: the comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends' and parents' annoyance.

Broken Arrow

Broken Arrow

Indian scout Tom Jeffords is sent out to stem the war between the American settlers and Apaches in the late 1870s Arizona. He learns that the Indians kill only to protect themselves, or out of retaliation for white atrocities.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Following a childhood tragedy, Dewey Cox follows a long and winding road to music stardom. Dewey perseveres through changing musical styles, an addiction to nearly every drug known and bouts of uncontrollable rage.

Revenge of the Nerds

Revenge of the Nerds

At Adams College, the jocks rule the school from their house on high, the Alpha Beta fraternity. So when a group of socially-challenged misfits try to go Greek, they're instantly rejected by every house on campus. Deciding to start their own fraternity to protect their outcast brothers, the campus nerds soon find themselves in a battle royale as the Alpha Betas try to crush their new rivals.

The Professionals

The Professionals

An arrogant Texas millionaire hires four adventurers to rescue his kidnapped wife from a notorious Mexican bandit.

The Cowboys

The Cowboys

When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage, however, neither he nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.

Tommy

Tommy

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

Stir Crazy

Stir Crazy

New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing woodpecker costumes to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment — they're sent to prison.