Paramount Pictures
I was never one of those people who sat down to watch MTV’s jackass series with any regularity. If it happened to be on while flipping channels, it was good for a few laughs. I have seen all the movies however and found them to be mostly hilarious, especially the third which was a 3D extravaganza. But since jackass 3D in 2010, we’ve seen the rise of YouTube and streaming services like Fail Army, not to mention MTV’s nearly 24/7 schedule of Ridiculousness, where we can watch average human beings doing the same crazy stunts — either intentionally or quite by accident (which makes it funnier) — and that has very much diluted the power that the jackass crew once had. And, well, they’re getting old and really shouldn’t be doing the types of dangerous stunts they’ve been known for (as we even get to see first hand in the film).
But someone — MTV, Paramount, Johnny Knoxville? — decided it was time for a new jackass movie, and now after COVID and Bam Margera related delays jackass forever is finally hitting the big screen. But is it still funny? Granted, I saw the film with a very small group of critics which is a completely different environment than one would get with an audience full of young men, presumably the target audience. I have to take that into consideration but on the other hand if something is funny, it shouldn’t matter how many people are laughing. I can watch Fail Army by myself and laugh out loud, so when it comes to things that strike you as funny, size shouldn’t matter … of the crowd, that is.
Johnny Knoxville and his crew of miscreants made a career out of doing outrageously dangerous and stupid stunts, risking life and limb to entertain us … and themselves. They were doing extreme stunt work, usually without a safety net. Occasionally they would prank and torture each other as well, usually involving some sort of pain to their genitals, all in good fun. And that is the major problem with jackass forever — it’s one dick (or balls) gag after another with one of the guys, usually poor Danger Ehren, taking the hit. The quiz show bit with Ehren, Poopies and Wee Man, where a wrong answer got you a slap to the jewels with some crazy mechanical contraption, was funny, but the genital abuse just continued for the rest of the film (and if you are not cool with seeing male genitalia on a 40 foot screen, this is not the movie for you because there is a lot of it on display). And in between the dick slapping and ball smashing, there is the occasional stunt or challenge. One bit with guest Machine Gun Kelly is particularly funny, as is a bit with newcomer Jasper’s father, Dark Shark, and a tarantula. But these segments get lost among the penises.
Paramount Pictures
In addition to Jasper, the crew has added other newcomers to the group including Sean ‘Poopies’ McInerney and Rachel Wolfson — one would assume they are meant to represent a new generation of jackasses to carry on the franchise and with Wolfson draw in female fans as well. They are all game, especially Wolfson who sits down to have a scorpion plump up her lips … except we never see the aftermath of several stings. Likewise, the aftermath of a tarantula bite to, I believe, Ehren’s nipple is talked about but never shown. Some gags like one with Wee Man and Preston Lacy, in which Wee Man is supposed to lift Preston over his head like the famous moment in Dirty Dancing, never happens because Preston soils himself and makes the cameraman puke. Or was that meant to be the gag the whole time? It’s hard to say but historically if the guys aren’t hitting each other in the nuts then they’re shitting themselves in one way or another (i.e. exploding Port-A-Potties). There’s also a gag with a large slip-n-slide, several huge fans and a parachute that never really gets off the ground.
While all of the guys, including long-time jackass Steve-O, get in their hits, leader Knoxville takes the hardest one. You can also tell how long it took to get this film made as his hair color goes from dark to silver, a result of the COVID shutdown and the decision to stop dying his hair. Knoxville does do a spectacular bit where he’s shot out of a cannon and spreads a set of wings while in flight (but like Icarus he flies too close to the sun and comes crashing down into a lake a bit less gracefully), and he takes on a very angry bull once again. This is a stunt he’s done before (many of this bits in the film are repeats), but the bit’s danger is foreshadowed during the set-up when Steve-O says that he never got in the ring with the bull and he’d never get into that ring. Knoxville has been doing interviews lately talking about the damage that was done during the stunt, and even the little bit we see is terrifying. Knoxville even brings out his Bad Grandpa character … for one prank. ONE. We could have used a few more segments with Irving.
But is this his last go-round for jackass? With Knoxville crossing the age of 50 and the other guys well into their 40s, I don’t know that it’s going to be funny anymore to see them abuse their bodies. If they do continue and hone the skills of Jasper, Poopies and Rachel, and add more newbies to the group, this thing can certainly go on forever. But for it to succeed, they really need to get back to creating the massive stunts they used to do, like the giant shopping cart. And let’s leave innocent animals out of future gags. They don’t know what’s going on and I actually feared more for the safety of the tarantula, vulture and bear than I did the humans. jackass forever struggles to do what these guys do best, and they just fall back on their nether regions in a way that just begins to feel lazy after a while. If the franchise continues, they need more grand stunts with the occasional personal injury prank, stunts that you can’t just see on YouTube and Ridiculousness. When you can watch people getting hit in the balls for free 24/7, there’s no need to pay for it on the big screen. jackass will not last forever if they continue to go down their current path.
jackass forever has a run time of 1 hour 36 minutes and is rated R for strong crude material and dangerous stunts, graphic nudity and language throughout.
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