WOW, I am getting old, and so are the Jackass crew. I went to the most recent installment of the Jackass series with some mild excitement about what they were going to come up with next. We all know what to expect, dangerous stunts, crazy pranks and vulgar humor all wrapped around a group of friends living to the extreme. For young men it certainly carries a bit of youthful nostalgia; we are reminded of the days when we jumped out of trees or farted in your best friends face while he was sleeping. That has always been the draw for me. Unfortunately, with this most recent creation I felt like I was watching a group of old friends looking for one last payday. The youthful exuberance that defined earlier works by the Jackass crew seemed to have been replaced with a hope for a good box office turnout and a hefty paycheck.
Like any series there is a desire to out due previous works and this was certainly apparent with this effort. The stunts were more elaborate and staged and the vulgarity had certainly been turned up. Feces seemed to be the common thread of the film. The humor in the film was built around either hurting one's own member (penis) or making someone in the cast vomit. I guess I just didn't get it, or I am to old for it. There were laughs from the audience so something is still working, but it certainly did not pull me in. Now, I don't want to come off as a pretentious critic because I am a fan of previous works, this one just did not measure up in my mind.
The hope I take from this film is that Johnny Knoxville and the crew do really well on this film and are able to retire. I fear that if they are forced for monetary reasons to make another film someone in the crew is not going to make it. They will die in a horrific stunt accident or some rare form of E.Coli from fecal matter. Either way it will tarnish a legacy of creative and insane friends who were not willing to grow up, regardless of how old they looked.
PDX Film Hack
Summed it up rather well.
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