Even if you’ve never watched it, it’s likely that you’ve heard of Jackass, the MTV production that also found its way into Channel 4’s late night schedules. Just in case you haven’t, a brief resume: it’s a show featuring a group of men who perform stunts, which range in their extremity from a little bit silly, through the gross and disgusting, to downright dangerous! Every show comes with a plethora of warnings not to try the stunts at home, but even so, MTV find themselves deluged with videos of copycat stunts – and there have been several accidents that have been blamed on people trying to emulate their Jackass heroes.
Despite a lot of criticism, none of this has deterred the Jackass team, and last year they appeared in a bigger, longer, uncut version of the TV show: Jackass The Movie.
The movie opens with a piece to introduce the team. Jackass regulars such as Steve-O, Johnny Knoxville, Jason “Weeman” Acuna, Preston Lacy, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Dave England ride on a huge shopping trolley through the streets, accompanied by explosions, leaving chaos behind them, and eventually crashing into a huge market stall. The “outtakes” feature on the DVD reveals that several of them sustained injuries filming this particular stunt. But frequent injuries and hospitalisations are an occupational hazard for these guys and the opening stunt is simply and indication of things to come.
Other stunts include the silly, candid camera style sketches, which rely on the reactions of bystanders: the team dressed as pandas running through the streets of Japan, to the
amazement of passers by; the slapstick: Ryan Dunn lying on a skateboard being pushed head first down a lane of a bowling alley; the disgusting: Dave England defecating in a display toilet in a bathroom store (with a very unfortunate incident beforehand when he is forced to “hold on” for too long whilst everything is made ready for the filming); and the dangerous: various members of the team driving golf carts around a mini-golf course, crashing into each other and everything around them (this stunt also resulted in quite a serious injury to at least one member of the team).
All of this is accompanied by the reactions of the rest of the team – which admittedly do sometimes become irritating. I can appreciate that they often find their friends’ antics amusing, but I don’t think it’s really necessary for them to roll around on the floor laughing each time. We are also treated to frequent shots of their vomiting cameraman, who often finds the stunts just too disgusting to bear and ends up losing his lunch. It’s worth mentioning at this point that if you are easily upset by the sight of all kinds of bodily fluids then this is most definitely not the film for you.
Another running theme throughout the film is Bam Margera’s quest to torment his long-suffering parents. He lets off firecrackers in their bedroom (under a constant screen caption warning us not to play with fireworks!), bursts in on his Dad on the toilet and finally succeeds in his mission to make his usually mild mannered mother say “F***” by placing an alligator in her kitchen!
Some of the stunts are harmless enough. Although the members of the team often end up hurting themselves, that’s their choice. However, I can’t help but feel sorry for some of the unsuspecting people who find themselves caught up in things. For example, the hire car company who get one of their cars returned to them by Johnny Knoxville who has taken it stock car racing, rendered it undriveable and brought it back on the back of a truck. He then refuses to pay for the damage. Also, whoever, ends up having to clean up after the escapade in the bathroom store. Perhaps (and I would like to think this is the case), someone does go back afterwards, off camera, and put things right, but we never get to see anything like this.
The whole film is just a series of stunts played one after the other, and offers nothing really very different from the TV show, so if you hated the TV show (which I know a lot of people do!) then you’ll hate the film!
Likewise, it will not appeal to anyone of a squeamish disposition. As well as the aforementioned bodily fluids and excrement, we are also treated to scenes of the boys giving themselves paper cuts in between their fingers and in the corners of their mouths, Steve-O getting a tattoo in a bumpy off-road vehicle speeding across the dessert and Johnny Knoxville deliberately encouraging a baby alligator to lock its jaws around one of his nipples.
Some of the stunts in the show do really make me laugh. I’ve always been one who giggles at things like people falling over, and it’s the more slapstick sketches that appeal most to my sense of humour, and also the downright bizarre stunts (such as jumping from a small trampoline straight into a ceiling fan/light combination) that are clearly destined from the outset to end up with someone getting hurt never fail to make me laugh. I also like the scenes where some of the team are made up as old men and perform stunts like this – such as careering down a hill in an out of control invalid carriage. Some of them, however, make me feel ill, and some of them just go too far to really be funny – not to mention being in extremely bad taste.
There are a couple of special guest appearances, namely from rock star Henry Rollins, champion skateboarder Tony Hawk and Spike Jonze, more commonly to be found behind the camera as a director of cult movies, and also credited with writing some of the Jackass TV material.
Of course there is the obvious downside to the Jackass concept, the already mentioned copycats. But it’s made clear throughout that the team are professionals, and each stunt is performed under a carefully controlled environment, with medics on hand in case of incident. Despite having watched numerous episodes of the TV show and seen the film several times, I have never once been moved to try and emulate any of them, and you do have to wonder about people who are, such as the young American who was rendered incontinent and sexually dysfunctional by his decision to try and copy a stunt where Johnny Knoxville launches a small rocket from between his buttocks.
I’m only going to give the film three stars. It will of course appeal to anyone who enjoys the TV show, and is hungry for more material, but really it is just 87 minutes more of the same (although admittedly with a few more extreme scenes thrown in which could not be shown on TV.) It is entertaining to watch when you don’t feel like concentrating on a proper film, and you can watch it in short bursts if you prefer, as there is no real need to watch it as a whole. I just can’t say that I enjoyed the film though – although it did entertain me, and I kept watching, I often did so from behind my fingers, and I often found my stomach turning at some of the antics on the screen – and I just can’t bring myself to rate something that has that effect on me as anything above Average!
Jackass The Movie is available on DVD from Amazon priced at £8.97, should you be tempted to indulge yourself!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2003 - Comedy - Director: John Crowley - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Colin Farrell, Shirley Henderson, Cillian Murphy, Colm Meaney, Rory Keenan, Laurence Kinlan
(+) Because of the new series the box set isn't complete, which means it will be cheaper! (-) It isnt the complete box set so you'll have to buy the new dvds seperatly or wait for the new set!
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
I loved this film, especially the Alligator thing! I go all funny watching the paper cut scene - it makes m y hands feel funny just watching it! I don't really like the toilet humour bits mind. x
hakken_krakk 15.07.2004 17:29
I have to admit that i think jackass is briliant but ive not seen the out takes of the movie yet
offy 30.05.2004 23:24
Absolutely not my sort of movie (or TV show for that matter). For some reason I didn't imagine it would appeal to you either - maybe we're not twins after all - LOL.
Warning from Paramount Home Entertainment (UK): The stunts in this movie were performed by ... more
professionals, so neither you nor your dumb buddies should attempt anything from this movie.Some critics see the success ofJackass: The Movieas the last nail in ...
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Warning from Paramount Home Entertainment (UK): The stunts in this movie were performed by ... more
professionals, so neither you nor your dumb buddies should attempt anything from this movie.Some critics see the success ofJackass: The Movieas the last nail in ...
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All the jackasses you love from the MTV series are back performing stunts no one would let ... more
them pull on television. Johnny Knoxville and his insane crew take the concept of the MTV show Jackass - a bunch of guys doing dangerous and disturbing stunts j...
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Advantages: Funny, pointless, stupid and puerile skits appeal directly to my sense of humour. Disadvantages: No different to the tv show - if you don't like that, you won't like this.
spacemonkey 15.03.2006 (15.03.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Jackass - The Movie (DVD)
Advantages: you'll never see anything more hilarious Disadvantages: but only if you don't mind swearing, violence and blatant (literal) toilet humour
Lancashire_Angel 11.08.2003 (13.08.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Jackass - The Movie (DVD)
![Jackass The Movie [DVD] [2003]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78521748.jpg "Jackass The Movie [DVD] [2003]")
May 17th, 2004
exceptional by (2%):
very helpful by (98%):
