Jackass Forever

I approached my screening of Jackass Forever not sure what to expect.  Oh, I knew that I would be seeing Johnny Knoxville and his buddies pulling off insane stunts and pranks on themselves and others in order to entertain their long-time fans.  But, I walked in with the knowledge that the guys are not as young as they used to be (Knoxville hit 50 last year.), and wasn't sure if what I was about to watch would be more sad than amusing. 

I also should probably point out that  I do not personally hold much nostalgia for the MTV franchise, although I have always appreciated what the crew behind these movies and the original show do.  Anyone who is willing to do the kind of things these guys do in order to amuse others is a special kind of crazy, after all, and we need that kind of crazy in this world.  This is an excuse to laugh and cringe (often at the same time) at guys who are willing to take multiple blows, hits, stings, and welts in all corners of their body, even the ones any sane person would not want to see such things. (And since this is a Hard-R film, we get to see these cuts and welts in places that probably would be better off left in our imagination.  Or not.) And yet, painful as it is, there is a sense that these guys are still enjoying themselves, and that's what works.

Jackass Forever has the sense not of meanness or cruelty, but of a bunch of crazy guys who love each other, and are trying to crack each other up.  And although I didn't always laugh, that sense of joy carries through the movie.  This is not a film you can review in traditional means.  There's no real plot or structure, so you can just judge the film on how you reacted to the various stunts and pranks displayed within.  There are some creative ones on display this time around, involving Knoxville himself being shot out of a cannon as he "flies too close to the sun", similar to Icarus.  And there are some stunts I probably would have been better off not seeing, particularly the one including a variety of bees and a poor individual's groin.  There are also some that resemble a twisted take on childhood games, such as a game of musical chairs where the seats are equipped with airbags that send one guy flying.

And then there are the stunts designed to make you wince, where the team have to be inflected to various forms of torture, like licking "an electric lollipop" (a taser) without screaming, or when one of the crew has to suffer various blows to his groin in order to test the durability of a cup.  Again, these stunts carry the same sense of fun as the more elaborate ones, but I found it a bit hard to laugh here.  Not as hard, though, as the stunt involving a bull that reportedly sent Knoxville to a hospital, where he suffered broken ribs and a concussion.  It's one of the few times where I found myself genuinely concerned for the safety of one of these guys.  The rest of the time, the movie is largely joyful.  I may have not always been laughing out loud, but I was smiling.

I've always thought of Jackass as a bunch of guys who never grew out of their love of doing stupid and dangerous stuff, and Knoxville himself sums it up best when he says, "20 years later, and we're still doing the same stupid s***".  There are some new cast members here who I assume are going to carry the torch at some point, and ensure that these movies are as forever as the title implies.  So, while I can't count myself as a devotee to these guys, I do recognize the purpose they serve, and it's a kind of escapism that's like nothing else on the screen.

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