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The controversial MTV show Jackass ascends into a full length feature.
A string of pranks and gags, the movie follows the same premise as the show: ringleader Johnny Knoxville and his shock jocks--Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Dave England, Ryan Dunn, Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, Preston Lacy and Ehren McGhehey--run around executing very stupid, at times hazardous, human tricks. In the movie, the escapades range from the inspired, like the "Rent-a-Car Crash Derby"; to the silly, the Jackasses, including producer Spike Jonze, run amok while prosthetically made up to look like elderly men; to the disgusting, like a Jackass tries out, literally, a display toilet in a store selling bathroom and other idiotic stunts that provoke curiosity about the group's collective arrested growth.
Jackass: The Movie is not a movie after all. Producers simply want to do away with the MTV censors so they come up with a collection that features reality gags and stunts that can never be shown on the boob tube. The result is nothing but an expanded version of the MTV program, only grosser and bloodier. There is no plot to talk about nor aesthetics to look at for it defies all the conventions of a film. One can hardly appreciate the Jackass kind of fun unless you are an avid fan of the MTV show and you are one with their moronic curiosities.
There is an alarming trend on the birth of reality genre on television and now on films like
Jackass. These emerging genres show real people willingly and honestly submitting themselves into real gross and most of the time dangerous stunts. Courage and bravery are
virtues that must be practiced at a proper place and time. Shows like Jackass seem to misplace these values into senseless feats that exploit the human bodies. Much worse,
they seem to make it appear that nudity, sadism and masochism are funny and hilarious. There is a thin line between practical jokes and tasteless gags. The very young
audiences whose minds are impressionable should be well guided, if not guarded, in seeing this film that insults the sensibilities of a discerning audience.
(Date reviewed: July 18, 2003)
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