Jackass - The Movie (Full Screen Special Edition)

Jackass - The Movie (Full Screen Special Edition) Review

KNowing what to expect coming in, "Jackass" fullfilled all my expectations and also surpassed them. For those who don't know, they film is a string of short stunts by a group of very brave/foolish skaters who are constantly testing the bounds of their own destruction and torquing unsuspecting bystanders in the process. Imagine the old "Candid Camera" show on PCP. Yeah, way cool!
The first scene made me fall in love with the concept when Johnny Knoxville with a straight face tries to return a trashed rental car he's just used for demo derby and ask earnestly for his deposit to be returned.Other highlights are "mobile roller disco", the human mouse trap and some of the stupidest(but funniest)destructive and dangerous concepts you will be glad someone else is doing.
Editing is great, the director transitions from stunt to stunt without trepidation or hesitation. I could have watched another hour of this without tiring.

Jackass - The Movie (Full Screen Special Edition) Overview

Some critics see the success of Jackass: The Movie as the last nail in the coffin of civilization, and they're probably right. This compilation of pain-inflicting stunts and embarrassing pranks has no artistic merit whatsoever--which doesn't keep it from being freakishly entertaining. Among other things, Johnny Knoxville and his posse get beaten up by a female kick-boxing champion; shoot bottle rockets out of their rectums; run amok in Japan wearing giant panda bear costumes; swim with whale sharks while holding pounds of brine shrimp in their swimsuits; and get done up in realistic old-age makeup so that they can race each other in motorized wheelchairs, among other goofs. It's a weird mixture of machismo and masochism, adolescent recklessness and frat boy homoeroticism, and someday someone will write a doctoral thesis about how Jackass relates to our safety-obsessed society. In the meantime, just enjoy. --Bret Fetzer