Jackass Forever

 3.5/4

Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Jason "Wee-Man" Acuna, Ehren McGhehey, Preston Lacy, Sean McInery, Rachel Wolfson, Davon Wilson

Rated R for Strong Crude Material and Dangerous Stunts, Graphic Nudity and Language Throughout

I once said that of all the film genres, documentaries were the hardest to write about.  At least the mediocre once. With movies as insightful and dramatic as "They Shall Not Grow Old" or "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport," it's fairly easy to describe how they are made, what knowledge they share and the emotional impact that watching them has on a viewer.

So then what am I to make of "Jackass Forever?"  If few of the normal rules of film criticism apply to documentaries, then none of them apply here.  There's no plot.  No insight into any topic or point of view. It's just a continuing escapade of insane, painful, crude, disgusting and masochistic stunts and pranks to cause the viewer to go into paroxysms of laughter.  That's it.  That's the movie.  And you know what?  It does what it sets out to do.

"Jackass Forever," which is a continuation of the controversial MTV series that ran from 2000 to 2002, is everything you'd expect.  It's rude, gross, and guaranteed to make you laugh and laugh hard.  It's bottom of the barrel stuff, to be sure.  You (frequently) won't be proud of yourself for laughing, but laugh you will.

The humor of "Jackass" is humor at its most basic.  It's not deep, witty or sophisticated (as if the title wasn't a dead giveaway).  It's simply watching someone slip on a banana peel taken to an almost psychotic extreme.  Some of the stunts are simply goofy, like watching someone being unexpectedly hit with a volleyball.  If you can laugh at that, and you know you can, you'll laugh while watching "Jackass."

Clearly, Johnny Knoxville and his cohort of clowns and proud doofuses are having fun, and that's what makes it funny.  They're in on the joke, and fully willing to be humiliated in ways so unspeakable that you won't believe your eyes.  All in the sake of making their friends and the audience laugh.  Therein lies its appeal.  Watching it is like watching a friend with a sick imagination and who's had a few too many brewskis run around the house naked in the snow.  By addressing the camera and featuring close-ups most foul, the filmmakers have allowed us to feel like we are there laughing along with them.

Of course, you can find an array of bozos act like idiots on YouTube or TikTok.  And just like that feeling you get when you notice the urge to watch "just one more video," "Jackass Forever" runs a little long in the tooth.  Some of the stunts go on for too long or simply aren't as funny as the cast and crew think they are.  One in particular, where Johnny Knoxville gets hit by a charging bull, is so dangerous and stupid that it ceases to become funny.  To his credit, Knoxville goes the Jackie Chan route and shows the aftermath, but it is too scary to be funny.

Movies like "Jackass Forever" are impervious to reviews.  There is very little to talk about or think about. This is a movie that plays to our basest instincts.  We see people lose their dignity in surprising ways, and being human, we find it funny.

There's only one question that matters with a movie like this: Did I laugh?  Yes, I did.  Although I have a sneaking and saddening suspicion that I may be outgrowing this type of humor.  God help me if I can't someone using an exploding toilet.

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