Our favorite crash-test dummies return
Pity those in charge of COVID-19 protocols on “Jackass Forever.”
Imagine, just for starters, the challenges of monitoring the health of participants in something called the “Vomitron.” I could describe this particular contraption of Johnny Knoxville's, but the name pretty much speaks for itself.
Masks are seen here and there among the film crew, but they seem almost comical when, just a few feet away, someone is being drenched in pig semen. Exposure isn't something to be mitigated in the movie, a bruised and fleshy world of saggy tummies, soiled underwear and more. It's a way of life.
It's also never seemed a particularly sustainable way of life. Just how many crotch shots can one take? But, more than 20 years after the show first premiered on MTV in 2000, Knoxville and company, now in their 40s and 50s, are still trying to answer such eternal questions while also pursuing some personal white whales like finally lighting a fart on fire underwater.
“It's good to have dreams,” someone says.
What began as gonzo stunts carried out with the fearlessness of youth have steadily morphed into a protest against maturity. Knoxville's hair is now gray (though it sometimes switches back to dyed black) and the recovery times for Stephen “Steve-O” Glover and Jason “Wee Man” Acuña are presumably longer. One line more or less sums up their predicament: “He's bleeding. My hairline is receding.”
But the daredevil this-is-so-stupid pranks are much the same, sometimes exactly so. Knoxville again tussles with a bull, who leaves him concussed and with multiple broken bones. As he's stretchered off, his merry band applauds him with shouts of “Captain!”
Other things have changed, some of them unspoken. We know more now, for example, about the lasting effects of head trauma.
But the movie's ethos — that none of us are so precious that we can't survive a snake bite or a pogo stick to the groin — still has charm. The gang make for a rollicking antidote to the beautiful, unblemished people who play superheroes that never so much as bleed. Here, there are no such delusions about humanity. Theirs is a real-life Fight Club, just with a whole lot more cackling.
Masculinity is a joke for the guys, but brotherhood isn't. The appeal of the series — now up to four films, all directed by Jeff Tremaine — is so predicated on the group support and belly-laugh reactions around the stunts. Here, their impish band has been enlarged.
Along with regulars including Chris Pontius, Dave England, Danger Ehren and Preston Lacy are new additions like YouTube star Zach Holmes and surfer Sean “Poopies” McInerney. (Absent are Ryan Dunn, who died in a car crash in 2011, and Bam Margera, who has filed a lawsuit after being fired from the production.) Comedian Rachel Wolfson, the first woman to join the crew, gets in on the action in a segment called “Scorpion Botox.” The largely white group is also joined by several Black members including Eric Manaka and Jasper, of Odd Future, along with his father. Guest stars include Machine Gun Kelly, Eric Andre and Tyler, the Creator.
The only real membership requirement seems to be that pain is universally shared — no one is exempt — and that afterward you can laugh it off. What good is a “triple wedgie” if you can't share it with your pals? It's a formula that's been little changed since its inception. But, you know. If it ain't broke.
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“Jackass Forever” — ★ ★ ½
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Stephen “Steve-O” Glover, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Danger Ehren, Preston Lacy, Zach Holmes, Sean “Poopies” McInerney, Rachel Wolfson, Eric Manaka, Jasper
Directed by: Jeff Tremaine
Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated R for strong crude material, dangerous stunts, graphic nudity and language. 96 minutes