{"id":17831,"date":"2022-02-03T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=17831"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:13:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:13:10","slug":"review-jackass-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-jackass-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Jackass Forever<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mainstream American cinema suffers from a dearth of dicks, but Jackass Forever<\/em> seeks to solely right that wrong. This fourth outing shows more minutes of the male member in just its opening sequence than what all other studio films combined will likely offer in 2022 (or this entire decade). The Jackass<\/em> franchise has always been wonderfully blas\u00e9 about nudity, but this movie bares \u2014 and bruises \u2014 even more below-the-belt skin than its predecessors. Yet what sets Jackass Forever<\/em> apart from previous films in the series isn\u2019t just its surfeit of schlongs; as the original cast ages, they\u2019ve brought in a new crew, expanding from the all-male, largely white group and adding people of color and even a woman who is just as game for anything as the guys. Compared to past outings, Jackass Forever<\/em> is less culturally offensive, less literally shitty (thank god), and less filled with the original cast doing stunts that might cause even more permanent damage to their aging bodies. However, this movie remains pure Jackass<\/em>-ery at its somehow still-beating heart \u2014 and it\u2019s a goddamn delight from the Dickhouse logo to the credits fans know to stay for in their entirety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lest those long-time devotees worry, don\u2019t fret: the core group \u2014 Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man, Danger Ehren, and Preston Lacy \u2014 continue to get into plenty of literal scrapes, despite all being about 50ish. Knoxville still flies out of cannons and braves bulls, Pontius still bares all with little provocation, etc., but it\u2019s perhaps Danger Ehren who suffers the most out of the legacy team in this outing. Two familiar faces are missing: Ryan Dunn, who sadly died in a car crash in 2011, and Bam Margera, who was fired by Paramount for breaching the wellness agreement he signed to work on the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around, a new crowd joins Knoxville & co. in their antics: Odd Future member Davon \u201cJasper\u201d Wilson, Eric Manaka, Rachel Wolfson, Zach Holmes, and the perfectly named Poopies. The OGs watch with glee as the newbies careen down lubed-up hills and get stung in the face by scorpions, then join the next stunt or get pranked themselves. This is such a welcoming group, but it\u2019s difficult to tell if it\u2019s pure friendliness or simply eagerness to spread the torture around a bit more. Famous faces join in the fun, including Eric Andr\u00e9, Machine Gun Kelly, Tyler the Creator, and, of course, returning fave Tony Hawk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As with the TV show and the previous films, Jackass Forever<\/em> is at once profoundly stupid and giddily brilliant, with some of the bits here reaching series\u2019 best status. Actually doing the things they commit to is unimaginably foolish, but both the concepts and the execution of each stunt are wildly inventive. There are layers of laughter in each scene: nervous giggles with the realization of what they\u2019re intending to do, guffaws at seeing them actually do it, shrieks when something goes wrong or they take it to another level, and shared hysterics with the onscreen audience having an absolute blast at their friends\u2019 expense. Beyond the sheer joy, there is still that sense of awe at what the human body can take. Jackass Forever <\/em>has blood and broken bones, but amazingly there isn\u2019t more of both. This is still absolutely brutal and so gross, with literal buckets of bodily fluids \u2014 both human and animal \u2014 present, and veteran documentarian Lance Bangs still can\u2019t handle it all without puking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The omnipresent Bangs, DP Dimitry Elyashkevich, and director Jeff Tremaine continue to do great work here. It always would have been easier to simply capture these extreme exploits on film, but they turn it into art. Perfect comedic editing collides with well-chosen camera angles, demonstrating the difference between a forgettable viral stunt video and the genius that is Jackass<\/em>. Oscar winner and series co-creator Spike Jonze remains present on screen, as well as earning producer and concept credit, but he isn\u2019t just a creative force. Early on, Knoxville \u2014 whose hair switches from dyed dark brown to silver throughout the film \u2014 jokingly pleads with the camera not to show his bald spot, and Jonze jumps in, spraying the back of Knoxville\u2019s head as camouflage. That\u2019s a true friend \u2014 and emblematic of the series\u2019 devotion to camaraderie and goofiness. These dudes (and one lady) have each others\u2019 backs, even while they\u2019re punching each other in the nuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other things, Jackass<\/em> has always been about the destruction of both property and the human body, but this crew continues to derive pure pleasure from creation too. Four films and countless stunts in, they should be physically and creatively exhausted, but there\u2019s still freshness here. The 2002 movie ended with a \u201cSon of Jackass\u201d segment, set in the future, and if Jackass Forever<\/em> is any indication, these guys could still be wreaking havoc and getting laughs for decades to come. \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Jackass Forever” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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