As a budding (and, hopefully, soon-to-be ridiculously wealthy and influential) movie critic, one of my objectives when I write a review is to find any positive aspects I find in a movie and weigh them against the negative. Though there are many good movies and many more bad movies, I try to be the kind of critic who is always the eternal optimist (regardless of how good or awful the flick is), rather than becoming the stuffy and elitist arthouse snob many moviegoers stereotypically envision such commentators as being.
Of course, it's difficult not to be cynical considering the increasing amount of dreck Hollywood churns out every week. From brainless and predictable action movies to exceedingly awful "spoof" movies that inexplicably make a hefty profit, I almost envy my older peers in the reviewing biz who got to live in an era where the great-to-lame movie ratio was in favor of the great films. But nonetheless, I think everyone should be allowed their own guilty pleasures when it comes to entertainment, even us uptight film snobs.
For me, one of those guilty pleasures was the "Jackass" franchise. Born of a subversive skateboarding magazine called "Big Brother" in 2000, the brainchild of actor Johnny Knoxville, director Jeff Tremaine, and Oscar nominee Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) was one MTV's most popular and controversial shows, essentially a deranged, frat-boy twist on "Candid Camera", where a motley troupe of skate punks and daredevils prank each other and an unsuspecting public with silly, disgusting, and dangerous stunts.
Though a nightmare for horrified parents and social conservatives, the show was a huge hit, running for three seasons. Naturally, the big screen beckoned, resulting in 2002's Jackass: The Movie, which was a surprise box office hit (despite essentially being a hour-and-a-half episode of the TV show). Two spin-off television shows, "Wildboyz" and "Viva La Bam", followed, capped off by the silver screen return of the Jackass crew in 2006 with Jackass: Number Two, which was an even bigger success (commercially and, surprisingly, critically).
Even though it's damn near impossible to intellectualize Jackass (really, how can you apply conventional logic to wading in a septic tank or getting shot in the crotch with paintballs?), it's actually not a stretch to think of the franchise in a way that doesn't simply categorize it as brainless juvenilia with an emphasis on male nudity and poop humor. In fact, in many ways, the enthusiastic and sometimes highly clever antics of Southern rogue Knoxville and his merry band of masochistic misfits could even be considered transgressive performance art, a seamless blend of "Three Stooges" slapstick and John Waters-esque trash cinema.
Also, it's just really funny. Any group of idiots could film themselves getting kicked in the nuts, but what sets the Jackass crew apart from any other group of extreme-stuntists is the brotherly and even endearing camaraderie they share.
And it's that kind of cathartic-yet-cringe-inducing humor that brought about an inevitable third entry, appropriately titled Jackass 3D, appropriate both because it's obviously the third in the series, and also because it's yet another movie leaping on the 3D bandwagon.
All the gang's back, what with Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ehren McGhehey, Dave England, Jason "Wee Man" Acuna, and Preston Lacy suffering for their childish art in various ways. And as usual, there's no storyline here, but just a collection of stunts, sketches, and pranks now captured in gloriously disgusting 3D (which is how the movie was filmed, rather than shooting it in 2D and converting it in post-production, which has proven in previous films to not work out so well).
Though Jackass 3D is timely considering that it's the franchise's tenth anniversary, that very fact is possibly what's wrong with the movie. The entire cast is in their mid-to-late 30's, and though the frathouse rapport and creativity is still there, there seems to be not as much daring or desire to push the envelope, a desire that made the TV show and first two films so fascinating. Though there's a plethora of bone-crunching stunts and comedic setpieces (a giant "high-five"and a hysterical midget bar brawl being the highlights), they're few and far in between. And some of the novelty has worn off, especially since we've already seen so much of this before.
3D lacks the guerilla home-video charm of Jackass: The Movie, as well as the clicks-with-precision comedic anarchy of Number Two. There's also too much emphasis on showing off the 3D tech, taking away some of the series' trademark spontaneity.
That's not to say that the technological innovations aren't a plus at times. After a special animated intro featuring two classic MTV jackasses, 3D literally starts off with a bang. The brilliantly destructive opening and closing sequences make rich use of the third dimension, not to mention great use of super-slow-motion camerawork (reportedly running at 1,000 frames per second), where you can see in full detail the impacts of huge boxing gloves punching people in the face, or sex toys being launched straight at the camera with a cannon (if anything, Jackass 3D is the first film in history to claim the use of dildo bazookas in slow motion). The 3D in the main portions of the film aren't utilized as much, though some scenes need to be seen, preferably though the cracks of one's fingers, to be believed. If the Academy Awards ever introduce a category for Bravest Performance in a Port-a-John, Steve-O would be an immediate frontrunner.
Despite lacking some of the genius and rebelliousness that made Jackass what it is, this offering is still a gleefully shameless exercise in potty humor and crotch shots. There's the testosterone-heavy stunts, the overabundance of vomit and fecal matter, the comedic homoeroticism, and the feral charm of nine dudes just having a good time, regardless of whatever stupid things they're doing (and they're doing a good job, considering that the film has more outright belly laughs than any other comedy this year).
It's clear from the performers' ages (and a sentimental and nostalgic end credits roll) that this is most likely the end for the Jackass team, and even though there was much more untapped potential to make Part Three as good as or better than the terrific Number Two, Jackass 3D does an admirable job ending on a high note.
Letter Grade: "B-"
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