Review Archives

1 | 2 | 3

Today's Date is:

Jackass: The Movie - Special Collector's Edition

Money makes the world go 'round; I know this because if there were no truth to this adage, then we would never have been assaulted with the deplorable visual gags and atrocious nature of the stunts of "Jackass: The Movie," whose title is a vast understatement for this plethora of nitwits. This is a film that I can only assume was created in the hopes of generating more money out of sheer stupidity. It makes perfect sense to me: no studio in its right mind would ever throw their reputation on the line for something as repulsive and utterly pointless as this exercise in grotesqueness. No studio, that is, that wasn't swayed by the power of the almighty sawbuck. Of course, if you have to ask why this sucks, you deserve to waste your money, and I have no sympathy for you. ***

The movie is basically an extension of the MTV television series, in which a bunch of dimwitted, moronic fools throw themselves into dangerous situations on purpose, all for the sake of giving a home audience of equally dimwitted, moronic fools something to laugh at. The show itself generated a great deal of controversy in 2001 when a Connecticut 13-year-old attempted his own stunt mirroring that of one of the first season's episodes; months later, the same incident occurred involving a Hartford 11-year-old. I loved reading the MTV statement given shortly after the second incident: "Obviously we feel horrible when a young person does something to hurt themselves. Like other programmers, we take great care to air our shows responsibly." If there is any ounce of validity to that statement, then I'm Zsa Zsa Gabor's eternal love slave. ***

Now we have the big-screen version, which, being a motion picture without the restrictions of cable networks, gives the creators free reign over what they can show. And boy, do they ever exercise this freedom, while simultaneously giving our gag reflexes an extreme workout. This loose collection of sight gags includes everything from the snorting of the highly potent foreign food wasabi, to the insertion of firecrackers and toy cars into one's anal cavity. And the onslaught continues, with one character using the display toilet in a hardware store, a group of guys electrocuting various parts of their bodies, and even one someone urinating on a snow cone, after which he proceeds to eat it! If this doesn't spell disgusting, folks, then nothing, and I mean nothing, ever will. ***

"Jackass: The Movie" is rated R for "dangerous, sometimes extremely crude stunts, language, and nudity." I question the word "sometimes" here, and also wonder why the word "stupid" was not included. This is as filthy as filthy gets, a movie made for the lowest common denominator in its audience; a film so fascinating in its outright awfulness that its subjects would make excellent case studies. I wonder if I'm alone in this, but I truly want to know what it is about Johnny Knoxville and his band of merry idiots that has people in stitches... both figuratively and literally.

Much of "Jackass: The Movie" has been shot in the same style as the television show, so it goes without saying that the transfer has its ups and downs. Handheld HDTV cameras were used for the stunt portions: these sequences feature some good color saturation with accurate fleshtones and surprisingly solid blacks. Contrast is generally pleasing, with shadow detail that is good in some scenes, and wanting in others. Edges, however, shift between sharp and soft on many occasions, with some enhancement halos. The picture looks crisp, and there is a lack of noise or grain throughout. Not that the fans will care anyway... ***

The soundtrack has been mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, and while there are some attempts as expanding the soundfiend, this is mostly a front-heavy track with very little engagement of either surrounds or deep bass. The opening and closing sequences, however, are extremely impressive in their use of deep bass, and for a minute, the track becomes very aggressive. Then, it becomes a modest track that sounds good for what it is, but won't really turn any heads.

The MTV featurette "The Making of Jackass: The Movie" is your basic play-by-play of the film's creation with some interviews from the cast and crew. To give you some idea of how stupid the piece really is, just listen for one of the guys remarks on the differences between the show and the movie ("I think it will be different because it's on the big screen."). But the featurette didn't really answer the question burning on my mind: How stoned does one have to be to perform such stunts? ***

The rest of the DVD is pretty much full of the same junk from the movie, with some additional scenes that are just as repulsive, outtakes that are humorless and redundant, some lame music videos, a trailer and promo spots, cast and crew information (just in case you forget who it was that stuck the toy car up his bum), and a photo and poster gallery. Avoid at all costs.