A few things you should be aware of before even considering taking on ‘Jackass Forever’ – this is a movie that loves to pummel the male nether region. Crotches are punched, drilled with softballs, blasted with hockey pucks, smacked, pinched, used as a speed bag by tiny boxing gloves, crushed by a pogo stick and gnawed on by a bear.
What, you think I’m kidding? Well there IS a bit of untruth to my synopsis there. The fact is, like its predecessors, this isn’t really a movie at all. There’s no plot, no real structure, and the best I can figure, there’s absolutely no point – just the same bunch of goofballs, a little more weathered than the last time we saw them, destroying both their bodies and all laws of social decency to make us laugh.
And – though I ain’t too proud of it – I did laugh. Not a whole lot, but I laughed.
‘Jackass’, the one-time MTV prank/stunt showcase that became the most unlikely successful film franchise in the history of…well, anything…never really cared much for filters. Or rules. Or respecting any ounce of taste. With ‘Jackass Forever’, the fourth (and final??) instalment, the boys (okay, there IS one female too) really don’t hold anything back. And what they evidently saved on wardrobe costs….specifically pants, ’cause they’re hardly ever wearing any…they invested in elaborate, stomach-churning feats of delights and frights. While Oscar nominated fare screens across the hall of the multiplex, here we have an assortment of exploding port-a-potties, puke-inducing cocktails, atomic wedgies, etc., etc…..oh, and the aforementioned live bear. You don’t have to love this stuff, but you have to appreciate ambition.
Speaking of which, I am beginning to get concerned about the welfare of the cast, especially Knoxville who is, pardon the cliche, getting “too old for this s#%”. The proof is in a scene in ‘Forever’ in which Johnny loses a tussle with a bull. Badly. He’s carted off in an ambulance and, quite honestly, the image is far from a fun one – and fun is traditionally the lone positive aspect you should be able to take from anything with the ‘Jackass’ label….a celebration of camaraderie, despite it being a most twisted party.
Still, all survive (I think) and somehow, so has this series. For sure, it’s not a movie for everyone. Heck, as I already pointed….it’s not really a movie at all.
