Dir:
Jeff Tremaine, 2006, USA, 95 mins
Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius,
Preston Lacy, Ryan Dunn, Ehren McGhehey
Review by Martyn Bamber
Let's be honest here: Jackass Number
Two isn't cinema in the traditional sense, and the members
of the Jackass troupe would probably agree with this. Whatever
people may think of the Jackass TV show and the films that
have sprung from it, Jackass doesn’t have any pretensions
to be high art. Presumably, the main reason that this film
is in cinemas is because the team can do more outrageous
stuff on the big screen than they could ever get away with
on television.
The Jackass agenda (if you can call
it that) is simple: it’s an opportunity for a bunch
of guys to do stupid things for our and their amusement.
Whether you like or hate this sort of thing, Jackass Number
Two arguably has more genuine drama, suspense and laughs
than most films this year, which is due in no small part
to the fact that an audience knows that what they are seeing
on screen is real. These guys really are subjecting themselves
to levels of pain and embarrassment that most audience
members would never put themselves through, but are nevertheless
more than happy to watch.
As most people must be aware, this latest Jackass film (like
the earlier film and TV show) revolves around a collection
of elaborate sketches, dangerous stunts, childish pranks
and gross-out gags, usually involving one or members of the
Jackass group. This film features snakes, horses, sharks,
rockets, leeches, a large hose and a giant bouncing ball,
among other things.
There are also some surreal sketches, including a running
gag featuring director Spike Jonze disguised as an elderly
woman, who unintentionally exposes herself in various public
places. There's also an extended skit centred on terrorism
that initially seems like a dubious, wholly inappropriate
item to include in the film. However, the potential offensiveness
of this sketch is offset by having the Jackass member who
plays a terrorist become the butt of the joke.
One of the appeals of the Jackass
format is that while the various sketches and stunts might
be puerile and disgusting, it’s mostly the Jackass gang that are on the receiving
end. Everything that we see performed by these guys is done
willingly, and the jokes are, predominantly, at their expense.
On the rare occasions when the public unknowingly become
involved in a sketch, they may be light-heartedly mocked,
but they aren’t cruelly humiliated or endangered. Instead,
the public in the film are simply bemused bystanders who,
like the audience, can only stare agape at the bizarre goings-on
before them. There’s no mean-spiritedness here; the
Jackass crew seem far too amiable for that. Jackass is like
Fight Club (1999), but with only one rule: have fun. Everyone
here seems eager to enjoy themselves and please the audience.
The Jackass gang also amusingly parody
movie westerns at the beginning of the film, with a surreal
western-style stampede through suburbia that gleefully
trashes white picket fences and expensive houses (and which
features an introduction – n
the style of the TV show – by Johnny Knoxville), while
at the end, the gang feature in Busby Berkeley-type musical
extravaganza (with Steve-O mimicking Esther Williams!). These
mini movie sequences serve as bookends to the sketches in
the film, while also acknowledging the fact that these guys
are now movie stars in their own right. For those who hate
the Jackass phenomenon and all it stands for, there is nothing
here that will change their minds. However, Jackass fans
will no doubt relish seeing the older but apparently not
wiser gang back again, for a collection of new pranks and
stunts. Jackass Number Two isn’t big and it isn’t
clever, but it’s often very funny.
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