Jackass Forever – Do You Know What You Like?
Welp, these morons are back at it again. Just when you think modern cinema couldn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel any deeper, these middle-aged boys and girls are back with the lowest of the low-brow humor out there. Jackass Forever should have streamed on Tik-Tok for the next generation, and anyone who paid full ticket price for this should be ashamed of themselves.
RATING: 1.5/2
-Big Tuck is excited to get back to reviewing REAL cinema, preferably something with sub-titles.
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Okay cool all the people who want to hate this have left.
This movie is INCREDIBLE. For reals, I saw this in a mostly empty theater and was laughing or cringing for the entire run-time, a big dumb smile plastered on my lips.
OVERVIEW
I was one of those weird skater kids who LOVED Jackass back in the day. I would watch it on bootlegged tapes one of the older boys in the neighborhood would give me, and when my dad was out on business my mom, brother, and I would watch these and HOWL with laughter. For Jackass Forever, the formula has stayed pretty much the same as before: these goofy skaters put themselves through stunts and torments that would make a mere mortal blush. I will say I was a little worried about how their age (which they bring up only a handful of times) would limit their activities, but in some way, it seems like it actually made them more creative! I will also say that the new cast of characters they brought in are all PERFECT fits for the comedy and stunts they are trying to do. I had heard a little bit about some new blood joining the veterans of the business and had some hesitations about it, which ended up being COMPLETELY unfounded as these kids have been fans of the show for about as long as I have!
This all comes with an obvious warning: this is definitely not for the faint of heart, and if you don’t like the idea of seeing a lot of male genitalia getting abused in a variety of situations you may want to sit this one out. However, if you liked ANY of the previous movies or just want some dumb entertainment you really can’t go wrong here. It was a rare movie that had me sad when the credits started rolling, as I was having so much fun with this gang I didn’t want it to end.
So what else can be said right? It’s definitely a polarizing movie, so there’s not much left to “review” right?
OR IS THERE!!!??
JACKASS AS AVANT-GARDE CINEMA
For those who don’t know, I actually received my minor in Digital Cinema for my undergrad and was heavily involved in the film program at DePaul University (go blue Demons! Except for the ding-dong in the school mascot costume who I almost got in a fist-fight with on several occasions). One of the most interesting classes I took was on Avant-Garde films throughout the years. The professor – a younger guy who looked EXACTLY how you would think an Avant-Garde cinema teacher would look like – did a really good job of curation and explanation of how the idea had evolved over time, and something that really stuck out to me with recent (~20-30 years ago) A.G. cinema was the amount of personal “torture” or extreme circumstances the artists would put themselves in. There were 3 that REALLY stuck out:
- Someone taking a photo of themselves every 45 minutes for 2-3 days, which allows you to see a person slowly deteriorate both physically and mentally in real-time”
- Two from another artist who put himself willfully into physical pain. One called “Starry Night” had him in his briefs crawling through broken glass, and the other called “Shoot” had him get shot in the arm with a .22 rifle. Pretty intense stuff right?
So I ask you, dear readers, how FUNCTIONALLY different is that high-brow art from the Jackass gang? You can see the horror in their eyes and the bones broken from the stunts that they pull, all to service an audience who can laugh along with them. Sure, I would wager to guess most “art” wouldn’t have quite as much testicle torture, but there’s something pure in the spectacle of what they are doing. Maybe it’s just the beers and concussions I’ve had over the course of my life, but I just feel like something is happening under the obvious surface of this kind of entertainment.
CONCLUSION
Like I said up top, there’s really not a lot to “review” here. In my ever so humble opinion, this is the peak of the series, a combination of budget, pacing, and enjoyment. If you feel like this is something you may be interested in, I would HIGHLY recommend seeing this in theater or with a big group of friends. Conversely, if you aren’t interested in seeing this there’s probably not a lot I could tell you to change your opinion. So yah. Take that.
RATING: 4/5 +
—Somewhere there’s a mini-DV tape of Big Tuck flinging himself off of a bike with his friend James ‘Taco’ Kirk riding on a skateboard next to him
