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Enjoy every death-defying stunt and hilarious prank all over again with this new collection, which features all seven Jackass movies and the entire TV show.
Ah, the glory days of “Jackass.” I never thought I’d hear those words exit my mouth, but there you go. That show signaled the beginning of the end, it marked the deterioration of millennials – and it did so gleefully, with a stupid grin on its face. The “cast,” or stuntmen, inflicted pain and misery upon each other, be it through violent, bruise and blood-inducing methods, or disgusting pranks, involving every kind of bodily fluid imaginable. Yet the question remains: IS it total trash, or does it transcend garbage and become a form of art, a reflection of us as mindless apes, going to extremes to cause ourselves great amounts of pain? After all, something drew the likes of Spike Jonze and Brad Pitt to the hateable/lovable Jackasses and partake in their stunts. Perhaps boys just wanted to have fun. Or perhaps they saw something more than just a bunch of apes prancing around.
I was always openly torn about this show, though secretly I was always a fan. Near impossible to top in terms of its entertainment value, and similarly impossible to defend based on any other merit, “Jackass” would glue my attention to the screen whenever it happened to play on MTV, and next thing I knew I was giggling uncontrollably at the sight of Johnny Knoxville having tennis balls shot at his groin, or Bam Margera falling into a shallow pond from a great height, or Chris Pontius running around in one of his tiny neon thongs, or Steve-O – arguably the craziest Jackass – setting himself on fire. I even went so far as to purchase Bam Margera’s “CKY” VHS tape collection – which featured the titular idiot and his band performing what some would call music, as well as stunts – and Steve-O’s “Don’t Try This At Home” DVD, in which he… well, look at the title of my review (the testicle part). He does that, and worse. Much worse. Like, “I can’t believe that motherfucker’s doing this” kinda worse.
This collection packs all things “Jackass” into one juicy – if perhaps overly elaborate – package. Does one really need BOTH the unrated and rated versions of each “film,” in addition to the “2.5,” “3.5” and “0.5” (?) versions? Not really. This isn’t “Blade Runner” or “Apocalypse Now” – though, like I said, “Jackass” does signify an apocalypse of sorts – that of us as civil human beings, for one. That factoid aside, I wish they combined it all into one unrated, blasphemous, vomit-filled package. Who’s gonna watch the “R-rated” version anyway? As entertaining as the “films” are, the show, with its lo-fi approach and “go-for-broke” idiocy, takes the cake for me. This is where it all began… Sigh.
Whether it’s the wasabi snorting or the toy car being inserted into Ryan Dunn’s anus in the first “Jackass: The Movie,” or Chris Pontius drinking horse semen in “Jackass: Part Two,” it’s all here, folks. The stunts don’t really become more elaborate or awe-inspiring as the “films” progress, though the budget does increase slightly, allowing for set pieces like the CRAZY opening of “Jackass 3D”
So art or trash? “Bad Grandpa,” which features Knoxville in astoundingly believable old-man make-up humping things, believe it or not, was nominated for an Oscar – albeit for Best Make-Up, but still… Whatever you call those Jackasses and their films, they will definitely not leave you emotionless. You will either absolutely loathe them or adore every sick moment of this collection. It’s horrendously shot, ultra-vulgar and completely tasteless. Buy it now.
Available on DVD May 29th
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