Stars: Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Makeup)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars
However, I never thought that I'd have to see a Jackass film, I have to admit. It's not that I wasn't familiar with the series, or hadn't seen some of the episodes. The original TV show was wildly popular when I was in high school and I caught a few episodes of Viva la Bam in college. However, my extent of knowledge cinematically regarding the Jackass series was having strong opinions regarding the Roger Ebert Twitter controversy a few years back when Ryan Dunn passed away (for the record, I sided with Ebert, and I generally think that in the wake of tragedies is the best time to discuss ways to prevent those tragedies which almost no one seems to agree with, but I digress).
Anyway, I never thought I'd see one of these films until Oscar nomination morning when I spotted Bad Grandpa amongst this past year's Best Makeup nominees, and suddenly the movie had an OVP tag in front of it. I'm a completist, and though the DVD has been sitting next to my television for a month now (Netflix got a lot of free money from me in February), it was time this weekend to bite the bullet.
The film was exactly what I was expecting, and considering I spent three paragraphs on introduction, that's clearly not a good thing. I just don't get the appeal of a series or film like this. Is the point just seeing the reactions of everyday people put into "hilarious" situations? Because I think that works better on television, quite frankly, where commercials break things up and you have shorter spurts of comedy. Here, with the film going over ninety minutes of movie, and a weak story bringing together the plot, it seems tired and WAY too long.
The story itself (about a grandfather having to take care of his grandson after his daughter is put in jail) is the weakest link in the chain. Since the entire appeal of the movie is not the actual scripted portion, but seeing the reactions of unsuspecting civilians when, say, Johnny Knoxville gets a faux penis stuck in a vending machine or begins stripping with a rubber extended scrotum at a male revue, why pretend that the character is real? The fourth wall is punched so many times there's really no point in it being there, and I was actually more impressed over the credits when I found that other actors (including Spike Jonze, who is oddly and inexplicably linked to the entire Jackass series) had been playing parts in the film without my knowledge.
Considering the entire film was excruciating for me to watch, I suppose the best use of my time is going to be to grade the element that drove me to the film: the makeup. Here, the voyeuristic aspect of the film actually works in its favor. Normally, the makeup on Irving (Knoxville) and the bit supporting cast would be considered fine but not great-Knoxville certainly looks the part and it's fascinating how realistic prosthetics have come in the past twenty years. However, that Knoxville was able to convince hundreds of people that he was in fact an old man in a costume-that's darn impressive. I won't weigh in whether it takes the Oscar from me (I've got all of the remaining 2013 OVP films lined up to see by April 25th, so we'll get there then), but I will hint that it's not in last.
But that's enough about this terrible film-what were your thoughts if you saw it (and $100 million domestically proves some of you did)? Does anyone enjoy the Jackass series? Can anyone explain Spike Jonze's participation (is he childhood friends with Johnny Knoxville or something?)? And where does Bad Grandpa rank amongst your Best Makeup contenders of 2013?
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