JACKASS FOREVER
Cert 18 ★★★
In cinemas now
Twelve years after their last movie, and 20 years after their final MTV show, the Jackass gang take us on an amusing and, at times, deeply disturbing trip down memory lane.
Highlights, and I say that in the loosest possible way, include a restaging of the infamous bungee wedgie stunt, enticing a hungry bear to eat salmon from a poor soul’s crotch, and team ‘captain’ Johnny Knoxville yet again stepping into a pen with a raging bull.
In a half-hearted attempt to appeal to a new generation, the old reprobates have
roped in some younger idiots including surfer Poopies (his nickname) and YouTube star Rachel Woolfson who bravely agrees to get her lips plumped by a stinging scorpion.
But mostly this is about reuniting the old
gang – Wee Man, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Ehren McGhehey, Dave England – and enjoying their back-slapping banter between hospital visits.
Apart from a thoroughly disgusting opening sequence, director Jeff Tremaine makes no attempt to expand the action for the big screen, focusing on the same ramshackle antics and stomach-churning exhibitionism that made Knoxville’s gang unlikely stars.
I spent roughly the same amount of time covering my eyes as I did howling with laughter.
They may be creakier, wrinklier and, in the case of Knoxville slightly balder, but their daredevil slapstick feels timeless.