Jackass 3D – Review

Reviews, Theatrical Reviews, Top Story

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the movies

Out of all the cast members who garnered fame and fortune from the original Jackass television show, and its many offshoots, Johnny Knoxville thus far has been the only one to truly have a shot at having a career outside of the shenanigans involved. Headlining The Dukes of Hazzard and The Ringer while managing to find supporting roles in a handful of action films, Knoxville has an offbeat charisma that has translated from televised stupidity much further than anyone could’ve reasonably foreseen. Instead of being a small part of a “Where are they now?” article on mid 90s pop culture sensations, Knoxville has managed to find steady work as an actor as well as a producer. Which makes the return of Knoxville, and the rest of the cast, to another Jackass film somewhat of a surprise despite both films being remarkably profitable.

Jackass 3D is a collection of pranks and outrageous stunts done by the “Jackass” team out of the combination of CKY Skateboarding films and Big Brother Magazine (a skateboarding publication) in the late 1990s. After being crafted into a television show in part by music video director Spike Jonze, the format hasn’t changed. The guys on the team prank one another and craft stunts that don’t merely cross the line from borderline stupid to insanity; they cross it and never look back. It’s a combination of the most vile and disgusting ideas that could only be truly appreciated as art by a 13 year old who never outgrew the idea that flatulence is the highest form of comedy.

It’s also noxiously funny, perhaps one of the funnier films of the year.

Perhaps funny in the traditional sense is the wrong way to describe this film. This is comedy in the way that cries to our baser instincts of what comprises comedy, Jackass 3D (and its previous films) tap into the inner thirteen year old in all of us that thinks it could be funny to try and a jump a hedge with a jet ski. This is comedy that takes the most base of bodily function humor and sometimes manages to craft somewhat creative ideas out of them. Granted there is the usual sort of physical humor in which someone, knowingly or otherwise, gets hit in the face with a hurled object but there is an odd level of creativity that goes into it. The guys clearly have upped their game, which is nice to see that they haven’t lost that particular edge as they’ve aged.

A step up from the second film in the franchise, it’s clear the cast knows that they just can’t settle for only doing things similar to the first film or the television series. A bit older, and perhaps a bit wiser, this is a team that knows that the bar has been raised from where they initially set it years ago. This is clearly an attempt at trying to top everything they’ve done before but they also show some maturity throughout the film. The guys bail out of stunts more often than the last two films and there’s much more of a mature, focused outlook from a group that has a prank involving people urinating on one another with a camera giving a point of view from crotch level.

It’s going to be disgusting. It’s going to be crude and slightly insulting on an intellectual basis. If this is the final film in the series, which is rather doubtful based on how profitable the franchise is, then the cast has given a fitting finale to the pop culture phenomenon that was Jackass.


Director: Jeff Tremaine
Notable Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Magera, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Ryan Dunn