Sometimes, a film can emerge that turns out to be exactly the right story for that time and place, one that taps into a cultural need or want – perhaps one that people didn’t even realise they needed. That film, ladies and gentlemen, is Jackass Forever.
It has felt like COVID-19 and the pandemic has spent the last two years punching us in the balls. Maybe that’s why it is so cathartic to experience the schadenfreude of watching someone else be punched in the balls repeatedly for 96 minutes. If Freud were alive today, he would undoubtedly have a lot to say about this particular group of men in their fifties, and their fixation on inflicting pain on their own (and each others’) genitalia. And in spite of the film’s predilection for dick and fart jokes, Jackass Forever still abides by a code of decency when it comes to women. In one scene involving a female team member, a rogue scorpion lands on her body. Chris Pontius makes sure to ask her for consent to grab the scorpion off her breast. Chivalry is not dead!
Is Jackass Forever the latest in a line of “Requels”? Examining the model created by Halloween (2018) and Scream (2022), it certainly ticks a lot of boxes. A sequel/reboot that inflicts violence and pain on its characters while paying homage to what has gone before, and introduces new characters whilst maintaining ties to the original “legacy” characters. The movie also avoids upsetting its old fans. Instead of reinventing the wheel, it sticks religiously to its tried and tested format: perform crazy stunt, see the crew laugh at the misfortune of the affected team member, then fade out to the next one. Outside of a (relatively) big budget opening designed to reintroduce everyone, all of the stunts are low budget, low tech and very lowbrow.
Of the original crew including Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man, Party Boy, etc., it is Ehren McGhehey who comes off the worst. Among other things he is forced to repeat the “cup test” from the original movies, his private area subjected to punches, softballs, hockey pucks and a pogo stick. It is a testament to the entire team that they are able and willing, particularly at their age, to put their bodies through it all just for our entertainment. And given the advancing age of the original crew, it is understandable (and wise) that they have brought in some new blood, potentially grooming them to take over once they retire from the prolonged insanity…
This is where Jackass Forever does fall down slightly. The eat, sleep, stunt, repeat format fails to allow proper introductions for the newbies. Who are they exactly, and how did they become involved? Plus, out of a roster of around six new faces, only two (Zach Holmes and Sean ‘Poopies’ Mclnerne) have the on-screen charisma and personality to hold their own against Knoxville et all. That being said, people will still laugh at anyone being shot at with paintballs, so…
Not since Avengers Endgame has this reviewer experienced an audience so united in their emotional and physical reaction to a movie. To hear people laughing so hard it hurts, audibly wince or gag at a stunt, gives one a weirdly warm, comforting feeling.
It has become cliché over the pandemic to extol the virtues of seeing a movie on the big screen, and to praise the quality of the cinematic experience. However, it will be impossible to replicate at home the experience of a packed screening of Jackass Forever, becoming one with hundreds of other people crying with laughter at a man with his dick covered in bees.
As Andrei Tarkovsky would say… “Poetic Cinema”.
Jackass Forever is in cinemas now.