Jackass Number Two
I just got back from Jackass Number Two and I have some mixed feelings about it. I'm a big fan of the first Jackass movie and on repeat viewings it holds up extra good. In fact, I think it gets better. More important feeling. More artsy. I spent alot of time rewinding and playing the end of the golf cart crash scene and I'd argue it is one of the best crashes ever caught on film. Look at it! That crash is perfect.
One reason I love Jackass is because I'm straightout jealous of those guys. Who wouldn't want to use electric tape to attach a styrofoam statue of a polar bear to a golfcart then drive it crazy? No helmets no nothing! Fun! I want to wear a panda suit and wreck a store! I want to ride a rocket! To just be able to take a stupid crazy idea and actually go with it is every kid's dream! Sure there's stuff I'd never want to do like snorting wasabi or swimming with sharks-- but for the most part with Jackass, even if I'm not totally jealous of what they're doing-- it usually strikes me as all in good fun.
With Number Two I felt less jealous and had less fun than the first flick. That's not to say there's not some super flippin amazing stuff in this flick. The 'Fart Mask' may rank up there with one of the funniest things I've ever seen ever. Wee Man's Swamp Chute is fantastic and the final prank involving a pube beard and terrorists was new ground of goodness. But on the other side, Steve-O getting a leech on an eyeball, seeing Bam's butt branded, or drinking horse jizz is now registering low on fun factor for me. Doesn't make me laugh. Cringe-ily interesting I guess-- but it just doesn't seem worth it. And unfortunately a decent chunk of this movie leans more toward stuff they totally don't want to be doing. Which is less fun for me. I like when fun is had by all. Even if one of em is laying on the ground clutching their nuts.
It breaks down like this. 20% of this flick I had a great time. 80% of this flick I had a good time with it. But 20% of the time I found myself feeling a little sad for it. Like the scene where Knoxville gets into a children's ball pit that has a giant anaconda in it. And Knoxville basically has to pick up the snake. (That's the stunt? If he doesn't get bitten- it's nothing.) Here I was watching away and I found myself feeling a little bad for the anaconda. Thinking, 'How must being in a ball pit look to a snake?' Poor snake? Maybe I'm getting wimpy or jaded about but when Knoxville got bit a bunch of times I was sort of whatevery about it. Like, 'Ok, there's your snakebite. Good. I'm glad. Can we move on?'
I guess there's a fine line between what I like and what I don't like. For every person who hates puke. There's another person who thinks it's hysterical. I think puke is friggin funny. I also like people getting hit on the head. And dildos rocketed up the butt (Well not, personally mind you.) And I like farts. I'm just not an intentional pain guy. Pain as a result of a stunt is fine. You want to ski down a flight of stairs indoors in a house and come smashing out the screen door? Yay! What an idiot! But you want to have a badly branded image of a wang and balls burned on your butt forever? Yawn. What are you? An idiot?
Three Good Things About this Movie
- I liked the idea of them playing pranks on each other within the pranks.
- It's like a time capsule piece for when America was at its most stupid.
- Man, that fart mask kept me laughing straight through the scene that followed.
Three Bad Things About this Movie
- The scenes themselves don't visually linger in memory. Just the ideas.
- It felt overproduced and too thought out. Not enough on the street
spontaneity.
- Sometimes the sound effects were obviously added in after.
All in all, I was happy with this one but I wasn't thrilled. A bunch of the scenes played like really good B-sides. But as far as I'm concerned these dopes should keep making these flicks until they're old men. Let them get killed off one by one! They can keep even them on the show even after they're dead too! You know they'd be thrilled to know their dead bodies are being used for fun and pranks. I'd just rather see the dead bodies being used to scare the general public-- rather than say... see Steve-O get one of the dead guy's penises painfully stitched onto his forehead with a sewing machine-- but it's really a personal preference. Either way I'll still show up with my ten bucks.