Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

2013 comedy

Rating: 14/20 (Jen: made it about 4 or 5 minutes, right up to the point where the character gets his penis stuck in a carbonated beverage machine's change slot)

Plot: The titular octogenarian, following the death of his wife and the imprisonment of his daughter, is forced to drive his grandson across the country to North Carolina to his son-in-law.

I really didn't think I'd like this very much, but I'm not sure why because--Lord help me--I like everything else these Jackasses do. I guess I'm a sucker for this guerrilla-style movie making, and a lot of this made me laugh harder than I've laughed at a movie in a while. Of course, that is probably something that should embarrass me a little bit. Now, Johnny Knoxville doesn't quite have the acting chops or consistency of a Sasha Baron Cohen with his characters, and even though this thing actually was nominated for an Academy Award for makeup/hairstyling, I'm not sure how people not in on the gags believed this was an actual old person at times. But there's a lot of creativity with the set-ups of these pranks which more than makes up for the minor flaws or the tedium of the narrative. Of course, a lot of times the fun in these things is from the reactions of the bystanders. It's really difficult to believe that they're all 100% authentic and even harder to imagine why the hell some of these people signed release forms or whatever to allow their faces in this thing. I guess in our country saturated with reality shows and their superstars, people just want their 15 minutes of fame though. Knoxville, no matter how close he gets to being a Hollywood A-lister, isn't afraid to do anything on camera which is simultaneously juvenile and endearing. Here, the crew treads pretty uncomfortable territories, and there are a lot of moments where you just say to yourself, "No, he's not really going there, is he?" and then watch with an open mouth while he goes there. Still, there aren't any moments in this where it gets mean-spirited, and while the joke's often on innocent average Joes who don't know they're in on the joke, the joke's never really about them unlike some of Cohen's stuff which seems to be poking fun at the ignorance of the masses. No, this doesn't have anything to say about humanity like Borat or Bruno; this is more about creating situations for big laughs. And there's no question that it succeeds in doing that. Jackson Nicoll, the kid who plays Billy the kid in this, deserves some recognition here. He's pretty natural in this and has the type of punk face that makes the character believable. Of course, he might just be playing himself. But the wrong kid in this kind of thing could have been disastrous, and he pulls it all off very naturally, even seeming to make Knoxville laugh unexpectedly a few times. Catherine Keener also apparently plays the dead grandma, but I didn't notice that until the credits. That would have potentially given me the strangest erection.