Movies

Verdict: Chances are good your teenagers will leak brain cells by the thousands while watching it.

Details: Directed by Jeff Tremaine. Rated R for dangerous, sometimes extremely crude stunts, language and nudity. 90 minutes.

See it: Local theaters and showtimes for Jackass: The Movie

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: First of all, let's get one thing straight: The very idea that we're reviewing "Jackass: The Movie" shows that infidels have stormed the castle of Western Civilization--and won.

Where to start? Perhaps with the movie's R rating. But not just any R. R for "dangerous, sometimes extremely crude stunts, language and nudity," according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

"Sometimes?" If "Jackass" had any stunts that weren't extremely crude, I sure missed 'em.

Next we go to the plot: none. Saves on screenwriters. Oh, there is a vague underlying theme of "anything goes that is beyond reason or embarrassment" and a secondary plot of "let's torture the Japanese with insane American stunts." A third motif includes an obsession with the naked male form, a "let's-drop-our-pants-first-and-then-figure-out-what-to-do" approach.

The result? Pandemonium in the audience. A stark choice between peeing in your pants laughing or retching in disgust, just like the cameraman did, twice, as he filmed the movie.

A more conscientious reviewer might have kept track of exactly how many times the gung-ho stunt men blew chow in their highly successful efforts to expand the boundaries of bad taste, but it was definitely more than the fingers on two hands. (Those with a weak stomach should close their eyes during the scene with the urine-laced snow cone.)

For neophytes to the world of "Jackass," think random painful stupid stunts, one after another, with a heavy emphasis on the scatological. It's a show that began on MTV in 2000 and is looking to corrupt a new art form via director Jeff Tremaine.

In fact, the movie promos boast "stuff you would never see on TV." Can't argue with that. The casts of "Friends" and "Seinfeld" never blew firecrackers out their rear ends, now, did they? Or played "bungee wedgie?" Or let baby alligators chomp on their nipples for fun?

In a highly uneven mishmash of ideas, flashes of genuine humor emerge. Why not bring stealth air-horns to the golf course? Play crash derby with your rental car? Turn the tables on your parents and show embarrassing videos of them?

The movie isn't all laughs, though; the guys frequently emerge from their stunts dazed and complaining of pain, with bruises the size of saucers. One has to go to a hospital for stitches in his head after fighting with a professional boxer.

Full-screen warnings at the beginning and end of the movie urge viewers not to try this stuff at home--the same caveat that appeared on the MTV show after several kids seriously injured themselves re-enacting Johnny Knoxville's stunts.

Unlike ordinary mortals, Knoxville, the misfits' leader, is a buff stuntman who specializes in pain-inducing predicaments. Professional skateboarder Bam Margera has a knack for tormenting his parents, while Chris Pontius, aka "Party Boy," seems to have trouble keeping his clothes on in public.

Preston Lacy supplies the fat jokes, skateboarder Jason "Wee-Man" Acuna the little jokes, and Steve-O goes where even his comrades won't. Rounding out the pack are stuntmen Dave England, Ryan Dunn and Ehren McGehey.

Camerawise, the movie features bad video angles of men screaming in pain or disbelief. There is no discernible transition or link between the stunts. Still, the opening sequence, a slo-mo shopping cart derailment to the classical music of "O Fortuna," can render an audience helpless within moments.

While there is no scientific proof, chances are good your teenagers will leak brain cells by the thousands while watching "Jackass."

And you might even want to see it with them.

— Sheila Norman-Culp, The Associated Press