Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

MPAA/Content R [AC, SL, N, V]

Distributor  Paramount [2013]

Technical HD  1.85:1

Genre  COM

Runtime  92 mins.

Country  USA

Budget  $15M

 

CAST

Johnny Knoxville & Jackson Nicoll

 

CREDITS

Director: Jeff Tremaine; Screenwriters: Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze & Jeff Tremaine; Producers: Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze, Johnny Knoxville & Derek Freda; Directors Of Photography: Lance Bangs & Dimitry Elyashkevich; Production Designer: J.P. Blackmon; Editors: Seth Casriel, Matt Kosinski & Matthew Probst; Costume Designer: Lindsey Kear; Music Composers: Sam Spiegel & Koool G. Murder

 

THE SYNOPSIS

Irving Zisman (Knoxville) is an 86-year old codger mourning the recent death of his wife (cameoed by Catherine Keener). Thanks to his ne’er-do-well daughter—who’s heading to jail, like right now—Irving is suddenly saddled with a grandson he barely knows. Said child, 8-year old Billy (Nicoll), is precocious, inquisitive and a real potty mouth!

Per his daughter, Irving is to take Billy cross-country into the care of his father, a ne’er-do-well biker living in North Carolina. Irving reluctantly does so at first; but the codger and his grandson grow a bond over the many pranks & shenanigans that Irving pulls on unsuspecting people along the way.

Thanks to the male strippers, beauty pageant contestants, bikers and other average Joes, the impressionable Billy grows to love his grandpa. In the end, Irving decides to keep Billy and raise him instead of handing over to the idiot father. The pranks & shenanigans will go on forever…

 

THE CRITIQUE

Budgeted at a mere $15 million (boxofficemojo.com), JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA managed to rake in over $100 million in North America alone! Mind-boggling—but you’ve got to hand it to those Jackass boys: their shtick still gets laughs and airtime…or more accurately, theater bookings.

Why? Because we live in a society that indulges in schadenfreude and the opportunity to not only watch other people hurt themselves—but then have the gall to laugh at them and consider them fools in the first place. Well guess what: Johnny Knoxville and company aren’t the fools: we are! Know why? Because we keep forking over good money that could be spent on classy hookers, cheap drugs & high-quality cheeseburgers to watch these yahoos do what they do!! The only thing preventing us from fully internalizing these pseudo-snuff flicks is the luck and fortune that nobody has been killed doing these foolish stunts, pratfalls & gimmicks. But I digress…

JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA is dumb comedy, but I did laugh a few times. I give these clowns props for going in a new direction as Knoxville, Spike Jonze and co-writer/director Jeff Tremaine manage to go with a more narrative angle in this 4^th theatrical Jackass outing. Not that the screenplay is much to brag about—but then again (and mind-bogglingly more so) is the fact that Jonze can claim to have co-written this trashy bit ‘o fun the same year (2013) he’d go on to win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar^® for Her. Look, whatever gets Jonze laid…more power to him.

In terms of direction, Tremaine has helmed all of these movies—so, while the Auteur Theory concept does not apply here (at all), familiarity will surely breed…familiarity…with the material and his star. Knoxville (playing a version of his own grandfather, but randier) gets credit for having mastered the art of making himself the center of focus—though he is given a run for his money by this Nicoll kid, holding his own on-screen.

Production values for this video-fest are what is expected for this type of flick—lensed in locations as varied as Ohio and North Carolina. No information was provided as to the type of cameras used to shoot this HD movie, but I’m sure that they were high-end prosumer models. Still, resident Jackass cinematographers Lance Bangs & Dimitry Elyashkevich get the job done in regular fashion. They are abetted by a comedic editing schema courtesy of resident Jackass cutters Seth Casriel, Matt Kosinski & Matthew Probst.

Most telling is that JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA is the first movie in the series to be nominated for an Oscar^®. What? Incredulous, you say? It’s true. The nomination was given for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling courtesy of veteran artisan and Jackass resident Steve Prouty—who has also done makeup work in movies such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) & Thor (2011).

I must say that Johnny Knoxville’s makeup and transformation into the elderly Irving Zisman is the movie’s high point. Did we need to see his (assumedly) made up genitals too? That’s where you can make up your own mind. Get it? Make up? I am too damned funny. So are some of the moments in this flick—but let’s face it: this one’s a dud.  Still, I did laugh a few times.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you’re into the whole Jackass phenomena, then JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA is right up your sado-masochistic alley. If not, then indulge your schadenfreude tendencies anyway—because this doesn’t get any better than a lovely kick to the genitals or a pleasant root canal (minus the anesthesia, of course). Still, I did laugh a few times.

 

 

 

IMDB:                    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3063516/

Wikipedia:             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackass_Presents:_Bad_Grandpa

Official Site:          http://www.jackassmovie.com