Funny is funny, and 20 years of America’s Funniest Home Videos and a decade of Jackass proves it. A shot to the groin is as reliable a laugh as there is. And if the shot comes from a baseball on a tee, a football place-kicked or a ram, bull or buffalo aiming for a man’s center of gravity, so much the funnier.
Jackass 3D fires paintballs and dildos right into our faces and gives three full dimensions to projectile vomiting and the after-effects of a heavy dose of laxatives. They suffer for their art. Isn’t schadenfreude beautiful?
Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Wee-Man and the rest of the Jackass crew are back for a third go ’round in the series that was made popular on MTV and has now spawned three feature films in which a group of guys come up with a series of ways to injure, humiliate and gross out all in the name of comedy. From playing tetherball with a ball filled with Africanized bees to testing the force of a jet engine by using it to hurl items at one another with amazing force, these guys somehow continue to come up with a variety of ideas most would never imagine.
Animals play a large role as Lacy has a giant hog eat an apple from between his ass cheeks, Knoxville has a dog bite his ass and one unlucky victim plays “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” with an actual donkey.
Perhaps what’s most surprising is the way Jackass 3D actually uses 3D to far better advantage than most legitimate movies nowadays. Because let’s face it, this isn’t really a movie. Sure, it’s in movie theaters and it runs almost 90 minutes, but a series of stupid human tricks hardly makes a feature film as much as it describes a theatrical freak show.
However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. The Jackass brand has never really worked as a television show, as 22 minutes of content that’s bleeped or blurred just doesn’t really work out as much more than a slightly filthier episode of the aforementioned America’s Funniest Home Videos. BUT, when multiple episodes are stitched together into one seamless 90 minute viewing, it’s a format that works a lot better.
The 3D in the movie is a mixed bag. Some of the film was shot in 3D and other scenes were post-converted. When the 3D works, it’s fantastic, but that’s only about 25% of the time. The rest of the time, you have a blurry, hand-held look that could have easily fit into the past two movies. The 3D feels more like a way to draw back in viewers who may have grown tired of the Jackass shtick and want a reason to come back for thirds.
Jackass 3D is mostly review-proof. The Jackass brand has established itself and you know if this is the kind of humor you’ll enjoy or not. It’s difficult to justify the cost of a 3D ticket, but if you need an excuse to come back for a third time, you won’t feel ripped-off. Most women — the ones I associate with, anyway — are appalled that Jackass makes me bark like a hyena and scream at the screen. This is probably because they lack a penis, scrotum and testicles to lose.
That’d be my scientific guess, I think.