As I looked at the increasingly insane scenarios these daredevils keep putting themselves through I slowly but surely came to the realization that this is a great movie. Greatness is bound to no rulebook except execution, it can take any form possible. Even if that form means having a penis-monster ejaculate all over a miniature version of the cast, plus Tony Hawk coz why not?
The exact moment I realized this is great is when I saw the risks these men--and a woman--are taking, the physical tolls this puts on them and how blatantly they laugh in the face of doom--whether that doom is a hungry bear or a testosterone-fueled bull. That being said, these real-life avengers all have their roles, some more honorable than others.
Knoxville is their Tony Stark or Captain America--but he fits the personality of the former more--as he has the ideas which sometimes go unannounced to his team in the form of pranks. Chris Pontius is the silent lieutenant, always on the giving end of things, whose charm and weird, transsexual attire paint him as almost an outside observer, or an evil mastermind if you will, as I can't help but think that most of these gauntlets are his ideas, believable considering he has a writing background.
But if you thought Steve-O was going to take the worst of hits, it's actually Danger Ehren--whose nickname is more than adequate--who I will remember the most for a particular scene involving himself tied to a chair with honey and meat all over him and a bear let loose. You can feel genuine fear on his face especially at the end of the scene when the bear started to bite at his hand and the bear-handler had to get in quickly. It gives me an idea of how these invincible titans of dumb laughs feel their youth stripping away from them so they'd better have no regrets.
But there's more than just the risks they take that make Jackass stand out more than Evil Knievel on a motorcycle; is how conceptual they make each of their stunts. Take, for instance, the scene in which they launch Johnny tens of feet into the air from a cannon reminiscent of old circus traditions. The scene is not about them launching Knoxville into the air. It's about the rise of Icarus, who rose up too fast and too high and suddenly fell to the ground. We even have a theatrical intro, told by the ever-flamboyant Pontius. Johnny is even dressed the part--wings included. As he reaches the peak of his height, in the midst of what is about to be a scary fall, he doesn't forget to literally spread his wings.
It's these little details which amount to great execution in any form of art known or yet unknown to man. In one of the final scenes, we are even treated to an actual accident as Knoxville gets a broken neck from being hit by an angry bull. You know it's real when even Steve-O stated that "not even in my darkest days" would he get in that bull pit. The danger of the stunt proves how much respect Johnny has for his crew. Like a military commander, he wouldn't make his soldiers do anything he wouldn't do and they give him mutual respect in return. And again, Knoxville was dressed as a magician performing a trick, at no point did he involve the bull in his presentation. At the end as he came out of the hospital his first concern was whether his little magic trick looked good on camera.
The level of the danger and risks these aging yet forever young pain addicts undertake here is what both excite and worry me. So, don't feel guilty vicariously watching them unravel as this might be one of the very last times you will witness them before they fade into oblivion.
The exact moment I realized this is great is when I saw the risks these men--and a woman--are taking, the physical tolls this puts on them and how blatantly they laugh in the face of doom--whether that doom is a hungry bear or a testosterone-fueled bull. That being said, these real-life avengers all have their roles, some more honorable than others.
Knoxville is their Tony Stark or Captain America--but he fits the personality of the former more--as he has the ideas which sometimes go unannounced to his team in the form of pranks. Chris Pontius is the silent lieutenant, always on the giving end of things, whose charm and weird, transsexual attire paint him as almost an outside observer, or an evil mastermind if you will, as I can't help but think that most of these gauntlets are his ideas, believable considering he has a writing background.
But if you thought Steve-O was going to take the worst of hits, it's actually Danger Ehren--whose nickname is more than adequate--who I will remember the most for a particular scene involving himself tied to a chair with honey and meat all over him and a bear let loose. You can feel genuine fear on his face especially at the end of the scene when the bear started to bite at his hand and the bear-handler had to get in quickly. It gives me an idea of how these invincible titans of dumb laughs feel their youth stripping away from them so they'd better have no regrets.
But there's more than just the risks they take that make Jackass stand out more than Evil Knievel on a motorcycle; is how conceptual they make each of their stunts. Take, for instance, the scene in which they launch Johnny tens of feet into the air from a cannon reminiscent of old circus traditions. The scene is not about them launching Knoxville into the air. It's about the rise of Icarus, who rose up too fast and too high and suddenly fell to the ground. We even have a theatrical intro, told by the ever-flamboyant Pontius. Johnny is even dressed the part--wings included. As he reaches the peak of his height, in the midst of what is about to be a scary fall, he doesn't forget to literally spread his wings.
It's these little details which amount to great execution in any form of art known or yet unknown to man. In one of the final scenes, we are even treated to an actual accident as Knoxville gets a broken neck from being hit by an angry bull. You know it's real when even Steve-O stated that "not even in my darkest days" would he get in that bull pit. The danger of the stunt proves how much respect Johnny has for his crew. Like a military commander, he wouldn't make his soldiers do anything he wouldn't do and they give him mutual respect in return. And again, Knoxville was dressed as a magician performing a trick, at no point did he involve the bull in his presentation. At the end as he came out of the hospital his first concern was whether his little magic trick looked good on camera.
The level of the danger and risks these aging yet forever young pain addicts undertake here is what both excite and worry me. So, don't feel guilty vicariously watching them unravel as this might be one of the very last times you will witness them before they fade into oblivion.