JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA (2014)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll
RunTime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Sexual Humour and Coarse Language)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: http://www.jackassmovie.com/social/
 
Opening Day: 9 January 2014

Synopsis: 86 year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companion, his 8 year-old Grandson Billy in "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa”. In 2014, the signature Jackass character Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicoll) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on film. Along the way Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places and situations that give new meaning to the term childrearing. The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens. Real people in unreal situations, making for one really messed up comedy.

Movie Review:

You’re either a fan of ‘Jackass’ or you’re not. Since debuting on MTV more than a decade ago, the reality series has become a brand name in itself for dangerous, crude and at times disgusting pranks (case in point, the final showpiece stunt of the last ‘Jackass’ movie had one of its regulars named Steve-O launched into the air while inside a portable toilet filled with excrement). You’ll do well to remember that before you step into ‘Bad Grandpa’, a spinoff movie from its creators that makes no apologies for the cavalcade of elaborately choreographed pranks which it unleashes on unsuspecting bystanders.

The titular character refers to 86-year-old Irving Zisman, a lecherous, foul-mouthed and totally irresponsible old coot that first debuted during the final season of ‘Jackass’ on MTV and which its lead star Johnny Knoxville has reprised in the trilogy of films before this one.  Unlike previous iterations however, Knoxville’s fictional octogenarian alter ego here gets an 8-year-old companion in the form of a grandson named Billy (Jackson Nicoll) as well as the opportunity to display a heretofore unseen human side during a cross-country trip to drop Billy off with his ne'er-do-well toker son-in-law, Chuck (Zia Harris).

Indeed, this is the first time that the ‘Jackass’ team of Knoxville, director Jeff Tremaine and producer Spike Jonze are collaborating within the structure of a story that has a beginning, middle and end. What you get therefore is a hybrid of scripted narrative with improv-heavy, hidden-camera stunt comedy that the ‘Jackass’ franchise has traditionally been associated with. Though it may resemble in structure and concept the faux-documentary ‘Borat’, the mix takes a little getting used to, coming off neither as a fully-fleshed movie in its own right nor a loose collection of gags the previous three ‘Jackass’ films were.

Still, the setup works simply because of two reasons. First, despite being racist, sexist and salacious, Knoxville remains as unapologetic as ever; instead, he revels in every single scatological bit of humour, whether getting his dangly bits stuck in a soda machine, or putting his moves on the ladies in a bingo hall, or busting into a male strip joint, or soiling himself flamboyantly in a diner, or (and this is our favourite) dressing Billy in drag to perform a raunchy stripease to Warrant’s ‘Cherry Pie’ before a little-miss beauty pageant. Oh yes, it’s every bit politically incorrect, and there is a brazen quality to the humour that you can’t help but admire the filmmakers’ derring-do for.

Second, there is real chemistry between Knoxville and his young co-star Nicoll, the latter of which made his big screen debut as Christian Bale’s son in ‘The Fighter’. Especially in the second half of the movie, Tremaine engineers some truly serious and sweet moments between grandpa and grandson, culminating in a surprisingly heartwarming finale when the pair converge on a seedy-looking bar and meet a real biker gang named ‘Guardians of the Children’ whose aim is to assist abused youths. Nicoll has an innocent charm of his own, and the buddy-pic bond that develops between Nicoll’s character Billy and his grandpa unfolds with unexpected empathy.

Notwithstanding that, this is still first and foremost a ‘Jackass’ movie, which as we had cautioned at the start, is not everyone’s idea of funny. We’re not talking ‘Candid Camera’ here, but a more, far more, extreme form of comic anarchy that will either leave you annoyed or doubling over with laughter. As long as you’re sure that you’re the latter when it comes to ‘Jackass’ humour, you’ll find this ‘Bad Grandpa’ a surprisingly entertaining concoction of adult frat-boy jokes with a good dollop of heart and warmth. 

Movie Rating:

(Not nearly as outrageous as any of the last three ‘Jackass’ films, this mix of scripted and improv comedy still holds its own thanks to an irrepressibly brazen attitude and some surprisingly heartwarming moments)

Review by Gabriel Chong