Jackass: Best and Final Review – The Final Funny Farewell to the Kings of Outrageous Comedy | Comedy movies

TBoy-Men of Jackass, a three-season MTV live-action comedy show that turned into a beloved periodical, showed a willingness to engage in all manner of anal investigation in the name of shocking laughter. (Perhaps most famously involves Ryan Dunn, who died in 2011, inserting a toy car into himself before taking an X-ray.) So it’s poignant to see the elderly crew take this to the natural next step in Jackass: Best and Last, where a gruff-voiced Steve-O undergoes a prostate exam — performed by an intelligent robot, of course. Later, the group takes medication used to cleanse the digestive system before a colonoscopy, then attempts to play Twister with a grim and disgusting time bomb looming. Photographer Lance Bangs, as always, tries to contain his vomiting.

It would be an exaggeration to describe the alleged fifth and final Jackass film as reflecting the aging process, at least more so than its predecessors. Even its sense of ending has been hinted at before: going back to 2010’s Jackass 3-D, Weezer’s nostalgic “Memories” has been peppered across end-credits shots of men over the years, and 2022’s Jackass Forever had a similar farewell tone. In Best and Last, someone goes so far as to tease mob boss Johnny Knoxville about whether audiences can believe him about this being the final movie, given he’s said this kind of thing before.

Knoxville clearly doesn’t intend to be disingenuous. It’s actually touchingly honest. Several times in the film, his voice breaks as he talks about the conclusion of the series. But what may ultimately be more compelling about this film’s final status is the fact that Jackass: Best and Last doesn’t feature a whole featurette of new stunts and pranks, not quite. Although no one says exactly so, the crew, who seem giddy the entire time, seems to realize that putting together a full 90 minutes of footage (which might involve filming more) could really put their lives in danger at their age. So the resulting project is closer to a true compilation film than any of the previous entries, somewhere between the Looney Tunes movies where new animated clips wrap around snippets of classic shorts, and a great album that comes packed with a second disc of new and rare songs.

Don’t misunderstand: there are plenty of new stunts for the old gang to perform. They’re not being replaced with younger replacements either, since of the new recruits from the previous film, only the guy nicknamed “Poopies” does much on camera, like injecting a ridiculous amount of lip filler as a joke. (Rachel Wolfson and Jasper Dolphin, both magicians in Jackass Forever, seem to come here primarily as moral support; they rarely perform any stunts, at least none that make the final cut.) In this respect, some of the not-so-recent footage is nonetheless new to most audiences. The film harkens back to the show’s early days for clips that MTV wouldn’t allow to air, including a hilarious segment in which Knoxville, wearing a prison jumpsuit and handcuffs, then visits a hardware store to buy a chainsaw. The film also opens with some impressive footage of MTV Knoxville before its screening, a sort of Jackass: Origins recap that includes a bulletproof vest; He’s nervous even knowing that it’s clear his theme will continue for at least another quarter-century.

Hardcore fans of the series and films may be disappointed by a film containing at least a third of the previously seen footage; There is also a risk of overshadowing the newer parts by placing them side by side with the classics. One new scene, designed as an escape room from hell, seems to peter out prematurely before it can truly fulfill its destiny as a slapstick version of Saw. But watching Jackass with a crowd is still exciting, and Knoxville still gets that. And by “it” I mean being willing to get into the ring with an angry bull, and then come back when he doesn’t quite get the shot he wants.

The fifth Jackass, even if it’s only a partial, final cut, is especially valuable in the wake of something like the sixth Scary Movie, which made a lot of noise about its willingness to go above and beyond (meaning, mostly, making stupid jokes about gay or trans people). The crew of Jackass put themselves in real physical danger for their comedy, and yet, even at their worst, the films are filled with a collective sense of joy and acceptance, rather than complacency over pushing the envelope. Before they leave, Team Jackass makes it clear that they are the true kings of horror comedy.