Susan Granger’s review of “Jackass Number Two” (Paramount Pictures)
Idiocy comes in many guises, as do varieties of humor. So, here’s a quick quiz:
Do you have an obsession with bodily fluids?
Does a beer enema make you giggle?
Do you find vomit scenes hilarious?
Do you consider graphic proctologic trauma entertainment?
Do you really want to see someone defecate on-camera?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, buy a ticket for this sequel. It’s all here.
Blending the line between slapstick and sadism, Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius and director Jeff Tremaine have assembled a tasteless, repulsive series of life-threatening stunts and painful pranks, which began on MTV and jumped to the big screen. They wrestle snakes, cattle-brand themselves and pose as terrorists.
Redolent of recent headlines about the tragic stingray death of Aussie naturalist Steve Irwin, the guys perform what they call the Anaconda Ball Pit, involving three Jackassers, two snakes and a tank of plastic balls. Although – to his credit – after the Medicine Ball Dodgeball, Margera declares, “That was fun. Let’s never do that again.”
Even director Spike Jonze shows up to join these merry lunatics for some self-inflicted torture, most of which cannot be described in a family newspaper. And it all winds up at the end with a big Broadway/Hollywood-style musical number.
Adolescent boys are the prime audience, despite the R-rating for violence, language, nudity, alcohol and crude humor. I wonder what it takes to get an NC-17 these days. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Jackass Number Two” is a crude, depraved, imbecilic 1. It tells us something about the demoralizing state of movie audiences today when donkey dung like “Jackass Number Two” emerges as #1 at the box-office the week of its release.
