Within seconds, the fifth instalment of the strangest documentary series sets a different tone. Jackass films traditionally prepares the audience immediately with absurd openings like bulls tearing through an urban neighbourhood or Cockzilla destroying Tokyo while blasting the Jackass crew in the process. The final film takes a drastic shift in tone as the audience is transported back to 1998 with a camera crew of three people, a bulletproof vest, porn magazines, and a revolver. Jackass ends the film where it all began, Johnny Knoxville performing his first stunt on camera in the middle of nowhere. Knoxville plays his own twisted game of Russian Roulette, the revolver clicking as his two friends nervously hold the camera waiting for either complete disaster or the greatest moment filmed on camera.
That’s what makes the Jackass franchise an interesting piece of film history. Slapstick comedy isn’t new but the format of some friends holding a camera while blowing up porta potties felt amateurish and therefor authentic. It unknowingly was a birthing ground for a new genre of entertainment before TikTok or YouTube skyrocketed. Jackass, for better or worse, discovered that anyone with a camera can create content to entertain millions with little to no artistic merit, sometimes audiences want to watch a Scorsese classic and sometimes they’re in the mood to see someone get their penis electrocuted.
The Jackass franchise has always been beloved by my family. I recall spending many nights growing up with my father and brother laughing at Steve-O tightrope walking over a pool of alligators and Preston/Wee-Man’s bungee jump. The original trilogy was played more times in the Philipson household than The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Star Wars trilogy put together. The films are interchangeable, pick any Jackass film at random and you’ve guaranteed 90 minutes of entertainment where adults soil their undergarments or get thrown around by a wild animal. The original three films are the holy grail of what content creators strive to achieve. A YouTuber can spend their whole career and fail to reach the success of Knoxville getting tossed by a bull. When Jackass Forever was announced, there was hesitation on if the Jackass team can recreate the same magic over a decade later. The fourth instalment put the fears quickly to rest with some of the craziest stunts seen on camera including a bear eating salmon off Danger Ehren’s crotch, thousands of bees hanging off Steve-O’s crotch, and professional athletes taking turns destroying Ehren’s crotch. Despite the notable pattern of crotch related stunts, Jackass Forever also paid tribute to some classics they attempted in the first three instalments and on the Jackass MTV show by creating elaborate extensions of these ideas such as launching the porta potty into the sky rather than tipping it over.
These references are the extent of Jackass Forever’s reflection of its past, it’s always been a series about revolutionizing and adapting. Each instalment becomes a time capsule of that era, the original two being core texts of pre-YouTube creativity, Jackass 3D becoming vomit/poop focused stunts with poorly aged 3-D shots, and Jackass Forever being a post-Covid reminder of what we had before the world collapsed. Jackass: Best and Last no longer feels like a revolution of the franchise and becomes what I feared from 2022, a relic of what it once was. Due to the original crew being in their 50-60s, the stunts are limited to feces related humour or clips from their previous films. The newer blood take the more dangerous, cinematic moments of the film but even those are sparingly used with only a classic shock collar gag and ram encounter to show for it. Unfortunately the final film resorts to being the worst episode of a sitcom series, with over half the runtime being original members sitting by the camera disclosing their favourite moments followed by the scene they just described. It’s a glorified clip show with some great reminders of how great the franchise once was. Jackass forgoes it’s trend of reinventing the formula and shifts towards nostalgic sentimentality. Johnny Knoxville steps away from the bull ring and performs zero stunts in this film, unless you count the one time he gets electrocuted when asked about hosting Fear Factor. The face of Jackass resorts to being a madman maniacally laughing at his new recruits force to sustain a slew of traps, going as far as literally building an Escape Room from Hell that feels like a snippet from upcoming Saw XI. Knoxville spends the majority of film sitting in a chair explaining what this franchise meant for him before closing this chapter of his life, and that’s why it’s best to not see this as the fifth film but rather a love letter to the gang we’ve grown with for 2+ decades.
The opening sequence promises a new perspective on the franchise. Despite the clicking of the revolver being the first stunt Knoxville ever filmed, it might be the most intense moment in this franchise’s historic run. The rest of the film tries to chase that moment but despite Knoxville holding back sentimental tears, its ironically the first time the franchise loses it’s authentic charm. The reliance on clips we’ve all seen makes for an enjoyable theatre experience but fails to stand on its own. I watched Jackass: Best and Last with my father in the theatre and it was a great experience reliving our favourite moments on the big screen for the first time. It’s crowd pleasing references are great for a packed theatre but will fail to spark the same joy while sitting at home binging these films during a summer weekend. The one moment that they absolutely get right is its swan song finale, ending the final film the exact same way they began the franchise with a large shopping cart barrelling through smoke and explosions. Seeing the original team together exactly as they were in 2002 is a reminder that not much has changed with these men and perhaps ourselves and thats okay. The film doesn’t do anything interesting, it relives its finest moments as a celebration of their lives and retroactively the audiences lives growing up with these films. Jackass: Best and Last is definitely not the best of the franchise, but Knoxville makes it abundantly clear several times during the runtime that Jackass is officially done. It’s a strange documentary series that has defined the 2000s shift in content, despite the conclusion feeling like wet fart seen in endless Jackass stunts, it’s nice to receive some finality towards a beloved franchise.
Rating: 2/5