Jackass 3D is everything you’d expect and less
FILM | Chuck Koplinski
Since their invention in 1896, the vicarious experiences that motion pictures have provided have perhaps been the greatest source of their appeal. Whether it be plundering for treasure on the high seas, living happily ever after with the love of your life or winning the big sporting event in the final moments, film has given us plenty of vicarious satisfaction for more than 100 years. Now, thanks to Jackass 3D, the medium has shown us what it’s like to have a tooth ripped out by a Lamborghini.
That is probably the mildest of the gags in the latest installment of men behaving badly, which is the guiltiest of guilty pleasures for millions. That the film raked in $50 million during its first weekend confirms once more that the average mental age of the American filmgoer is about 12 and that its avatar is a cackling teenage boy. More than anything, this movie and those who flock to it is a prime subject for a sociologist eager to discern what is the appeal of seeing someone strapped inside a full porta-potty and then repeatedly sprung into the air while an interior camera captures the scatological horror.
It would take someone much smarter than me to get to the bottom of this but it is an interesting question. I suppose it must be the maxim of “better you than me,” that underscores the film’s appeal. The audience I saw the movie with was laughing, groaning and gagging at times to the exploits of Johnny Knoxville and his crew. (In the interest of full disclosure, I was too, but it’s not something I’m proud of.) When they’re not trying to roller skate with buffalos, play tetherball with a ball full of bees or taking a baseball hit off a tee in the privates, these “artists” attempt to navigate a gauntlet of 15 stun guns and three cattle prods, pin a tail on an actual donkey and dodge shoes, tomatoes and other objects propelled at them by a jet plane’s engine exhaust.
As imaginative and masochistic as some of these gags are, you know the guys have hit the wall when they begin to urinate on each other and think that having a sow eat an apple from one of their behinds is a good idea. Thanks to this last gag, I can now cross out “Visit Tijuana” from my bucket list.
To their credit, the audience groaned loudly during these last two sequences as well as during a bit in which that consummate pro Steve-O decides to drink about a half cup of sweat gathered from the body of his partner-in-grime, Preston Lacey. But at that point, it’s too late to voice any objections or suddenly develop a sense of good taste. Your money has already gone into the pockets of these modern day sideshow performers and in the end, while you might not feel good about having sat through Jackass 3D, there’s no doubt that Knoxville and the boys have delivered everything they’ve promised.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at ckoplinski@usd116.org.
