Film critics can craft a mean sentence when the mood – or muse – strikes.
But who knew how eloquent they could be when singing the praises of grown men who live to be smacked in the testicles?
Yes, the film “Jackass 3,” out today on Blu-ray and DVD, brought out the poet in many a movie critic.
Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew – the Peter Pan and Lost Boys of crazy self-destructive stunts – are now easing into middle-age and they are back with another superb absurdist nightmare … I think posterity will set him alongside French surrealist Benjamin Péret, famously photographed in the street shouting insults at an astonished and outraged priest – for the sheer, anarchic hell of it. Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
[Knoxville] surely deserves to be ranked as an artist alongside more highbrow provocateurs such as Harmony Korine. Jake Wilson, The Age
Watching Jackass 3-D was like being plunged into a Hieronymous Bosch painting of hell, yet this very reaction attests to the franchise’s primal, diabolical power. Dana Stevens, Slate
If physical comedy’s overriding purpose is to make fools laugh out loud, then the first two Jackass films should be regarded alongside Buster Keaton’s slapstick classics. Chris Faraone, The Boston Phoenix
And yet, when the original “Jackass” hit theaters in 2002, the critical reaction was less enthusiastic.
They even trumpeted the slams in the trailer for “Jackass 2,” the first being from my review, if memory serves, published in The Washington Times. I’m guessing film critics fear being seen as unhip and now fully embrace their inner “Jackass.”
(Photo: Johnny Knoxville and the guys are back in JACKASS 3D to be released by Paramount on October 15th, 2010. Photo credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
How are bandwagon fans not pathetic?
So a film that you all thought would suck makes a huge splash and you all fall over yourselves singing it’s praises? How lame.
What I hate more than this though is now we’ll see copycat films being released in a few years that will all fail and these same morons will be falling over themselves wondering why.
Sometimes it’s a fluke, and sometimes it can’t be explained. Accept it and move on. If a film sucks, it sucks, plain and simple. Trying to make it something more does nothing except make you look like the idiot that you are.
We haven’t seen the movies (I won’t go), but my husband will watch this show anytime he comes across it on television.
I think it’s a guy thing.
Claire: But it’s not funny!
Ivan Plapp: Of course it’s not funny, but it does make us laugh, and I like that. There’s a positive message for people, but if we want we can drop back a layer, and laugh – and if we’re in the chuckle demographic, it’s win win win.
Nathan Barley: That’s genius, peace and ****ing.
Ivan Plapp: Peace and ****ing, where have I heard that before?’
Nathan Barley: Probably my website – Trashbat.co.ck.
Ivan Plapp: Trashbat.co.ck… the pranks… now they’re really telling us something, aren’t they Claire? Something about ourselves, the political has become the personal… it’s Swift as Jackass.
Nathan Barley: …or even faster!
I think you have to see a Jackass movie to get it. When someone tells you the concept it’s hard not to conclude that this is the end of days and western civilization is over. When you see them, it’s just funny (at least to guys, but we like the 3 stooges too). My friends and I happened to see Jackass 2 on TV onetime and we nearly died laughing. For whatever reason, seeing a guy get hit in the crotch never grows old.
I usually pride myself on an ability to laugh at groin punch humor. But I stare at the Jackass films stone faced. I just don’t get it. Part of me wishes I did … part of me is glad I don’t!