Common Sense Note
Parents should know that this movie earns its R rating due to the excessive display of bodily fluids and use of vulgar language. But there's no MPAA rating that would provide any useful guidance about the movie's inappropriateness for audiences of any age. Parents should know that the movie includes very disgusting and visually explicit gags.
Families can talk about the difference between innocent slapstick humor and the kind of slapstick found in this film. When do they take it too far? Why would someone put themselves through these stunts? It's also worth discussing the kids who try to duplicate these stunts (despite the warnings) and end up seriously hurt. Are warnings really enough to stop some kids? Do the makers of these films and the MTV show have a responsibility for the safety of others beyond the posted warnings? Why or why not?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nell Minow
JACKASS isn't a movie in the conventional sense of the word. There's no story, and there are no characters. It isn't a documentary, because it features stunts created just for the movie. What is it, then? An endurance contest for adolescents (and perpetual adolescents) and a comedy for people so bereft of empathy that they think it's funny to see people hurt themselves.
When discussing the idea of seeing Jackass, you should ask yourself one question: How enjoyable would it be to watch people abuse their bodies to perform stunts in the most grotesque manner imaginable? If you answered, "highly enjoyable and extremely amusing," this is your movie. Anyone else, however, should run screaming in the other direction.
Jackass is an extended, more explicit version of the popular MTV show in which a group of idiotic guys performs idiotic stunts that involve such things as running around in their underwear and puking. Like the MTV show, the movie doesn't have a plot. It documents the same group of people from the TV show, led by Johnny Knoxville, performing extremely stupid and often very dangerous stunts.
To give you a taste of the movie's humor, one of the stunts involves a man snorting wasabi up his nose and then proceeding to vomit it out. Another stunt involves a man eating a snow cone -- except that in this case the man has urinated on the snow, and therefore knows he's eating his own bodily waste. Another involves a man using the demo toilet in a store's plumbing display, even though it's not hooked up to any plumbing. Then there are the stunts involving stuffing objects not intended for that purpose into bodily orifices also not intended for that purpose.
The most appropriate commentary on the movie comes from a cameraman, who becomes so disgusted that he throws up, which, of course, gets incorporated into the movie. Even for people who enjoy bathroom humor, Jackass wears thin because its unremitting brand of literally painful bathroom humor just isn't funny.
The one interesting feature of the movie is what it doesn't show: At no point do any women participate in the incredibly stupid, hazardous tricks. Was the director trying to make a subtle statement about the common sense (or lack thereof) of men vs. women? Jackass raises a fundamental question: How far should a person really go for laugh? After 120 minutes of watching endless, hazardous, foul, gory, gruesome, execrable, and moronic tricks the answer seems clear: not really as far as the "jackasses" in this movie.
If you enjoy slapstick, silly humor without a disgusting edge, try The Naked Gun or Top Secret!
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentExtreme real-life abuse that includes insertion of various substances and objects into orifices. |
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ViolencePainful, real-life injuries throughout. |
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LanguageExtreme: "f--k" and everything else exclaimed often (especially during stunts). |
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Social BehaviorAll characters are white males, and all males cheerfully go "below and beyond" for a laugh, embarrassing their friends and putting them in dangerous situations. Some stunts are very dangerous, and even though the movie includes a "do not try this at home" advisory, is it really enough? |
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