Parents' Guide to Action Point

As with Knoxville's surprisingly likable Bad Grandpa, this movie is appealing and often funny, in a reckless, naughty way. Set over the course of a late-1970s summer at a lakeside theme park, Action Point has the raucous, carefree feel of something like Meatballs, Adventureland, or Wet Hot American Summer, only edgier (and, unlike the latter, it's not an homage to anything). It has a plot, but half the point is to use the theme park to stage ridiculous, Jackass-style stunts and pranks, such as knocking Knoxville down a waterslide with a high-pressure hose and smashing him through a barn door with a catapult.

When the plot does kick in, it's hard not to care at least a little bit about the touching, slightly clueless relationship between father and daughter -- and about the fate of the ramshackle park, especially when loathsome, greedy lawyers and businessmen are the villains. The movie does play with the idea that this 1970s "Wild West" ("people took responsibility for their own actions!") was preferable to today's more politically correct era. While one-sided, the argument at least offers an interesting discussion point. The vintage pop-punk songs are energetic, and the colorful, misfit supporting characters (the "s--tbirds") are fun (including Jackass veteran Chris Pontius) and lovably goofy. And the ending, more chaos than victory, is entirely appropriate.