Knoxville pushes boundaries too far in sophomoric grossout sure to offend
Rockets, vultures, MMA stars, scorpions, and Machine Gun Kelly are not your typical combination of ingredients for prime cinematic stew. Alas, this overwhelming list, alongside so much more, is exactly what viewers are subjected to when dedicating two non refundable hours of their lives to go see Jackass Forever. As the fourth installment of the ‘legendary’ franchise, Jackass Forever advertisements promised a plethora of gut-wrenching stunts paired with modern movie technology to enhance the gimmicks of the original crew. Johnny Knoxville, the man behind it all, skillfully utilized these chaotic advertisements to preview the newest additions to the family, one which significantly contributes to the ensuing chaos.
As expected, Jackass Forever features endless creative, immature, explicit, and sometimes stomach-wrenching stunts involving various new and old members of the group. From less visually pleasing scenes such as bee-covered male genitalia and an impressive wedgie skit, to some well thought-out and performed stunts like a staged furniture store incident with the infamous Bad Grandpa character, portrayed as the elderly man Irving Zismen (still Johnny Knoxville, from his culminating spin-off Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa). This wasn’t the only well-crafted stunt produced by the crew, as the film enlightened viewers with multiple celebrity guest appearances from musician Machine Gun Kelly in a cycling, giant hand, and swimming pool combo, alongside Ridiculousness host Rob Dyrdek in an explosive musical chairs DJ scene.
The guest appearances didn’t stop there, as a series of stunts performed against Danger Ehren’s, one of the multiple beloved original Jackass members, came courtesy of one of the many recycled and improved stunts all of the way back from Jackass: The Movie: The Cup Test. This series-of-unfortunate-events stunt featured MMA Heavyweight Francis Ngannou, New Jersey Devils hockey player PK Subban, and Danielle O’Toole, an Olympic softball pitcher. These three athletes all have one thing in common: they can strike a target, hard. This stunt, along with many others, confirmed the crude and immature nature of the Jackass franchise and its creators. Although, in comparison to the previous films, it feels as though Jackass Forever exhibits a rather intense number of stunts performed against the male genitalia, making the film somehow even more obscene than its predecessors.
The opening scene sets the stage for the following dozens of stunts. While Jackass 3D was held to equally cringeworthy standards, the level of indecent exposure within the newest installment is nearly unbearable. A green-painted male organ starred in the opening scene, portraying something akin to Godzilla. As it ravaged through a model city chock-full of group members while they were introduced one-by-one in the opening credits, viewers were met with a stomach-churning expression of ‘creativity’ that probably could have garnered an NC-17 rating. This gross display could not have been further from the colorful and energetic nature of the Jackass 3D opening, which featured each member, humorously adorned with a costume, standing in front of a rainbow backdrop as chaos rained down. While past Jackass films focused on the humor within spontaneity, Jackass Forever definitely makes a more grotesque, extremely adolescent impression, almost as if Knoxville and his cronies are trying to, ahem, compensate for their advancing ages..
Another disappointing aspect of the new film is the crew itself. While viewers are exposed to some of the consequences of the past movies permanently marked by fake teeth, scars, tattoos, and Steve-O’s voice within the returning revered group members, they are also met with a mix-up of members. Notably missing was original member Bam Margera (Jackass: The Movie), a quintessential part of the group to loyal viewers. While Knoxville, according to an interview with The Rolling Stone, wishes to reconnect with Margera for Jackass 4.5, the future is foggy with the story of a lawsuit and firing mid-production of this movie. Admittedly, the past bonds built between the Jackass family felt somewhat weakened within the film, but that could also be a symptom of the many new faces that joined the set.
On the bright side, among the new “characters,” a businesswoman named Rachel Wolfson enters the comedy crew as the first official female Jackasser. This was an exciting component of the movie at first, but is dampened by her scattered and minor appearances throughout the movie. However, in light of a majority of the movie being a male crotch-fest, her sparse scenes are well-crafted and extremely entertaining. From scorpion botox to a taser-licking mime, Wolfson makes the most of her new role.
A few personal favorites other than Wolfson’s scenes involve Ehren again with a stunt involving leather straps, a chair, and a bear, alongside a hilarious heart-racing scene in which various members are led into a room, told there is a rattlesnake present, and the lights are flipped. Finally, a scene heavily featured in the advertisements, the Flight of Icarus, in which Knoxville himself, adorned with wings, is expelled from the barrel of a comically large cannon and elegantly sails through the air and smacks into the water below.
Alas, the lure of male genitalia stunts the sun in Jackass Forever’s case, and Knoxville and crew definitely flew too close. If watched alone, and with an extremely ageless mind, one could enjoy the atrocious number of these jokes, but to a loyal Jackass enjoyer, this film is a disappointment compared to the previous legendary films. If anything, it should be named Jackass: Forever Scarred.
By Paige Helfrich
Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue V
February 22, 2022