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Jackass: Number Two
(2006)
Directed by
Jeff Tremaine
Review by
Zach Saltz
The opening
credits of
Jackass: Number Two
remind us that the central figures of the film we are about to see --
Johnny Knoxville, Bam, Wee Man -- are indeed professionals who will
attempt, in front of our very eyes, ludicrously dangerous stunts.
But this is slightly deceptive.
If they were true professionals, they wouldn’t mess up their
stunts as frequently as they do; as when, for example, Knoxville’s giant
red rocket to the moon experiences a major malfunction before takeoff
and the tip of it shoots into the sky, or when, while being branded by a
hot iron rod, Steve-O squirms and subsequently ruins his new phallic
engraving.
But it is
perhaps this unprofessionalism -- their capacity to make stupid mistakes
during their experiments -- that make them likeable and redemptive
characters.
A few nights
ago, I was speaking about how no film can be completely escapist --
every film, no matter how lavish or superfluous, employs some element of
realism or else there would be no continuity in the picture and
subsequent audiences would dismiss it.
What is most alluring about
Jackass: Number Two is its
brutal, painful realism; this is a film where there are at least six
counts of vomiting, dozens of screams of agonizing pain, and one scene
of crying.
Yes, contrary to
popular belief, there is crying in
Jackass and it happens to a
character who is terrified of snakes and becomes enraged when his
buddies secretly place a snake with him inside an encapsulated cage (a
King Cobra, no less).
But
only moments later, he’s on a teeter totter getting head-butted by a
bull.
Their sheer unfazed
compassion is enough to lift anyone’s spirit.
How do you
describe a movie like this?
Moreover, how do you make a film like this appealing to prospective
audiences?
I’m not quite
ready to recommend it (give me at least a few weeks to recover) but the
film certainly gives you your money’s worth.
It has laughs.
It
has colorful locations.
It
has lots and lots of wild stunts, some more inspired than others (the “Firehose
Rodeo” has a kind of understated brilliance).
It has noticeable celebrity cameos, which is something the first
film couldn’t quite boast: John Waters’ appearance here is a stark
reminder of how far into the abyss mainstream films have gone since
Pink Flamingos first shocked
audiences over three decades ago, and 36 Mafia becomes quite possibly
the first group to follow up an Oscar win with participation in
something called “Rake Jump”.
Jackass: Number Two
grossed $29 million in its first weekend of release, which seems to say
more about the dismal state of American film than the actual cinematic
appetites of audiences.
There is an undeniable lurid appeal to the whole thing, and a keen
appreciation of post-modern American ethos (as when, in a ball pit with
two anacondas, one of the guys ponders precipitously, “Weren’t these the
snakes that tried to kill J-Lo and Ice-T?”)
But still, the film perpetuates American vulgarity and extremely
short attention spans, the only stunt lasting over two minutes taking
place at the very end (and one of the film‘s lamer ones, at that).
As a motion picture, it perhaps fails, but is kind of a success
as a sociological survey, and is always stimulating.
Rating:
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