Reviewing Jackass: Best and Last is a lot like telling Johnny Knoxville and crew they should be careful: what’s the point?
But here we are anyway, because I like to make work for myself. I’ll try to make things short.
This latest Jackass (is it really the last? It doesn’t even seem as though Knoxville is certain) feels a bit like those “revisited” episodes reality shows tend to cough up to make money without significant new investment. A mix of rehashed footage, alternate takes, and new gags, Jackass: Best and Last doesn’t really present anything we haven’t seen before.
That doesn’t mean it still isn’t funny as hell.
Even though, yes, this new Jackass movie has the original team members looking a little long in the tooth, and most of the group have matured just enough to not to put themselves in the line of fire as much as they used to, it was fun to see them reflect back on their nearly three decades of ridiculousness. And Best and Last is not without some new funny bits, including a trivia game where their heavily obese friend is lowered, ass cheeks hanging out, onto the face of whoever the unlucky individual is who answers the final question incorrectly. A game of twister, played shortly after consumption of extreme laxatives, also stands out in explosive ways.
Jackass: Best and Last is only half of a new movie, but my girlfriend and I—both fans of Jackass—laughed, cringed, and grimaced throughout. And in the end, that’s all that really matters.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.