Jackass: Best and Last is in theaters on June 26.
“My butthole really hurts,” remarks Steve-O in the midst of Jackass: Best and Last. And hey, no surprise there, because just in the course of this movie’s new material – much less what he’s endured in the past – we’ve seen Steve-O allow a robot to stick its large, jagged finger up his butt. And that’s before one of the ever-nebulous Jackass “stunts” involves Steve-O and several of his cohorts violently soiling themselves while in the midst of playing a very physical, close-quarters game.
But it’s just another day at the office for this group, the core members of whom have been somehow doing their unique mixture of wild, raucous, impressive, foolhardy and sometimes outright nauseating things for the over 25 years since MTV’s Jackass TV series debuted in 2000. But the end is here, with the series officially wrapping up with this fifth motion picture installment – they swear for real this time!
The film’s subtitle hints at the construction of Best and Last, which intermixes brand new material with a clip show/greatest hits approach that revisits material from the past. The end result doesn’t quite live up to what’s come before, feeling like an epilogue of sorts more than its own full-fledged new Jackass movie. Yet it’s not as awkward or rigid as some fans feared it might be, because Johnny Knoxville and his cohorts are upfront about what’s going on from the start and how it’s all about looking over their history, with clips from the past often set up by modern-day discussions of these moments from the guys.
There’s also some nice layering here done by Jackass’ perennial director, Jeff Tremaine. For instance, rather than just cutting to a clip of Steve-O’s infamous “Poo Cocktail Supreme” stunt from Jackass 3D, we begin this specific trip down memory lane portion of the movie with a never-before-seen stunt filmed for the Jackass TV show that got Knoxville in trouble with the law. Then we see how Knoxville would go on to film the original “Poo Cocktail” stunt just after that bit (while worrying the show itself might be in trouble now, thanks to MTV’s unhappiness with what had just occurred), and then go into Steve-O’s “Supreme” version from the third film.
It’s appreciated how Tremaine, Knoxville, producer Spike Jonze, and all involved add in material we’ve never seen (or, in some cases, hasn’t been widely seen at least) to the archival footage. This includes some moments that are fascinating for die-hard Jackass fans, including a genuinely life-endangering stunt Knoxville filmed in 1998 as test footage – that you can absolutely understand MTV’s refusal to air – and an expanded version of the memorable “Silence of the Lambs” stunt from Jackass Forever that has been restored to include former Jackass member Bam Margera participating, whose footage was excised from that sequence after he was fired as a result of his ongoing substance abuse issues.
From test footage to TV series footage to deleted scenes to Bad Grandpa spinoff movie footage, the entire history of Jackass is culled from here in a properly nostalgic, fond farewell manner. Oh, and if you love the Brad Pitt “The Abduction” stunt from the TV series as much as I do, you’ll also be happy about getting both modern day context for how they pulled it off, and also a bit of additional footage included from the amazing night that Pitt led a bunch of Los Angelenos to believe they’d just seen him dragged into a van and kidnapped right in front of their eyes.
As for the new stuff, it’s fun and funny for sure and it doesn’t feel like a tiny or inconsequential part of the movie. Plenty of screen time is spent on new stunts involving stuff like a Jackass take on an Escape Room or a trivia game with dire consequences for the loser that involve the sizeable rear end of one of the younger crew who joined the team in Jackass Forever, Zach Holmes (whose butt is prominently featured in more than one stunt).
On the other hand, the new stuff does generally feel smaller compared overall to what’s come before. The fact that Best and Last was shot on a rather short schedule compared to other Jackass movies isn’t surprising. That’s not just because new footage takes up less screen time, but also because it all seems more contained this time out, sticking to a few buildings or backlots versus the earlier films having some big location and weather/environment changes, sometimes including trips overseas. And as outrageous and legitimately funny as many of these stunts are, and as painful as it no doubt is to, say, have your penis be given a shock or to have a row of shoes spin around while hitting you in the crotch, it’s also clear that these stunts are rarely as large scale or daunting as what’s come before (and that a couple of cast members are present but rarely actively participating).
But look, the fact is most of these guys are in their 50s now. And so you can be a bit disappointed to not see them go as all out as they once did, but also understand that they just don’t have the capabilities to do so anymore. Hell, Knoxville has quite literally been medically ordered not to do what he once did, after the bad injuries he sustained on Jackass Forever’s bull stunt. So yeah, it definitely feels like it’s time to finally wrap it all up, but it’s also hard to begrudge them the indulgence of doing so onscreen. And the thing is, it’s a truly sweet and loving send off, which is funny to say about a movie that had me feeling queasy thanks to seeing so much onscreen poop covering a mat on the floor at one point. Yet that’s just the magic of Jackass and its depiction of a bunch of guys doing profoundly dumb and disgusting things who also love each other and have charmed the audience into loving them in turn.
Johnny Knoxville gets openly emotional and choked up more than once in Jackass: Best and Last, because this whole series and the people he makes it with clearly mean so much to him and it’s hard for him to say goodbye. As both that previously unreleased footage that opens the movie and the Jackass Forever bull stunt underline, Knoxville could have quite literally died more than once making Jackass, had things gone just a bit differently. Thankfully, he did not, and as much as it might be sad for him to see it come to an end – just as it can be for longtime fans – he can do so with his head held high, because he made something that made people laugh so much through the years. And something that showed them so much male genitalia in the process, in all of its many shapes, sizes, and forms.
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