This is going to be the shortest movie review I’ve ever written, because if I were to describe the scenes in “Jackass: Number Two” in great detail – and granted, I’m going to have to explain some of them – I’d be ruining it for everyone. And since this is one of those “Snakes on a Plane”-type ‘you’re in or you’re out on the title alone’ movies, I’ll try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. But I will say this: I loved “Jackass: Number Two.” In fact, it’s clear that Johnny Knoxville & Co. took a good long look at the first “Jackass” movie and recognized what they needed to do in order to improve upon it. And improve upon it they did.
How so, you ask? For starters, Party Boy is nowhere to be found until the closing credits, dancing with a group of Bollywood princesses (that’s a much better dance partner than Japanese businessmen). In fact, Chris Pontius (Party Boy’s name by day) does very little in “Jackass: Number Two,” save for the oh-no-you-DI’INT opening scene and another bit that is the kind of thing normally reserved for resident gross-out artist Steve-O. When Pontius says later that he’s completely ashamed of himself for doing what he’s just done, you can’t help but feel the same for watching him do it. The second smart move the Jackasses made was to move away from the awkward let’s-fuck-with-people-not-in-on-the-joke bits, though Spike Jonze does a great recurring bit as an old woman whose boobs are constantly falling out of her blouse. Think Miss Choksondik from “South Park,” and you’re close. Seriously. Sadly.
As for Steve-O, I now know what he means when he told me in an interview that he found the experience of shooting the movie so horrifying. Dude’s lucky he has a right foot and any feeling in his left cheek, but even his experiences pale in comparison to those of Bam Margera, who’s caught on camera at movie’s end literally begging for there to be no “Jackass 3” (to say more would spoil the fun). If this installment of the “franchise,” if you can actually call it a franchise, has any theme to it, it’s prank, prank, and then prank some more. Bees, snakes, pubes, and air-propelled boxing gloves are all fair game. Everybody is punk’d at least once, except for Knoxville, of course, since he could have them all killed and no one would ever find the bodies.
You’re not looking for more details, are you? Come on, anyone who read the first paragraph of this review already knew they were going to see this movie. And you just wanna know if it’s good, right? Oh, yes, it’s good. And, like Jigsaw said in “Saw II,” oh yes, there will be blood. And puke. And semen. Aw, darn it, I’ve said too much.
4 / 5 Stars
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Ryan Dunn, Jason “Wee Man” Acuna, Spike Jonze, Ehren McGheyhey, Dave England
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Interview:
Check out our interview with Steve-O for more on the making-of the new film.
DVD Features:
The unrated DVD release of “Jackass: Number Two” is loaded with tons of great material including an audio commentary with the Jackass gang, a making-of featurette, sixteen deleted scenes, twenty-nine addition segments, an outtake reel and much, much more.
