As a child who grew up in the early 2000’s, I watched my fair share of Jackass. Although I’ve outgrown that sort of thing, I still always make it a point to check out whatever movie the Jackass crew is releasing, as it always takes me back quite a bit to those carefree days of the early 2000s that my friends and I would laugh aimlessly with, but mostly at.
The latest installment presented by Jackass is Bad Grandpa. If you’re not familiar with Jackass in any way, it’s an extension of one of the longstanding pranks on Jackass where Johnny Knoxville, the ringleader of the Jackass crew, dresses up as an 86-year-old elderly man named Irving Zisman. He goes around doing absurd hidden camera pranks on regular people who have no idea that all of this is fake and literally made to get a reaction out of them.
In this version of Irving’s story, he has to take his 8-year-old grandson Billy to his father’s place in North Carolina after Bill’ys mom goes to jail. The 8-year-old kid is played brilliantly by child actor Jackson Nicoll.
The two of them form a dangerous tag team that have unlimited possibilities with the drastic differences between them in age. I won’t tell you about any of the details of the films pranks or happenings, as the element of surprise is a big part of what these guys have going for them. But let me tell you, there are two scenes in Bad Grandpa that had me laughing harder and longer than any other comedy this year. The sheer ridiculousness of what Knoxville will do to obtain a laugh has to be appreciated.
The real star of the film is young Jackson Nicoll. The nine-year-old actor doesn’t just hold his own against Knoxville, he steals the show. He is able to play the sweet innocence that the role demands when his act requires it, and then he is instantly able to turn on the Jackass side, all while keeping in character. It was amazing.
The best part about these Jackass films, is the people who get involved. The brilliant Spike Jonze (who releases Her next month, see our review here), who is always involved in Jackass’ productions, not only helped produce the film but helped bring the story together along with co-writers Knoxville and director Jeff Tremaine, as well as Adam Small, and Fax Bahr.
Surprisingly the grandpa/grandson storyline between Knoxville and Nicoll has odd moments of sentimentality, although fake, it does have some surprisingly touching moments. This helps when the rest of the movie is so over the top and in your face with ridiculousness. But these guess have their formula, stick with it, and the hijinks work to hilarious results.
I laughed quite frequently, and I laughed hard. These guys have done it, yet again.
Join the conversation