Jackass -- The Moive

Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Director: Jack Tremaine
Running time: 88 minutes
Language: English
Currently showing
[See Japan Times movie listings]


Bad Santa

Rating: * * (out of 5)
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Running time: 91 minutes
Language: English
Opens Dec. 18
[See Japan Times movie listings]

Let's get one thing straight: "Jackass" is a very, very, very stupid movie. But that's not really a valid point of criticism, as it's kind of like complaining that a porn flick is dirty. Johnny Knoxville and friends fully intended this to be a stupefying collection of lowbrow laughs and boneheaded behavior. If that's not the trip you want to take, don't buy the ticket.

"Jackass -- The Movie" is basically a more hardcore version of the popular MTV series in which Knoxville and his equally addled homeboys engage in reality-TV pranks and stunts, usually involving extreme pain, humiliation or both. Whether it's paper cuts between the toes, snorting lines of wasabi, a golf-cart demolition derby or just tooling around Shibuya in panda-bear costumes and smashing shopping carts into each other, the "fun" never stops.

What's truly amazing is this film even got made, considering how unlikely it is that any insurer would underwrite stuff like bottle-rocket-powered roller-blades or inserting a toy car into one's bottom. Virtually every scene in this film involves someone writhing in agony, and it's rather amazing no one was crippled.

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