Film

Jackass: Number Two

Paul Cook 12/12/2006

Rating: 3/5

Pushing the boundaries is a term banded around loosely these days. The Jackass guys seem to think they're pushing the boundaries with blatant stupidity. Maybe they are. Allowing yourself to be shot with a stinger mine containing several hundred rubber balls at over 500m/s is some achievement, exactly what that is? I'm still unsure. The second Jackass instalment is far from pushing any original, artistic and long-lasting boundaries which the modern audience craves, but it's a “right-old-laugh,” not for the faint-hearted.

Jackass fans won't be disappointed as number two manages to disgust, disturb and unsettle the stomach as much as the first. Blatant disregard for safety typically features, inviting the audience to laugh at the cast, rather than with them. In places Jackass: Number Two is as bad as Dirty Sanchez - a cheap, distasteful wannabe-Jackass.At times though the simple, slapstick approach had me in stitches and it's evident that films like this, despite their low-credibility can make us all laugh at some point.

Knoxville's rocket-skit is brilliant, clean comedy and highlights the needlessness of some of the film's explicit, stomach-churning sketches. His bull-skits are deadly and show a total lack of consideration of the possible consequences, but still they make you laugh. Loud. Knoxville's involvement in the film is key to any success it might experience, without it this film wouldn't be worth the ticket-stub it's printed on. Few films manage to get away with content like Jackass and Number Two comes close to being thrown in with the bucket-loads that fail. A few moments of genius protrude from an otherwise murky and distasteful film, Johnny Knoxville almost single-handedly rescues it from disaster. However, despite the amount of times I laughed and however much I respected Knoxville for “taking one for the team” watching it made me feel embarrassed. There are far better comedies in the cinema and on the DVD shelves. I suggest you spend your fiver on those instead.