Jackass Number 2

Johnny Knoxville
Bam Margera
Steve-O
Chris Pontius
Jason Acuna

Directed by: Jeff Tremaine

The crew that made themselves famous by lighting their farts on fire, defying severe injury by jumping face first into walls, and offending parents groups across the country with the MTV television show Jackass, are back in their second full length feature. Much like the original film, Jackass Number 2 is a series of vignettes where the crew takes turns pulling pranks on each other, out-grossing each other and just generally putting themselves in harms way for laughs.

While this sequel does have the same stunts fans are familiar with from the original series, Jackass Number 2 focuses more on the gross out humor and random male nudity to make people laugh. Of course the humor is juvenile. Members of the gang dress up as very old women and wander around open-robed. There is more male nudity and vomiting than I think I have ever seen in a two hour time span. Some of the stunts are guaranteed to make you cringe and turn away. The high point of most of the vignettes involves farting, a large butt at close range, or someone throwing up. But it is hilarious. The art of the groin punch is the bread and butter for most of these guys and in this film you can see how familiar they are with and how they embrace it. These guys would probably climb into a shopping cart and launch themselves into a lake or any number of disgusting stunts just to make each other laugh. They seem to be genuinely having fun, and it is hard not to have fun with them. Watching someone get punched in the face repeatedly or being thrown in the air by a rampaging bull is supposed to be groan-worthy and not at all funny, but you will find yourself laughing in spite of yourself. After all, deep down, who doesn’t enjoy watching a buddy getting kicked in the groin? As long as it isn’t our groin getting kicked that is.

With the success of the original film, it seems the gang was pretty much given carte blanche to get drunk on a better class of beer and make asses of themselves pretty much anywhere in the world. We get to see gross out stunts in Mexico and India along with a few painful gadgets. The grand finale musical number only highlights the sheer goofiness of this film. Don’t go into this movie expecting high art or any semblance of a plot. Just expect a bunch of goofy guys acting like a bunch of goofy teenagers with a death wish and the willingness to drop their pants at will and you should be just fine.
 

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