22 years after the start, the cult show “Jackass” is coming to the cinema for the fourth time. The crew around Johnny Knoxville sticks to the proven concept with incoherent tricks and pranks.
Berlin – Maybe it’s because of the pandemic that the fourth film in the iconic “Jackass” series has had a great start in the USA.
Basically, the crew around Johnny Knoxville does nothing different than they watched when the US television show started on MTV in 2000: a series of incoherent, painful, very shallow and often quite funny stunts and tricks.
Many familiar faces from the regular cast are there. In addition to the now grey-haired Knoxville, there are Steve-O, Wee Man, Chris Pontius and Dave England. There are also a few new members, including Rachel Wolfson, who is probably the first female “Jackass” member. In the film, for example, she has her face stung by a scorpion in order to receive “natural botox”.
And what other stunts do the audience expect? Knoxville ends up in hospital with a concussion and broken bones after being gored by a bull while wearing torero gear. Or disguised as Icarus with wings, he lets himself be shot out of a cannon. The other “Jackass” members are unexpectedly locked in completely dark rooms with a real rattlesnake. Night vision goggles allow viewers to watch the men panic as a plastic snake is thrown at them or pinched with small pliers.
The “Jackass” people pioneered an internet age where all of YouTube and TikTok is full of hundreds of thousands of clicked pranks and stunts. If you look around the cinema hall, you see wide-eyed spectators, hands held in front of their faces – accompanied by repeated loud laughter. For many, Jackass Forever is arguably a welcome distraction during this trying time. dpa
