There’s not a whole lot to say about a movie like this. Films consisting solely of practical jokes have no plot to speak of except prank setups, no acting save for the people in on the joke keeping a straight face. So really, it just comes down to whether or not the pranks are funny.
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa actually does have a small plot: dirty old man Irving Zisman (really Jackass ringleader Johnny Knoxville in makeup) traveling across the country to take his grandson (Jackson Nicoll) to live with his father. But like Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat, this is just a way to tie together sequences of the two pulling real pranks (some physical, some bodily or scatological, some just conversational, all very juvenile) on unsuspecting bystanders. It’s actually significantly less structured and produced than Borat, as the scenes setting up and carrying on the story are also pranks.
And most of it is very funny. A few sequences go on a bit too long, a few reactions are a little less outrageous that the film was clearly hoping for, and at least one scene involving a charity biker gang falls completely flat (not because of any offensiveness, but due to the reactions simply not being that funny). But the majority of the time, I was laughing. This is as much due to the reactions as the people eliciting them. Knoxville has all but perfected his provocateur skills, and knows how to make a situation funny when he’s not getting his desired response. Nicoll isn’t quite as good on his own as his veteran counterpart, but together the two have some hilarious scenes. And thankfully, the movie doesn’t go to some of the more the painful and disgusting lengths (or depths maybe?) that Jackass is known for.
One complaint is that some of the better gags were already revealed in the previews, and are still funny onscreen but not as much as they would have been seeing them for the first time (the exception being an extended sequence with a giant plaster penguin, which for some reason gets funnier the longer it goes and stupider it gets). I also had the thought cross my mind that, in the era of YouTube and online short series, the concept of many pranks strung together into a movie seems a little obsolete. But these little gripes come off as just fishing for something to criticize. I’ll do no more of that, and just admit I had a good, stupid time.
And most of it is very funny. A few sequences go on a bit too long, a few reactions are a little less outrageous that the film was clearly hoping for, and at least one scene involving a charity biker gang falls completely flat (not because of any offensiveness, but due to the reactions simply not being that funny). But the majority of the time, I was laughing. This is as much due to the reactions as the people eliciting them. Knoxville has all but perfected his provocateur skills, and knows how to make a situation funny when he’s not getting his desired response. Nicoll isn’t quite as good on his own as his veteran counterpart, but together the two have some hilarious scenes. And thankfully, the movie doesn’t go to some of the more the painful and disgusting lengths (or depths maybe?) that Jackass is known for.
One complaint is that some of the better gags were already revealed in the previews, and are still funny onscreen but not as much as they would have been seeing them for the first time (the exception being an extended sequence with a giant plaster penguin, which for some reason gets funnier the longer it goes and stupider it gets). I also had the thought cross my mind that, in the era of YouTube and online short series, the concept of many pranks strung together into a movie seems a little obsolete. But these little gripes come off as just fishing for something to criticize. I’ll do no more of that, and just admit I had a good, stupid time.
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