Cracking open a time capsule on almost three decades of stunts, pranks and competitive male-bonding rituals, “Jackass: Best and Last” unfolds as something like an accidental version of Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” — if “Boyhood” placed even more emphasis on extended adolescence.
The fifth feature film to be derived from the long-running MTV series (not counting spinoffs like “Bad Grandpa”), “Best and Last” reunites the crew for one final hurrah. The seven returning original cast members have survived a quarter century’s worth of testicular trauma, angry animals and elaborately conceived wedgies. The group’s leader, Johnny Knoxville, has gone gray. But the video quality has improved, and the franchise demonstrates again that it is always possible to find fresh uses for anal cavities.
There was a time when the show, which first aired in 2000, was regarded as a pernicious influence on America’s youth; a disclaimer informed viewers that all the skits were performed by professionals and shouldn’t be imitated. “Jackass: Best and Last,” which mixes new footage and old, wastes no time getting to its most dangerous material by showing a 1998 segment described onscreen as the “birth of ‘Jackass.’” It involves Knoxville playing his own version of Russian roulette. This prologue gets a warning on top of the usual warning: “Do not attempt this. It’s extra stupid and could kill you.”
So please: Don’t try any of this at home. But as humans have retreated into their phones, there is something oddly moving about watching men so in touch with their bodies and eager to explore how they work. Part of the ostensible appeal of a fifth installment is in seeing whether these defining Gen Xers are still agile enough to execute their most disgusting ideas.
Some are up to the challenge. Chris Pontius shows off his dexterity with nude pole vaulting in a tribute to the first Olympics. The aftermath of an electrocution-related gag proves that Ehren McGhehey (a.k.a. Danger Ehren) is still the king of anguished screams. But “Jackass: Best and Last” doesn’t shy away from the idea that the gang’s riskiest, most physically demanding stunts are behind it.
“I can’t ride red rockets or bulls anymore,” Knoxville admits at the outset, and “Best and Last” — once again directed by Jeff Tremaine — makes a motif out of encouraging viewers to see their doctors. In “Robot Rectal Exam,” Steve-O gets his prostate checked by a surly android, with peanut butter as lubricant. Later, he urges viewers to get colonoscopies in a segment called Human Pretzel. It combines strong laxatives and plastic wrap with a game of Twister. Lance Bangs, the cameraman whose penchant for throwing up during filming has long been a running joke, surprises everyone by not losing his lunch.
Yet a regrettable portion of “Jackass: Best and Last” is simply regurgitated material. (There’s even a special credit for a “best of” cinematographer, presumably because such a large percentage of this film has been seen before.) Far too much of the movie consists of the guys playing the tape and reminiscing about their favorite exploding portable toilets.
Many of the vintage sketches remain, in their own, hyper-specialized way, immaculate. Remember in “Jackass the Movie” (2002) when Ryan Dunn (who died in 2011) inserted a toy car into his rear, then went for an X-ray? We see an early segment in which Knoxville, dressed as a handcuffed escapee from Los Angeles County Jail, goes to a hardware store seeking a hacksaw. From 2001, we watch the group stage a kidnapping of an in-on-the-joke Brad Pitt at the very public setting of Pink’s Hot Dogs in Los Angeles. And Bam Margera (who had a complicated falling-out with the troupe) is restored to a “Silence of the Lambs”-inspired sketch from “Jackass Forever” (2022).
For better and worse, though, “Jackass: Best and Last” leaves a sense of a full-fledged send-off avoided — of boundaries left unpushed. Rachel Wolfson, the first female member of the main team, is somehow given even less to do than in the preceding film. But it’s hard to begrudge the founders this ultimate opportunity to navel gaze. They’ve looked in every other orifice.
Jackass: Best and Last
Rated R. It’s extra stupid and could kill you. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.
