Jacka–: Best and Last is a 90-minute slog of questionably sane individuals brutalizing each other. The movie is packed with violent and dangerous stunts, graphic nudity, gross-out humor and a torrent of foul, vulgar language.
In 2000, Jacka— aired on MTV. The reality slapstick stunt comedy show, which featured a Johnny Knoxville-captained group of guys with a questionable sense of self-preservation, exploded in popularity and spawned a media franchise that has lasted over a quarter of a century.
With Jacka–: Best and Last, Knoxville and crew aim to bring the infamous stunt series to a close.
But if they’re going out, they’re going out with a bang.
That “bang” takes the form of the usual smattering of incredibly dangerous stunts (some new and some pulled from previous Jacka– productions) paired with a plethora of utterly vile content.
Hey, nobody died! But that’s probably the only positive to be found here.
Someone seems to have a tattoo of the Ichthys, or “Jesus Fish.”
It seems that many members of the Jacka– crew cannot wait to strip down to their skivvies and beyond—something they find endlessly hilarious. As a result, Jacka–: Best and Last contains several scenes of graphic male nudity and, unfortunately, the camera often lingers on the bodies of these naked, middle-aged men, with little or no effort to obscure their privates.
One prank takes place in a strip club: We see male strippers, many of them naked. Johnny Knoxville, dressed as an old man, strips down to reveal a fake, exaggerated pair of testicles while he dances around a stripper pole.
During one graphic stunt, a robot puts its finger into a man’s anus and then grabs his crotch through the man’s underwear. Someone puts a toy car into his anus. Another person does the same thing with a ping pong ball. Then, completely naked, before a crowd of people, he passes it back out. People are tricked into reaching into a man’s anus.
Someone’s face is pressed (and held) against the naked backside of an obese man. Men wear revealing underwear that often shows their bare rears. Two naked men are seen in a shower together (nothing sexual occurs).
We hear references to sexual acts. There is a brief glimpse of a pornographic magazine that shows exposed breasts. Crude sexual comments abound.
A man consumes animal semen during the end credits.
Since the turn of the century, the Jacka– guys have been brutalizing one another, and the same sadomasochistic violence can be found here. The movie opens with what you might call the genesis of Jacka–: Old footage of Johnny Knoxville shows him shooting himself with a handgun at point-blank range, with only a cheap bulletproof vest and a couple magazines to protect him. The scene is made all the more harrowing due to its lack of production value. This wasn’t a carefully planned stunt; this was a guy who could have easily wound up killing himself.
Footage shows an old stunt that went awry—and narrowly avoided causing a serious injury or even death.
Knoxville and the rest of his crew dole out all sorts of physical abuse to each other throughout the movie. People are shocked by prods and tasers. Others are slapped or beaten. A man is put in a box and pushed down some stairs—which we are told resulted in two herniated discs. Someone gets hit by a car. The same guy also gets hit by a bull … twice. A group of guys are thumped repeatedly by an angry ram.
Several people are hit in the groin. A man has a “shock collar” attached to his genitals and receives several painful shocks.
A group of little people stage a brawl in a bar. One man gets concussed and must be taken away in an ambulance. Someone is hit with a giant plastic hand. Another is punched by a spring-loaded boxing glove. A stunt is designed to make it seem like the Jacka– crew dies in an explosion.
The stunts and pranks depicted are almost exclusively manufactured to deliver pain and distress, and sometimes blood is drawn. As Steve-O says at one point, “[The] worse the experience is, the better it looks onscreen.”
The f-word is used more than 120 times, sometimes preceded by “mother.” There are 30 uses of the s-word. God’s name is misused over 20 times, frequently paired with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is abused five times.
Additional profanity includes “h—,” “a–” and “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “d–k,” “d–khead,” “pr–k” and (surprise!) “jacka–.” Someone calls another person a term that refers to masturbation. Several people use rude hand gestures throughout the film.
One of the production companies for the film is called “D–khouse Productions.”
Two people order drinks at a bar. Alcoholic beverages are seen. Someone smokes a cigarette.
For one stunt, several guys consume a powerful laxative and play a game of Twister: We are shown the disgusting results as they lose control of their bowels. A man gets strapped into a portable toilet and thrown about; the fecal matter in the toilet splashes all over the man inside. People vomit.
A flashback shows a prank—featuring Brad Pitt, no less—where the Jacka– crew stages a kidnapping of Pitt on the street.
Is this the end of Jacka–? Ringleader Johnny Knoxville seems pretty adamant that’s the case, but we’ll see.
For my part, I hope it’s done. The selfish part of me hopes to never have to watch another one of these movies; the safety-conscious part of me is just glad these knuckleheads made it out alive (off-camera troubles, notwithstanding).
I’ll admit, there’s a perverse appeal in the Jacka– crew’s stunts. There’s a reason the franchise has endured for as long as it has. If nothing else, it draws attention in that “Oh no, I can’t look, but I can’t look away” kind of way.
But there’s also something profoundly sad in watching these middle-aged men subject themselves to the same brainless punishment and gross-out gags that they did in their twenties. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: With age comes wisdom, but with Jacka–, age comes without a lick of sense. Not only that, but Jacka–: Best and Last comports itself with a bizarre, weepy sentimentality in between its dangerous stunts and bathroom jokes. Knoxville gets emotional pondering the end of Jacka–. Members of the cast and crew look back on the “good times.”
The movie seems to unironically say, It’s not about the grievous bodily injuries we suffered, but the friends we made (and also injured) along the way.
Yeah, right. A group of guys can certainly bond over many strange and oddly specific things, but let’s not pretend that we should celebrate reckless endangerment and mean-spirited pranks in the name of friendship.
Jacka–: Best and Last is a sadomasochistic monument to stupidity, full of dangerous stunts, graphic male nudity, sexual content, gag-worthy gross-out humor and a barrage of foul language.
Let’s hope this really is the end.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
