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Jacka–: The Movie

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Bob Waliszewski

Movie Review

When Johnny Knoxville was asked by Entertainment Weekly how his movie would differ from his MTV show, his response was, “Foul language and male nudity. Lots of male nudity.” Don’t let the R rating make you think this stuff is designed for adults, though, Jacka–: The Movie ferociously targets young teens (especially teen boys) with defecation gags, dangerous stunts and perverted sexuality (including sodomy).

Jacka– doesn’t even attempt to tell a story. Rather, this is an 82-minute extension of the MTV show with rougher stunts, cruder language and explicit nudity. The New York Post calls it a “plotless collection of moronic stunts” and “the worst movie of the year.” It’s all that, and then some.

positive elements: It’s annoying to have to put anything in this category, but it’s worth mentioning that in several mean-spirited stunts, bystanders come to the aid of a “suffering” stuntster. Of course the filmmakers want us to laugh at “the stupid people who actually care about others,” so I’m not tipping my hat to them; I’m offering kudos to the people who demonstrate human compassion in the face of crass unconcern. For instance, when one of the Jacka– guys (who is made up to appear elderly) seems to be lost on his motorized cart in a busy intersection, a gentleman exits his vehicle to see how he can be of assistance. Similarly, when the cart careens down a steep hill, several people try to help.

spiritual content: The movie’s “closing” scene (before outtakes and a second closing supposedly set in the future) finds a guy in a boat wearing a sign that reads, “The End.” He mutters, “Oh, thank you Jesus.”

sexual content and nudity: Many scenes find the guys wearing thong underwear or jock straps (the camera often lingers on them). Several times, genitals are exposed. A guy has two blowup dolls with large breasts in his car. One cast member dressed in a bikini top jokes that he plans to get his way with an alligator. One recurring stunt has a cast member stripping to a thong and dancing in public (while in Japan). A sea cucumber is used to simulate masturbation. Guys pretend to have sex with a—very real—whale shark. A toy car is placed into a condom, then shoved into a man’s anus. A costume is designed to look like a large male sex organ. There are also jokes about sex and homosexuality.

violent content: Most of the stunts have some type of violent aspect. Almost every time, someone suffers real pain. (That real pain is supposed to be the thing that makes all of this so hilariously funny.) From the opening scene featuring the cast in a super-sized shopping cart careening down a steep hill while being blasted with rocks and pieces of brick, to the grand finale in which the guys pose as elderly men enduring explosions, the cringe factor is everything in Jacka–. A bowling ball rolls into one man’s groin. Others get their chests and genitals zapped with electricity. They demolish a mini-golf course and the park’s plastic animal statues with golf carts. Two individuals try (one unsuccessfully) to break boards with their heads. The bite of a baby alligator is used to inflict pain on a guy’s nipple. One guy fights with a heavy weight boxer and winds up needing stitches. A female Japanese kickboxer pummels another. A guy crawls across hundreds of set mousetraps (the result is obvious). Another receives a gun blast to his stomach (the ammunition is a salt bag). Other stunts involve being pushed into a line of bicycles, having fireworks attached to roller skates (he falls), launching fireworks from one’s rectum, getting hit with a large club in the groin, falling through a roof in a staged robbery attempt, getting a tattoo while in a bouncing jeep, falling into a cactus and receiving paper cuts between one’s toes (and on one’s mouth). When an “elderly man” is run over in the closing scene, his head is shown rolling down the road.

crude or profane language: The f-word and the s-word get workouts here (more than 30 and 15 times respectively). Bam Margera is excited about the possibility of pulling a stunt on his mother that will result in her saying the f-word (she does). There’s lots more milder profanity and the Lord’s name is abused several times.

drug and alcohol content: Miller beer is frequently consumed by cast members watching their pals do stunts. No doubt Miller pitched in financially (the company is mentioned specifically in the closing credits). A guy at the mini-golf course drinks what appears to be hard liquor. Another drinks beer in a hot tub. When Johnny Knoxville returns his demolished rental car, he claims the damage happened when he was drunk. In one stunt, a guy snorts “a line” of Japanese wasabi (he vomits).

other negative elements: Obviously his parents were in on it when Bam wakes them up with a myriad of fireworks going off in their bedroom. Later he sets off a similar display in his father’s van. His dad is seen naked on the toilet. In a stunt called “The Shoplifter,” an “old man” steals from a store. Several stunts result in vomiting (onscreen). When one of the guys gets diarrhea, he’s shown wiping his soiled underwear. Another guy gets a “super wedgie” by jumping from a tree (the result is so violent that it bloodies his underwear). Obscene music often plays in the background.

conclusion: I’d call this stuff gross-out humor, but there’s no humor. It’s just gross for grossness’ sake. And it’s dangerous. The movie opens with a disclaimer warning viewers to never imitate the movie’s stunts. A better disclaimer would be to warn audiences to run away as fast as their legs will carry them. That’d be a stunt I’d actually enjoy watching: throngs of moviegoers fleeing multiplexes frantically trying to avoid Jacka–: The Movie.

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Bob Waliszewski