Jackass 3-D

The boys are back in town, which probably isn’t the greatest idea if any of them want to live past the age of 50. This is the long-awaited and hopefully final installment of the Jackass series, and it has a few tricks up its sleeve to keep it fresh.
  
Jackass 3-D picks up where Jackass 2 left off, as in the boys are still doing the stupidest things you can imagine, like dressing up as prisoners and running a gauntlet of tasers and cattle prods. The trailer shows some very funny moments, but the movie has more that weren’t spoiled by the two-minute spot: Ehren McGhehey gets a crooked tooth pulled out by a very fast Lamborghini. Chris Pontius flies around a remote control helicopter attached to his genitalia. And one of the final, craziest stunts has Steve-O in the Poo Cocktail Supreme, in which he is launched into the air inside a fully loaded porta-potty. If I had time to list all those that were enjoyable I would, but almost every one of them is a gem of bodily injury.
  
For some reason, and I assume it was to make bucket loads of money, the creators of Jackass decided to make this third installment in 3-D. The 3-D does not add much, in fact it adds very little and the movie would be just as good in 2-D, if not better because you paid less. What the boys have capitalized on is a very good slow motion camera system. Every detail and every hit is slowed down so that the audience can truly appreciate what just happened. Watching Johnny Knoxville get tackled by a pro football player is absolutely beautiful, and watching Bam give the cast the “Rocky” treatment, a cup of water and then a boxing glove to the face, is amazing. Let it be known that they kept the old man and woman scenes that were so prevalent (and disgusting) in Jackass 2 to a bare minimum and I only found myself gagging in one scene.

Unfortunately Jackass 3-D, while full of great moments and scenes that had the audience screaming, feels less inspired than the first two films. It’s the same stuff, but for the third time. We loved it the first two times and that’s why we see the third one, but the boys are getting old and they need to pack it up for the sake of their sanity.

Jackass 3-D is like hanging out with the guys one last time. One last hurrah for the show that jumpstarted MTV and shocked the world. But please, don’t try this at home.

3 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O’Connell