Painfully unremarkable

What can I say about the latest entry in the Jackass franchise that would surprise anyone? Admittedly, not much. It’s sort of a been-there-done-that kind of movie. The gross-out factor is high, as usual, but a few standout scenes aside, this third film installment is painfully unremarkable.

Here we have the characters we’ve grown to know over the years—Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Wee Man, et al—and it’s painfully obvious that they, too, have grown over the years. Knoxville is showing signs of premature aging, Margera’s parents have become part of the pranks rather than the victims, and even Steve-O shows he has a limit. These guys who previously seemed invincible (or at least like they thought they were) are finally showing signs of mortality. It’s kind of endearing, actually, but I’m not sure it works.

The jackasses have made a name for themselves based on the pranks they pull on each other and unwitting passersby, the pain they can endure and the vile substances they’re willing to swallow. This film is no different. It offers all these things, just as we’ve grown to expect, but honestly, there’s little they could have done to raise the bar above Jackass 2.

As is pretty much every other movie these days, the newest Jackass is in 3-D. There’s definitely a cool factor to watching the crew walk like badasses with amazing depth of field, but all in all, the 3-D adds surprisingly little to the film.

I have to admit, I didn’t get to sit through the entire movie. An hour and a half into its 94-minute running time, the projector went out in the theater and everyone walked out seeming not quite satisfied, myself included. I laughed, surely, but only one scene—a bar fight between Wee Man and his wee friends—actually sticks in my mind and still makes me smile.