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Is reviewing
this movie strictly necessary? By now, the “Jackass” franchise is so well
established that people know exactly what they’re getting, when they see
previews for the latest Johnny Knoxville/Jeff Tremaine/Spike Jonze Dickhouse
production. If you’re interested in seeing “Bad Grandpa” (or not), my opinion
probably doesn’t hold much sway either way. You'll see it, or you won't. There
aren't likely many who are on-the-fence.
Full disclosure:
I find the entire “Jackass” oeuvre manically, incomparably, and almost oppressively
funny. I laugh with the glee of a child, every time one of the troupe falls
down, gets hit in the nuts, and fearlessly/recklessly leaps headfirst into something
painful looking. Even better when it leaves innocent bystanders speechless and
incredulous. Like “Beavis and Butthead,” the “Borat/Bruno” films, Tom Green, the
Three Stooges, and “Candid Camera’s” Allen Funt, this type of hidden-camera/reaction
comedy, mixed with unadulterated buffoonery, fills me with joy. If you’re like
me, and find that kind of juvenile humor gut busting, you won’t be disappointed
in “Bad Grandpa.”
Notice I didn’t
describe the hijinks as “mindless.” The gags are well-thought-out, perfectly
executed, and clever. Their timing is spot-on. Sometimes there’s even a thin veil
of satire involved. Like “Borat,” the way the unsuspecting witnesses react (and
sometime don’t) reveals something about our society. More than once, people act
with compassion, and protective intentions.
“Bad Grandpa” is
structured like most of the other “Jackass” films: Knoxville and Co. play a
number of unimaginable pranks on unwitting civilians. The ridiculous stunts, on
their own, are plenty funny. (How can an old man getting caught making
sandwiches in a grocery (without buying the ingredients), getting caught red
handed, denying the whole thing to the accuser’s face while still blatantly
holding the evidence, and finally trying to make a run/walk for it, not be
funny?) The bits are pushed even further over the top by the reactions of
unknowing passers-by. Their wide-eyed and stunned responses ratchet up the
comedy exponentially. Like most of us, these poor saps mostly don’t know how to
behave after what they’ve witnessed. Or if they do, they often react badly.
It’s all very, very funny.
The main
difference between this and a standard “Jackass” movie is that here there’s a
sort-of story, which dictates the craziness. In heavy make-up, Knoxville plays
crotchety, old Irving Zisman. He's a close relative of the Alan Arkin
character from "Little Miss Sunshine": grouchy, relentlessly skirt
chasing, and brutally, hysterically funny. The premise is that his pretend
daughter is soon-to-be thrown in jail. Her dead-beat husband is out of the
picture, several states away, leaving Irv stuck with their 8-year old son Billy
(Jackson Nicholl). Taking care of the kid is the last thing the old man wants
to do. After some convincing (involving an unsuspecting mediator and video
conference at an internet café), Irving strong-arms the dad into taking the boy
back. With no other options, Irv and Billy pile into an old Lincoln, and set off
across country.
The road-movie
framework provides impetus for Irv and Billy to prank a bingo hall, wedding,
funeral, strip club, an estate sale, and countless other settings along the
way, in classic “Jackass” fashion.
If I have any
complaints, they are that a couple of the bits seemed like they were just about
to pay off huge, but they never peaked. The set-ups showed tremendous promise,
but the punch lines never bloomed. They felt like denouement, instead of
climax. They were still funny, but not knock-it-out-of-the-park terrific. Maybe
(because I’ve grown accustomed to the tear-inducing laughter of other Jackass
bits), my expectations were a little too high? Not every at bat is a home run.
Still, the vast
majority of jokes pay off in enormous ways (especially a couple of genitalia
sight gags). I laughed as hard at “Bad Grandpa” as any film in recent memory.
Knoxville’s ability to stay in character through it all is miraculous. As
Billy, young Nicholl, too, is amazingly quick on his feet, and composed. How,
knowing the set up and what’s to come, the pair still manage to pull all this
off without breaking into giggles, is astonishing.
The movie’s
rated R, which may be right. It’s got some adult language, as well as a couple
mature situations/conversations. That said, the gags are so over-the-top,
cartoonish, and so well intentioned, its hard to see why even the raunchiest of
them might be offensive. The jokes are silly, not lascivious. It’s
slapstick-meets-candid-camera.
The “Jackass”
creative team realize, in a similar way to Larry David, that basically most
people are socially awkward. So much of life is routine that, when faced with
something incongruous from what we’re used to, we usually don’t know hot to
properly respond,. Add to that the fact that most of us give extra latitude to
children and old people, and there’s your formula for comedy. Director Tremaine
and Knoxville exploit our quirks brilliantly.
Poop and dick
jokes are time-tested successes. As are farts, inappropriate comments, and the
ironclad hilarity of seeing someone trip and fall down (ask Homer J. Simpson;
he gave the “Man Hit in Groin with Football” short his highest rating, as judge
of the Springfield International Film Festival). Are they dumb jokes? Sure. But
they’re funny as all get out, too. If you like your comedy more highbrow, and
all these adolescent antics aren’t your cup of tea, I can’t blame you. A
flaming-bag-of-poop-on-a-doorstep isn’t for everyone. But I’ll be too busy
laughing at the undiluted idiocy to disagree.
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