‘Action Point’ Review
Stars: Johnny Knoxville, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Chris Pontius, Dan Bakkedahl, Johnny Pemberton, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Eric Manaka, Joshua Hoover, Conner McVicker, Michael Everson, Matthew Peterson | Written by John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky | Directed by Tim Kirkby
The Johnny Knoxville starring Action Point attempts to once again recalibrate and weave the Jackass level of stunt filmmaking into a structured story narrative in the same vein as Knoxville’s moderately successful 2013 feature Bad Grandpa. The outcome is quite surprisingly successful while remaining ever so childish and formulated yet with a balanced tone of comedy and light-hearted drama.
D.C. is the crackpot owner of Action Point – a low-rent, out-of-control amusement park where the rides are designed with minimum safety for maximum fun (which is loosely based on a real-life attraction, Action Park, in New Jersey). Just as his estranged daughter Boogie comes to visit, a corporate mega-park opens nearby and jeopardizes the future of Action Point. To save his beloved park and his relationship with Boogie, D.C. and his loony crew of misfits must risk everything to pull out all the stops and save the day.
Knoxville exudes his typical usual style of charismatic sensibility, soft enough in his dramatic range to create an endearing character, while also bringing his now iconic style to proceedings in a fairly successful comedic fuelled picture. Much of everything else performance wise is middle of the road bland territory. Brigette Lundy-Paine and Chris Pontius have little to work with but manage to put forth efficient character development to just about reminding the audience they’re both still involved in the production. An issue that comes down to writers John Altschuler Knoxville who far overcrowd a simplistic plot with an overabundance of average and expendable characters that unfortunately drown the film.
Action Point itself waives towards its final act, with a whole host of inconsistencies, from bizarre to downright ignorance, in particular, the fact that Knoxville and Pontius play siblings in the film without any clear reference and contradictions through dialogue, although these slight inconsistencies don’t throw what is at essence a simplistic comedy outing. However, the events itself contextually within the film lead to a disappointing and anticlimactic finale, although the film has very little else to go considering the utterly strange and outrageous situations throughout.
Action Point is in UK cinemas now.