Nerdly » ‘Jackass Forever’ Blu-ray Review

28th Apr2022

‘Jackass Forever’ Blu-ray Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Eric André, Machine Gun Kelly, Chris Pontius, Rachel Wolfson, Jeff Tremaine, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Rachel Wolfson | Directed by Jeff Tremaine

The tagline for Jackass Forever reads, “Some people never learn.” Thank goodness for that, because if they did, we wouldn’t have had this fourth instalment in the series, twelve years after Jackass 3D. You might have thought that Johnny Knoxville and the rest of the Jackass crew were getting a bit too old to be performing painful, stupid and life-endangering stunts of this magnitude, but oh no – they’re back and they’re as willing to seriously injure themselves for our entertainment as they ever were.

You essentially already know if you’re going to like Jackass Forever, because it’s exactly the same as the previous Jackass movies, in a good way. Throughout the film, Knoxville and the gang – including Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Dave England and Preston Lacy – play elaborate practical jokes on each other, stage a number of hidden camera gags and indulge in eye-wateringly painful stunts, a large number of which involve inflicting damage to their genitalia.

Almost every scene is either laugh-out-loud funny or will make you want to vomit, much like long-suffering cameraman Lance Bangs, a reliable barometer of how much is too much. One particularly wince-inducing highlight is The Cup Test, in which Ehren McGheney wears a clearly inadequate cup while enduring the following: getting punched in the nuts by a heavyweight boxer (Francis Ngannou); a softball being hurled at his crotch by a professional pitcher; an ice-hockey firing a puck at his gonads, and finally Dave England jumping on his testicles with a pogo stick.

Animals play a considerable part in the proceedings this time around too, whether it’s a bear eating salmon and honey from McGheney’s crotch (he seems a real glutton for punishment, it has to be said), a vulture eating raw meat from between a staked-out Wee Man’s legs, a scorpion stinging the lips of honorary female new recruit Rachel Wolfson (in a stunt called Scorpion Botox) or a naked Steve-O allowing a beard of bees to attach itself to his naked penis and scrotum. However, it’s Knoxville himself that endures the craziest of all the animal-related stunts, getting tossed by a bull (again) and ending up in hospital as a result.

That bull stunt is accompanied by a rare instance of concerned follow-up, as we see a banged-up Knoxville limping out of hospital afterwards and sheepishly admitting he’s sustained broken ribs, a broken wrist and a head injury. It instantly makes you curious as to the extent of the injuries the others have endured over the years – some are obvious, like Steve-O’s false tooth, but that’s surely the tip of the iceberg.

Aside from an obsession with hurting each other’s private parts (at one point they squash their penises flat in panini presses, just for lols), the one thing that really comes through is the Jackass crew’s obvious affection for one another, which comes across as incredibly sweet and adds to the infectious hilarity of it all. There’s also an added poignancy this time around, because they’re a lot more vulnerable than they used to be, as Knoxville’s bull encounter clearly demonstrates.

It makes sense, then, that the team would draft in a bit of younger blood for the movie. Accordingly, there are a handful of new team members, including a couple of guys who grew up watching the show and can barely believe they’re in the movie with their heroes. There are also a number of randomly roped-in guest stars, including Machine Gun Kelly, comic actor Eric Andre and hip hop stars Tyler, the Creator and Jasper Dolphin.

Ultimately, whether you laugh like a drain throughout or remain singularly unimpressed, you can’t fault the sheer commitment on display. That’s exemplified in Jackass Forever‘s best shot, whereby Knoxville, having been shot out of an actual cannon wearing an Icarus costume, still manages to pull off the perfect wings-extended pose, mid-flight, for the drone camera, before plunging into the lake below. That’s pure professionalism, that is.