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Technical Information
Studio:
Paramount Home Entertainment
Year of Theatrical Release: 2002
Disc Format: 1
Single sided, Duel later
Image Format: Anamorphic
widescreen
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Region Encoding: 1
Sound Format: Dolby
Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (pro logic)
Running Time: 87
minutes
Director: Jeff
Tremaine
Stars: Johnny
Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn
MPAA Rating: R
Disc Supplements:
- Feature length commentary with director Jeff Tremaine,
cinematographer Dimitry Elyashkevich and Johnny Knoxville
- Group commentary with the cast of Jackass
- MTV's Making of Jackass
- Outtakes
- Deleted scenes
- Music videos
- Jackass promotional spots
- Theatrical trailers
- Cast and crew biographies
- Photo galleries
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A quick surf for the subject line of Jackass
in any movie related newsgroup will yield a plethora of negative
comments. Those who fancy themselves as sophisticates brand
the show as contemptible. If the messages are to be believed,
there are very few who actually like the show. Yet, Jackass
remains as a highly rated program, the film did reasonably well
at the box office and now DVD sales are soaring.
Logic would dictate that some of these self-proclaimed
sophisticates are lying.
I don't doubt that there are a number of people
who just don't "get" Jackass, who find it offensive.
But I'm also absolutely certain that there are many more who
simply view themselves as being above that sort of thing and
although they watch and laugh, they'd never admit it.
To label Jackass as some sort of indication
of the decline of society is to expect more from the show than
it ever aspires to be. It's like complaining about a hamburger
because it's not filet mignon. Of course it isn't.
The premise of Jackass is that a group of
would-be delinquents perform a series of pranks and stunts,
each more outlandish than that last. For instance, they might
dress themselves up as 80-year old men and careen down a sidewalk
in wheelchairs, pretending they have no brakes. Or one of them
might walk into a department store and strip down to thong underwear
and start to dance.
Those without a sense of history may believe
that the stunts performed in Jackass are something new. They
are not. Mankind has long been fascinated by the odd, particularly
when oddity in question is an act performed by another man.
Human flight, for instance, was once considered a stunt at least
as outlandish, crazy and, to some, offensive as those performed
in Jackass.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to
elevate the antics of Johnny Knoxville and his cohorts to the
same status of human acheivement as the airplane. On the other
hand, Knoxville and his gang certainly possess the same spirit
of adventure and loathing for complacency as those early pioneers.
No doubt some of the inspiration for Jackass
had to have come from the early days of film. We have all seen
the footage of the man being shot in the gut with a cannonball.
How different is this from Johnny Knoxville being shot, also
in the gut, with a high velocity bean bag?
Jackass: The Movie is an opportunity for the
boys to participate in stunts they can't get away with on television.
You can expect nudity, cursing and increased mayhem. The budget
is bigger, so the stunts are more involved. But the spirit remains
the same.
This isn't high-brow entertainment. This is
a group of people doing very stupid things. I can't explain
why it's funny. I can only say that there are very few things
that have ever made me laugh this hard.
I do have one final thought. The beginning
of the film (and the start of each Jackass episode) mentions
that the stunts are performed by professionals. What I would
like to know is, how did these people learn to become professionals
at sticking electrodes on each other's genitalia without violating
several articles of the Geneve Convention?
:::back to
top |
Films such as Jackass are difficult
to evaluate for their technical merits. The reason for this is that
the segments are often filmed in less than ideal conditions, using
mini- and hidden cameras. The results are images that are sometimes
blurry, often grainy and lacking adequate light levels.
For what it is, Jackass offers decent
picture quality. In fact, this film often looks better than the
original television series, due to better cameras. Still, this couldn't
be considered a great picture by any stretch of the imagination.
Sometimes colors are good, but at times the color timing is way
off, giving poor flesh tones. Night time and low light scenes are
often grain-filled and blurry. But none of this can really be held
against the film. The almost hidden camera format almost necessitates
a poorer image quality.
On the technical side, the disc looks
fantastic. Compression artifacts are no where to be seen and there
is only minimal edge enhancement.
:::back to top |
The film is presented in Dolby
Digital 5.1 glory, but that's kind of overkill in this case. Almost
all of the sound is recorded "live" using whatever microphones
they can hide or whatever is attached to the camera. Fidelity is
simply not a high priority here. Still, the 5.1 mix ensures that
the dialogue will remain rooted to the center channel, so that all
of the howls of pain are clearly audible.
:::back to top |
I was actually surprised when I
learned of the number of extras Paramount was including on this
disc. Make no mistake about it, this is a full blown special edition.
Starting things off is a commentary
track by director Jeff Tremaine, cinematographer Dimitry
Elyashkevich and chief hooligan Johnny Knoxville. This turned out
to be a little bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, it was
really a much better commentary than I expected, but on the other,
I really would have like more stories about the aftermaths of their
stunts. Still, this trio does a decent job of talking about the
film and they do offer a few insights into the technical side of
making Jackass.
The second commentary
features most of the Jackass stunt players (with the exception of
Knoxville). I was highly unimpressed with this track, as the boys
spend most of the time doing little more than simply laughing at
the on-screen antics and slinging off-color insults at each other.
Occasionally they settle down long enough to offer up some bit of
Jackass trivia, but for the most part this is a fairly wasted track.
MTV's Making of Jackass
is the next thing on the menu. It clocks in at about 25 minutes
and seems to be MTV's answer to the HBO First Look. This is an EPK
Jackass style. There is little substance to found here and far less
behind-the-scenes material than I would have liked.
Next up is a series of outtakes.
These run around 7 minutes and probably were much funnier on set
than they are here.
The next feature is easily the best
extra on the disc. It is a series of deleted scenes.
All told, the scenes run about a half hour, making this practically
a complete Jackass episode. Some of the scenes are simply additional
bits to what was seen in the film, while others are abandoned concepts
and stunts edited out for time.
Almost as good as the deleted scenes
are a series of promotional spots for the film.
Most of the promos consist of mock public service announcements
hosted by Bam Margera's parents, April and Phil. These are the PSA's
from hell, as Bam and the rest of the Jackass gang inflict insult
and humiliation on the poor parents.
Rounding things up are a couple of
music videos, theatrical trailers,
cast and crew bios and a photo gallery.
:::back to top |
I'm not going to make any apologies for liking
this film. If it lowers my "respect" among my peers of
reviewers, so be it. All it proves is that I'm willing to admit
in a review, for all to read, that this film made me laugh. The
fact that Paramount went all out in terms of extras only increases
the value of this disc. If you're a fan of the show at all, you'll
want to own this one.
:::back to top |
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| One of the largest demographics
for Jackass is undoubtedly the teenage crowd, but make no mistake
about it: This is a crude film that has no business being viewed by
the entire family. Keep the kids away. |
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| -- By Robert Wurth. Copyright
© 2003. |
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