Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2014

Johnny Knoxville, leader of the aging gang of man-boys that has given us the TV show and three movies, here expands his randy Octogenarian character Irving Zisman to feature length. Now, Jackass is not great cinema, but then it never wanted to be. This is the first of four flicks to actually have a plot, and it turns out to be strangely touching. Irving reluctantly agrees to drive the son of his prison-bound daughter from Nebraska to South Carolina, where his deadbeat dad has agreed to take him in for the child support he’ll get. And so Irving and his grandson (a spot-on Jackson Nicoll—The Fighter) are off to test the social mores of Main Street America regarding little kids and very old men, and film with hidden cameras its flummoxed reactions. Aside from their scorched-earth trashing of a toddler beauty pageant that even one-ups Little Miss Sunshine, one thing I took away from this is how generally decent these “pranked” people were. It’s rude, wrong and outrageous. This is guerrilla filmmaking that occasionally reaches Borat levels. Bottom line: I am of course way too urbane and sophisticated for this juvenile trash. Busted a gut. (91 min)

Japanese title: Jackass: Kuso Jiji no America Oudanchin Douchu.