Review: Jackass 3D

Please welcome our newest contributor, Mike Saulters, to Slackerwood. Mike was braver than the rest of us when it came to seeing and reviewing Jackass 3D, which opens in theaters today.

To call me a fan of the Jackass franchise would be an overstatement. I have seen the first two films on DVD as well as a smattering of the MTV episodes. Jackass, however, was never something that generated much excitement for me. Some of the stunts could occasionally make me laugh, or cringe, but I found at times that things felt formulaic as the same stunt was repeated ad nauseam. I can admit without shame that when first exposed to the series, I got my snob on and pooh-poohed the poo-poo humor of the show.

In case you have somehow been living under a rock or spent ten years studying silverback apes, I should explain the Jackass concept. Jackass began as a series on MTV in 2000 and made the necessary jump to movies in 2002. I say "necessary" because too much of the source material could never make it past network censors. Jackass has no plot, no story, no normal redeeming values you would expect to find in a film. It is a series of vignettes in which the performers subject themselves or other people to asinine, stupid and generally dangerous stunts such as application of a taser to the testacles or lighting one's hair on fire. Often, stunts will have a name attached such as "Poo Cocktail" but others are simply presented with no name or introduction.

And that's pretty much what you get with Jackass 3D. New stunts, some variations on old ones, and general silliness abound, but it's in that magical format Hollywood studios can't get enough of these days: 3D!!! Thing is, Jackass is something that greatly benefits from presentation in 3D. Filmed with the same cameras James Cameron used for Avatar, Jackass 3D actually represents a better demonstration of the technology. While Avatar defines "state of the art" for 3D, the actual shots are overwhelmed with CGI wizardry. Jackass 3D brings you back down to earth, WAY down, with every crude, disgusting detail so amazingly perfect, so clear, unmasked by any computer effects, the viewer for the first time gets a sense of what 3D REALLY can do.

The opening, shot at 1000fps, features dancing, jumping, exploding confetti, and showering sparks all in such high detail in every single piece, watching it even a second time feels much like bullet-time felt the first time I saw The Matrix. One scene shot in a small football stadium involves a stunt where Johnny Knoxville is tackled by a pro football player (with guest appearance by Seann William Scott as a referee). This one shot looks better than all the football I've ever seen. Shots like this prove the future of pro sports is 3D.

For the ladies, there's shirtless Johnny Knoxville and more full-frontal male nudity than has ever hit American screens, but unfortunately the men in the audience will have to satisfy themselves with memories of the amazing water-ballet sequence in this summer's Piranha 3D. The final "scene" of Jackass 3D, like the intro, is again shot at 1000fps and has more explosions than you can count finishing with a deluge of water that gives an idea how Titanic might have looked if Cameron ever chose to reshoot it.

Not every shot was as visually amazing as the above, but there was no single stunt that failed to elicit a strong emotional response, whether belly laughs or deep groans. None of the stunts ever felt repetetive or too drawn-out, and the show was definitely an audience-pleaser. Be warned, those with coprophobia or who can't imagine watching someone pee on others may have no desire to see Jackass 3D. For those with thicker skins and fans of the previous entries in the Jackass lineup, however, this is a must-see in the theater. The 3D experience and the joy of sharing with an audience make this one I'd go back to see again.