I feel like, given my age, I am the key demographic for Jackass. I remember seeing CKY2K when I was in high school. The thought of Bam and Dunn and DiCamillo kicking footballs into passing cars still elicits a chuckle from me. Jackass followed shortly after that. And on MTV nonetheless. These guys not much older than me had taken their puerile shenanigans and made it into a viable career in media. It was and—to a large extent—still is inspiring. I mean it is common today to see people forge their careers out of the ether with a DIY mentality, but the Jackass crew did so before YouTube. That makes it more impressive in my book. So let’s talk about Jackass 4 today on Movie Tuesday.

Here is a video version of this review:

The first question I asked when learning of a fourth installment to the movie series was, “How well has the concept aged?”

The second question I asked was, “How well have the Jackass dudes aged?”

And the answer is, even though they’re older and slower and even though the comedy is a bit anachronistic, especially when performed by 50-something year-old men, I still found a great deal of amusement in the film.

Bam wasn’t there though. I think he was actually in the marching band stunt, but he didn’t say anything and his presence was played down considerably. Allegedly, Bam’s substance abuse issues made him extraordinarily difficult to work with. He had a sobriety clause in his contract, the violation of which resulted in his termination from the film. It is really sad because when Jackass made it on MTV, I thought of it as CKY first and Big Brother second. This film is virtually devoid of all the CKY people. It has become just the Big Brother half of Jackass. I can’t blame them either. Bam seemed like a total liability. It’s just a shame because he was the in many ways the John Lennon of Jackass. With the loss of Dunn, who appears in several clips in the credits, Bam’s spiral never really ended.

Revisiting all of these guys is a fun trip down memory lane, but the absence of Dunn and Bam is a sobering reminder that some people don’t make it through the wild times.

Even though we see Raab Himself operating a camera in the credits and Bam in that one stunt, there’s virtually no CKY representation in Jackass 4. So, what do we get instead? A bunch of new guys. Two black guys, a fat guy, a white guy and a girl. They go pretty hard. The stunts that are the gnarliest physically are often given to the younger generation. But, try as you might, you can’t really convince me that these newcomers are actually part of the Jackass crew.

Johnny Knoxville does one super-insane stunt that fucks him up real bad and lands him in the hospital. That’s how you know he’s still legit. But, he has proven his legitimacy as a stuntman time and time again. At this point, with a shock of white hair, you’re more concerned for him than amused by his antics. The alternative to putting your body on the line like Knoxville, however, is genital mutilation. Jackass has always been a little too heavy on male nudity for my taste, but Jackass Forever has more penis and scrotum injuries than any of its predecessors. I guess insuring for urological and dermatological treatment is cheaper than for orthopedic surgery these days.

I could get into the specific stunts, but I don’t really want to spoil any of them in this video. They’re better experienced than described. So, there’s not much more to say.

Except for that Jackass shaped culture. There’s no denying it. From the Big Brother and CKY VHS tapes to four major motion pictures, creators of today are still cribbing from the Jackass playbook. If not in style and substance, then at least in form and function. This was, however, the least satisfying installment of the Jackass movie series as far as I’m concerned. Number Two is obviously the best thing Jackass ever did. The high water mark. If it ended there, Jackass would still be legendary. The third and fourth installments are superfluous, but still entertaining. The absence of so much of the original cast makes watching Jackass Forever a little bittersweet, despite the belly laughs. So in the end, I give this movie a C+. You will get a laugh, you will feel uncomfortable, and that’s about it. Goodbye.