Jackass 2.5 (DVD)
Directed by: Jeff Tremaine
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Wee Man

At this point, the boys of Jackass are huge stars, and they’ve managed to build successful careers out of outrageous stunts and disgusting pranks. Let’s face it: you already know whether they’re your cup of tea or not. What you really want to know is whether or not this direct to DVD release of Jackass 2.5 lives up to the “lofty” standards of the previous movies, or if it is nothing more than lame leftovers. Well, it sure ain’t theatrical quality, but I think most Jackass fans will find it still delivers a decent amount of laughs, plus an inside look at what goes into the making of these flicks.

When Jackass Number Two went into production, it had been a few years since the crew had all been together filming. Needless to say, there were a ton of ideas floating around, and all their creative energy (if you can call it creativity) resulted in so much footage that it simply could not fit into one movie. So, rather than release a jam-packed DVD of Jackass Number Two, it seems they decided to hold back a lot of stuff and then piece it together into another movie. Is it a cash grab? Absolutely. At the same time, there are still a lot of worthy gags that are pretty hilarious (others range from mildly amusing to just plain embarrassing).

There are some segments here that take place in India, where they tried to recreate scenes that Steve-O and Chris Pontius did for the TV show Wild Boyz (including another run-in with those disturbing aghoris). Unfortunately, nothing seemed to go according to plan, so very little of the India stuff made it into the theatrical release. There was also another scene that guest starred a somewhat reluctant Mike Judge, where they were trying to force air up Preston Lacy’s ass in order to get him to fart a cloud of baby powder. Not exactly their finest moment. In almost every case, however, the reaction of the Jackass onlookers in any given stunt is just as important (if not more important) than the stunt itself. Somehow, there is always a laugh to be had, even when a stunt fails miserably.

One thing that was slightly misleading about Jackass 2.5 was that they claimed to have shot new footage for this film. This seemed to imply that they had actually mixed in brand new stunts with stuff that was left on the cutting room floor, which isn’t exactly the case. The new footage is limited to an intro and a finale with Johnny Knoxville decked out as a military sergeant rallying his troops (not that funny) along with interviews with director Jeff Tremaine and the stars talking about why each scene was cut, and reminiscing about the various misfires. This makes it feel a bit more like a documentary, and the interviews did help to tie things together a bit, in addition to providing some interesting tidbits about the paranoia that ensues from filming a movie with so many pranksters around.

I’ve noted in the past that one of the things I admire about the first two Jackass movies is the way in which they pace the film, gradually building up to a big finale. Needless to say, Jackass 2.5 does not have this, and the main feature is actually only 64 minutes long. Although the DVD also comes with a “Making Of” featurette and some additional deleted scenes, this is definitely something that you may want to watch online for free while you still can. Other than that, it’s worth a rental, but only hardcore Jackass fiends will probably want to actually own the DVD. — Sean

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