The Jackass movies are an easy target for ridicule but let’s
face facts, Jackass 3D set box office
records with its opening and whether you’ll admit it or not you think the
movies are funny….downright hilarious even. Sure it’s lowbrow humor but at
least the Jackass crew was trying to make us laugh, our MTV based comedy has
gone from lowbrow but intentional to unintentional and slightly depressing with
Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. Bad Grandpa is
based off of a fairly popular skit from the previous movies that involves
Johnny Knoxville in some seriously good makeup as an 80 something man who’s
either doing extremely inappropriate things (let’s just say something was
hanging from the bottom of his shorty shorts) or just doing whatever will shock
the surrounding audience..you know, things like letting his rascal scooter get
away from him. Honestly, it was funny but it was far from my favorite skit.
Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly waiting for this spin-off film with bated
breath. Like Jackass has done so many
times before, I was proven wrong. The movie is hilarious, given that you were a
fan of the Jackass style, of course. Like so many SNL spin-offs before it Bad Grandpa takes a skit and gives it a
full narrative story, this was the first surprise of the film as I just assumed
it was going to be 90 minutes of inappropriate old guy skits. Knoxville plays
Irving Zisman, 86-year old Grandfather to 8-year old Billy. When Billy’s Mom is
sent to jail Zisman sets off on a cross country trip to deliver the boy to his
father, thankfully for us they make a few stops along the way.
You know the first awesome point about this flick, the
trailers don’t cover all of the funny skits…..as a matter of fact the funniest
stuff is completely absent from the trailers (except for the funniest skit, the
beauty pagent). The reason this setup works is obvious from the start, the
addition of Billy (Jackson Nicoll). It’s having this partner in crime component
that really moves the Grandpa prank from throwaway skit to marketable film. It
doesn’t hurt things that Jackson Nicoll happens to be a damn talented young
comedic actor who has obvious chemistry with Knoxville. It’s that chemistry
that really drives everything, the undertones of an actors performance always
shine through…even the best can’t hide it if they are hating their lives while
filming a movie. Conversly it blazes through the performance when an actor is
having a blast, you can always see the obvious elevation in effect of a scene
when everyone involved is truly enjoying themselves….this is what you get from Bad Grandpa, a film that would have had
laughs regardless but was brought from mediocre to great by the obvious good
time the cast (the willing cast I mean) was having. I mentioned the great
makeup before but I think it warrants further discussion. From the first time I
saw Knoxville done up as an octogenarian I was kind of blown away by the
quality of the work. I mean, look at J.
Edgar or, God help us, the epilogue of Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, aging someone via makeup can go
horribly wrong…and both of those movies were potential Oscar nominees! Zisman
not only looks great on camera but in order for the hidden camera segments to
work it has to be belivable in person, up close. If that’s not a testament to
an amazing job by the make-up artists I don’t know what is. The other main
point I want to make about this flick is something is hard to classify, does it
go in the “Good Stuff” paragraph or the “Downsides” paragraph? I’m still unsure
so I’ll use our talk about the reactions of the people who were pranked to
transition, see here we go, were transitioning!
You still there? Great, so the reason this is hard to
classify is that on one hand, it’s hilarious seeing the almost Nihlistic way
that people react to the hijinks of Knoxville and Nicoll, on the other hand you
begin to realize that they aren’t in on the joke and that this is the way they
would react if the situation were 100% real…I’m trying really hard not to give
away any of the skits that weren’t seen in the theater so I’ll just say that
the more you think about it, the more it goes from hilarious to disturbing.
This kind of leads into one of my biggest issues with the film, there’s quite a
bit of it that feels staged. Does it take away from the initial hilarity? No,
not really…if it was staged then they had some damn good actors, it doesn’t
feel like an episode of Pawn Stars
level staging, it’s more that when you realize what they’re getting away with
and the incredible luck they have getting good shots on something they have one
chance to get, without anyone noticing the camera. Basically it comes to a
point where you realize that no one is that lucky and at least some of what you’re
watching was staged. The only other quasi-low points in the movie are the
transitional scenes with Irving and Billy in the car…they’re kind of pointless
to a level where you wonder if the movie would have suffered from being just a
series of skits with no interconnecting story.
Does the good outweigh the bad? Yes, without question. I’d
go so far as to say the bad is hardly noticeable especially if you’re going to
this flick for the right reasons. If you’ve been a fan of Jackass you’ll be a fan of Bad
Grandpa, I’ll even go so far as to recommend SNL takes some notes. You see,
it is possible to make a feature film from a skit without losing what made the
skit funny in the first place. Lastly a quick and obvious disclaimer, if you
are easily offended this is not the film for you…though if I really have to
tell you that, you probably aren’t too good with common sense and this warning
will go right over your head. Just do us all a favor, keep your complaint
letters to yourself.
4 out of 5 Guttenbergs
