Plot: What’s it about?
It seems like only a couple of months ago that I was writing the review of “Jackass 3”, the eagerly-awaited installment to the ever-popular “Jackass” series of, er, movies. Well those guys have tons of extra footage that wasn’t used in the movie and it’s only fitting that they take up what wasn’t used, compile it and turn it into a movie. Isn’t America great? This should be no surprise to fans of the films as they did the same with “Jackass 2.5” a few years back. And, I’m willing to bet, that everyone reading this review is at least familiar with the “Jackass” films. If not, here’s a quick synopsis: A bunch of now 30 something guys go around doing dangerous stunts in front of and to one another. People get hurt, audiences cringe and lots of laughs ensue. You either love it or you hate it. I’m the former.
“Jackass 3” was a resounding success at the box office. This proved that audiences still wanted to see Johnny Knoxville (the “leader” of the bunch) and company continue to cheat death, or at least the Emergency Room, for one more installment. However, “Jackass 3” was only 90 minutes long and there was far more available footage. What to do? The Jackass gang originally started releasing some new footage via a web site, joost.com. However Paramount’s “Digital” division saw an opportunity to earn a bit more green. So here we are with 84 more minutes of all new stunts, jokes and jaw-clenching skits for us to marvel at. Granted these stunts aren’t as big as the ones that were in part 3, but they’re right up there with some of the best I’ve seen. We get to see a newly sober Steve-O cross a bridge of fire, people get kicked in the face and Johnny Knoxville’s prescription lotion has a special added ingredient (I won’t ruin the surprise here). Suffice it to say that if you’re a fan, there’s no reason you won’t want to see these guys make, well, Jackasses out of themselves once again.
Video: How does it look?
Just like the other “Jackass” films, this one is presented in a 1.78:1 AVC HD transfer that’s just a little too crisp and clean. Yes, it’s great to see the gang looking good in HD, but let’s just say some scenes are just a little too graphic and maybe a little blur here and there wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Colors are bold and strong, especially in the filmed opening sequence. There are several super slow motion segments and let’s just say that the HD image looks as good as we might expect, though it’s a bit disturbing seeing fat ripple in slow motion. However you feel about the gang, let’s just say that they’ve never looked better than they do here.
Audio: How does it sound?
As with the other films, audio is about the least important thing in the “Jackass” movies and aside from the ever-so-familiar guitar rift (duh-da-duhhhhhhhh), the rest of the movie is dialogue-driven. I will say that the surrounds do come into play, especially in the “bee tetherball” sequence in which the guys decide to play tetherball with a hive of African bees as the ball. The buzzing resonates through the rear channels and really gives you the sense that you’re right there. There are a few other instances of some good surround sound, but the front stage handles the soundtrack with ease.
Supplements: What are the extras?
There are some supplements on this disc and most interesting is “Jackass: The Beginning”, a 40 minute feature that shows how the show came to be, how the group met one another and its subsequent success on MTV and the silver screen. Some more deleted scenes are shown which is odd since this entire film is composed of deleted scenes and some outtakes as well. Lastly, we have “Jackass: European Tour” which is pretty self-explanatory. A majority of the interviews during the course of the film show them on location in London and Europe in general. This expands on that.
