Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, 2013.
Directed by Jeff Tremaine.
Starring Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Greg Harris, and Georgina Cates.
SYNOPSIS:
86-year-old Irving Zisman takes a trip from Nebraska to North Carolina to take his 8 year-old grandson, Billy, back to his real father.
Approximately an hour into Bad Grandpa, Johnny Knoxville’s Irving Zisman looks at his young grandson Billy and quips, “What’s the key to comedy?” Before Billy has any time to respond, Zisman blurts out “TIMING.” It was at this moment in which a twenty something couple both, with some vigour, failed to understand the joke, discussing the intricacies of one of the oldest jokes in het the book. One shouldn’t expect the intelligence of a joke that forces discussion; instead, go into the film expecting excrement on walls, a cross dressing 8 year old and a pair of fake testicles. The plot is thinly veiled around the stunts with Irving Zisman tasked with bringing his grandson back to his father and it is here that the film most succeeds.
The fundamental problem with Bad Grandpa lies in the previous three Jackass films. We’ve seen the stunts numerous times – fake testicles, underage drinking, jokes about excrement – but the film succeeds less in these stunts and more in the relationship with Knoxville and young actor Jackson Nicoll. As the two fart and defy intelligence, a strangely moving relationship that often dips into the melancholic is developed. It may not be an emotional tour de force but for a Jackass film to carry a little emotional heft is an achievement in itself.
The stunts may not be what they once were – a child’s ride flying through a glass window – but comedy wise it boasts the funniest dialogue out of all the Jackass films. Watching a young child sit in a waiting room while complaining that his mother’s breath smells like crack may not be vintage humour but watching the stunned bystanders’ bewildered panic is funny in any situation. You have to applaud Nicoll, an eight year old with more confidence and “cojones” than probably any of us could achieve, going up to a stranger demanding for them to be his new father.
The film wears its “casual child abuse” badge on its sleeve, allowing Nicoll to go up to strangers and question where is grandfather is. In the real world, one would expect for a charity to appear or someone to question why this child is on his own, but this is a Jackass film, which bends the rules until they snap and then apologise profusely. In one of the final set pieces, this is exactly what the film does, throwing the father into a meeting of bikers who protect children with abusive fathers. It’s a strangely moving and affective scene that feels slightly out of place in the wider scheme of the film.
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, like its predecessors, is hit and miss. For vast quantities, the film fails to exhibit a chuckle but in the rare, sporadically placed joke lies a belly laugh. At least it has a strangely affective emotional core and two impressive central performances. There is also an utterly bizarre cameo by Catherine Keener for any eagle eyed viewers.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Thomas Harris
Originally published November 6, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
