Jackass Number Two
Unrated
(Paramount Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2006)
review by Head Cheeze

I don’t care if you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a brick layer, a politician, a priest, or an astronaut, there’s one thing that ties all men together, and that’s our ability to laugh – and laugh heartily – at the site of another man being hit in the crotch with something. The fine minds behind Jackass have not only taken the aforementioned genital beatings to delirious new heights with “Jackass Number Two”, they’ve reinvented gross out comedy as we know it.

This is a hard movie to review because, well, it ain’t really a movie; essentially, this is Jackass as it was on the small screen, but shot on film, and given the budget to take its obscenely funny act on the road. For example, we get to see the gang in India, where we watch Steve-O…err…”tuck his goods” and do back flips while a completely unimpressed Indian contortionist (who also lifts large weights with his penis) looks on. Not to be outdone, Johnny Knoxville blindfolds himself, lights a cigarette, and is gored by a bull. Knoxville actually has many encounters with bulls, and none of them end well for anyone involved. Fans of Bam Margera will be happy to know that he takes a much larger role in this sequel, and non-fans of Bam will be happy to know that he looks like the one who took the brunt of the damage, including an ill-advised and ultra-sloppy branding of a penis on his backside, an encounter with a King Cobra, and, in one of the most painful looking stunts, a face off with a pellet tossing crowd control device (developed to protect the outside of embassies from rioters) that leaves Bam and company covered bloody, quarter-sized welts.

Things happen at such a rapid fire pace in Jackass Number Two that it is difficult to keep track of the gags here, but there are loads of them, and all, with the exception of a silly musical number at film’s end, hit the mark in terms of both bodily harm and full-on belly laughs. Were it not for the late arrival of certain reporter from Kazakhstan, these Jackasses would have easily made the funniest film of 2006, but, alas, they will have to settle for…well…number two.

The Unrated DVD from Paramount features loads of extra material, including deleted scenes, stunts that were “too hot for theaters”, and lots more. This is an essential purchase for fans, but even those with a taste for more “sophisticated” comedy stylings will be hard-pressed not to bust a gut here.