Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Director: Jeff Tremaine
Screenplay: Johnny Knoxville & Spike Jonze & Jeff Tremaine (story by Johnny Knoxville & Spike Jonze & Jeff Tremaine & Fax Bahr & Adam Small)
Stars: Johnny Knoxville (Irving Zisman), Jackson Nicoll (Billy), Greg Harris (Chuck), Georgina Cates (Kimmie), Kamber Hejlik (Doctor), Jill Kill (Pageant Reporter), Madison Davis (Juggalo Girl), George Faughnan (Juggalo Guy), Grasie Mercedes (Hostess), Marilynn Allain (Receptionist), Jack Polick (Funeral Worker), Spike Jonze (Gloria), Catherine Keener (Ellie)
MPAA Rating: R
Year of Release: 2013
Country: U.S.
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa Blu-ray
Jackass Presents: Bad GrandpaJackass Presents: Bad Grandpa gives Johnny Knoxville’s octogenarian alter ego Irving Zisman, who was first introduced in the last season of Jackass, a feature-length vehicle to strut his creaky, cantankerous sensibilities. With the help of genuinely convincing (and officially Oscar-nominated) make-up effects, Knoxville transforms himself physically into a slightly stooped, but defiantly obtuse old man who uses his advanced age as an excuse to revel in a second adolescence. When informed by a doctor that his wife has passed, Irving can’t contain his excited ebullition as he is finally freed to pursue other women, none of whom, of course, want anything to do with him (despite his having such alluring come-on lines as “I may be too old to stir the pot, but I can still lick the spoon”).

Knoxville and fellow Jackass creators Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine (the latter of whom also directed) clearly didn’t feel pressure to get too creative or innovative, as they settle on that ol’ standby, the cross-country road trip, as a means of putting Irving in as many real-life situations as possible and capturing via various hidden cameras the shocked, bemused, and irritated looks of the unassuming people around him. Whether shoplifting at a small-town grocery store, crashing a black male strip club, or, most memorably, leaving a permanent mark on a restaurant wall when his farting competition gets out of hand, Irving’s antics are designed to challenge the regular folks of Middle America to some kind of action. Most of the time, they are content to watch from the sidelines, but every once in a while they get involved, such as the woman who chases him out of the store after he stuffs bread down his pants or the man who becomes so incensed that Irving crashed his behemoth ’81 Lincoln Continental into his restaurant’s giant penguin statue that he threatens him bodily harm. Alas, no one is genuinely hurt, although Knoxville does put himself in harm’s way from time to time (such as when he is catapulted from a child’s ride through a plate glass window). When his manhood is at stake, though, he is sure to substitute an obvious prosthetic, which shows up enough that it should have received its own star billing.

To give the film some heart, Irving is paired with Billy (Jackson Nicoll), the cherub-faced, spiky-haired son of Irving’s crack-addicted daughter (Georgina Cates) who is facing another prison stint. The film’s narrative is structured around Irving’s being tasked with driving Billy from Nebraska to Tennessee to be with his stringy-haired loser of a father, Chuck (Greg Harris), who is willing to take the kid only because he will get monthly child support. Irving, who just wants to be left alone, is understandably grumpy about being saddled with an elementary-aged partner, and for the first half of the movie he’s constantly leaving him in the car while going after his carnal pursuits (or playing bingo). One of the better social-experiment moments in the film is when he puts Billy in a box and tries to ship him, which draws disturbingly mixed reactions from the two women working the shipping desk.

Alas, it should surprise no one that Billy’s relative innocence and decency ultimately melts the old coot’s heart and they become true buddies, if not partners in crime. As he did with his decidedly un-PC sports comedy The Ringer (2005), Knoxville proves surprisingly adept at mixing genuine sentiment in with his dick and poop jokes without being utterly jarring. Irving isn’t the most memorable of characters, but he does grow on you over time, and Bad Grandpa’s biggest, most eyebrow-rising surprise may very well be the fact that we actually grow to care about him and Billy by the final reel, even (perhaps especially) when they’re upending a toddler beauty contest with their own brand of gender-bending inappropriateness.

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa Unrated Director’s Cut Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD
This Blu-ray includes both the theatrical version of the film as well as an unrated director’s cut.
Aspect Ratio1.78:1
Audio
  • English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround
  • French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
  • Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
  • Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
  • Subtitles English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
    Supplements
  • 14 behind-the-scenes featurettes
  • Alternate reactions from real people
  • 3 deleted scenes
  • DistributorParamount Home Entertainment
    SRP$39.99
    Release DateJanuary 28, 2014

    VIDEO & AUDIO
    Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa was filmed with a variety of cameras, many of which were small and hidden, so the visual quality of the film tends to vary from shot to shot. The majority of it was shot with typical high-definition cameras, and the resulting footage looks great: sharp, well-detailed, and boasting impressive colors. Some of the hidden cameras, particularly indoors, produce footage that is somewhat lower in definition and a little darker. The soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1-channel surround. I found that some of the dialogue was set a little too low (again, not surprising given the candid-camera nature of the footage) and the music too high, but otherwise the track is well done.
    SUPPLEMENTS
    The supplements include more than half an hour of behind-the-scenes footage of the various pranks, as well as 19 minutes of alternate reactions from people not used in the film. There are also three short deleted scenes, each of which runs about two minutes.

    Copyright ©2014 James Kendrick

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    All images copyright © Paramount Home Entertainment

    Overall Rating: (3)




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