Film review: Jackass Best And Last

The first thing Johnny Knoxville ever did for Jackass was also, arguably, the stupidest. In 1998, he shot himself in the chest at point-blank range using a Smith & Wesson revolver while wearing a bullet-proof vest stuffed with porn mags for the benefit of the camera.

There was only one round in the gun, so his feat becomes even more tense as, having already built up the stones to pull the trigger once to no avail, he has to keep trying. When it finally goes off, he and his mates jump into their car to get away before anyone who might tell them off comes along, laughing their heads off.

This 28-year-old clip, unsurprisingly, was not ever aired by MTV. Indeed, there’s another reality in which the stunt literally becomes Jackass Best And Last on its own. As the opener to this final outing for Knoxvillle and his circus of fellow loveable idiots, to say a proper goodbye from one of the greatest TV shows of the 21st Century, it makes you realise that although the bits have become more elaborate and expensive and wild, not that much has changed. Someone does something mad, like teenagers daring one another to do something, they get hurt, they – and you – fall about laughing. Except this time Steve-O gets a load of crunchy peanut butter shoved up his arse by a sass-talking robot.

Best And Last is a mix of new stunts with classics, with the odd BTS reminiscence thrown in. The new stuff is a riot of pain, poo, lip fillers, puke, cocks, blood, regret, nasty surprises, uncontrollable laughter and oddly warm-hearted friendship. There’s fun with a device that allows one wearer to shock the other and “control” their counterpart’s arm by flexing. The Escape Room From Hell might seem like both the most painful and disgusting offering here, were it not for an unexpected tasering, or the most revolting game of Twister you will ever see.

More than once, someone complains that “I can smell it”. Just as you think the idea of Chris Pontius getting naked to try the high-jump as they did in ancient Greece is fairly tame, the crew insist on capturing better the sound of his cock slapping against his legs. Then they make it even funnier.

As for the old stuff, it’s not the cop-out of time-filler some may have been expecting. It’s always worth watching Poo Cocktail again on the big screen, or reliving the so-far-beyond-cruel-it’s-funny-again rattlesnake prank from the last movie. But there’s also some of their oldest clips thrown in, as well as stuff that never made it to air.

Jackass has, in a way, captured and chronicled the lives of those who made it. It makes for an unexpectedly emotional ride at times. Without trying to intellectualise a punch in the nuts, part of its success is the camaraderie and joy that goes with it, the delight when the painful punchline happens, the looks of knowing dread, a feeling that everyone else is really glad it’s not them doing something. It feels like the last day of school.

Among the pain and splatter and skidmarks and vomit, this is a love letter to Jackass itself. It’s actually oddly touching that the absent Bam Margera’s stunts are so prominent, as is the late Ryan Dunn. At a couple of points, Knoxville actually gets genuinely emotional that this is it.

In a time of fakery and put-ons and blank-eyed influencers desperate to be liked on camera, it’s wonderful how real the essence of Jackass is. Everything is done for real. The reactions and falling about are real. It's still genuinely creative, with a surprising amount of wit, and an even more surprising amount of love. Even when the truly moronic Poopies is wearing a shock collar on his dick, there is still more real humanity and warmth and depth to it that the makers of false-reality shite like Love Island could ever understand existed in the first place.

So, for a final time – and Knoxville’s choked-up insistence that it is suggests he’s not pulling a fast one for once – you will piss yourself laughing with the best, here. You may surprise yourself when you shed a tear. Then piss yourself laughing again.

Verdict: 4/5

Jackass Best And Last is released on June 26 via Paramount

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