Written by Rosie Taylor.
Utterly cringe-worthy and completely offensive, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa will have you in stitches from start to finish.
If you’ve braved previous Jackass movies, you’ll know Johnny Knoxville is in no means shy ““ this film meets Jackass expectations with the same politically incorrect, sexist, racist, and downright inappropriate humor.
Bad Grandpa’s entertainment value relies on candid camera, people-watching at it’s best as Knoxville performs outrageous and embarrassing stunts under the guise of a randy 86-year-old man “chasing tail”.
One family, toting an elderly grandmother, swiftly exited the cinema during the opening scene when Knoxville’s character Irving shared celebratory words with his penis ‘Leroy’ after hearing the news of his wife’s passing.
Irving finds himself the sole (responsible?) guardian of little Billy (Jackson Nicoll) when the 8-year-old explains to unsuspecting legal office patrons that his mother “is going to jail again. Her breath smells bad because she smokes a lot of crack cocaine”.
Cue a hilarious cinematic road trip; Irving must transport Billy to his equally irresponsible father, wreaking havoc along the way.
As Irving’s dead wife rots in the boot of his car, the makeup caked, raunchy ‘elderly’ man performs a strip routine, crashes a wedding, drinks beer with his grandson and commandeers a shopping trolley to order drive-through ‘breast’– erm, chicken breast. Nicolls masters his own version of the candid camera stunt when he asks unsuspecting men to be his father. Comments like “Dad, do you love me?”, “High 5 Dad!” warranted some very uncomfortable squirms. Nicholls takes out the best “not sure whether to laugh or look away” moment when he innocently enters a Toddlers and Tiaras style beauty pageant and single-handedly destroys Cherry Pie, spinning around a pole as G-pa showers him in dollar bills.
The Punk’d style comedy did have some semblance of a storyline, with surprising empathy developing in the strengthened relationship between grandfather and grandson. Peppered with atrocious toilet humor, awkward situations and a horny old man ““ Bad Grandpa isn’t for the faint-hearted (but no Jackass movie really is). This might not be one for the critics, but it will have the viewers laughing for weeks.
THE REEL SCORE: 7/10
– R.T.
