Review of Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Honestly, in my opinion, this movie wasn't so bad. It wasn't really that dumb when you think about it. While, it didn't shoehorn much of a moral story. It did had some to work with all the empathy. Directed by Jeff Tremaine, this film had a lot of character development between the 86 year old Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and his grandson Billy (Jackson Nicoll) throughout the film, as both find themselves closer through all the hijinx of their cross-country trip. Irving find himself, taking care of his grandson, Billy after Billy's mother was sent to jail for drugs. Irving, who doesn't wish to take care of the boy, seeks to return the boy to his father half way across the country. While, Irving Zisman indeed is a pretty bad grandpa who is trying loosen up after the death of his wife. At less, he is care more about the kid than the kid's father who wants him only for the money. We see the movie get very smart toward the end as Irving realize better, and with the help of the biker gang, Guardians of the Children seek out to reclaim the boy. Let's remember that the writer was indeed Spike Jonze known for some really smart films out there like 2009's Where the Wild Things Are and 2013's Her. Indeed, this movie might have the 'Jackass Presents' on the title, but it seems to me that the movie has mature enough to be watchable. Still, there are some faults of the film, I didn't find so much. First off, Johnny Knoxville acting chops. Unlike, Sasha Baron Cohen's 2006's hit 'Borat', the character of Irving Zisman doesn't really jump out on me. I found myself, watching Johnny Knoxville in old man make up acting horny rather than Irving. It didn't help that Johnny Knoxville's Irving sounds like his normal voice. I'm surprised that not a lot of people couldn't notice it was him in the film with all that make up. It's unlike the character, Borat who is from a British show that a lot of Americans didn't watch. The character of the grandpa was a signature character in the show 'Jackass', and the series of movies after it. People in Middle America had to saw 'Jackass' at less once in their lives. The film even tries to relive the charm of seeing an old guy trying to shoplift again. A lot of the most insane hidden camera pranks in this film is pretty funny. The scene with the male stripper got me laughing the most. The less funny scene for me is the fishing at the golf scene. I think the trailer for this film kinda ruin the child beauty pageant part of the film as it pretty much show the funniest part of the film so seeing it again wasn't new. They should had save those scenes to be shown later. The movie was fun and so enjoyable. Still, I did think the ending of this film did cop out and copied 2006's Little Miss Sunshine in many ways, not only with the pageant part, but the idea of moving a dead body illegally in your trunk. It was bit cheap. Another thing about the film is how fake some of the people on film reaction to the stunts or pranks. It seems like some scenes were at least partially scripted since the cameras were following him very closely for the audio. I believe they really did try to use real people, but when the scene didn't turn out the way they liked they reshot it using the same people and then it became more of an acted scene. Some other scenes look like it had paid actors acting like they were prank on such as the penguin scene. They probably did that with most of the movie and used a mixture of real scenes with staged incredibly setup scenes. So that is why some of the jokes fall flat. Yes, some people were on the prank, but it shows that after the credits, the people who weren't in on the prank getting notified that they were filming a movie. Every scene there are actual camera crews walking with the cast except for a few scenes. Then the film has scene has about 4-6 different clear camera angles so it's hard to believe that the people didn't realize they were being filmed prior to the stunt. At less, in Borat, they made the excuse for the cameras being presented because Borat was making a documentary about America. Here in this film, there is little reason why they are there. The film had little suspension, and pretty predictable outcomes. It's hard to take this film seriously, anyways, because it was a bit over the top. Yes, some of the humor was pretty gross. Now, saying that, I did have a couple good laughs despite the potty humor. Some critics got anger because they think the filmmakers were exploiting the young actor that played Billy. Maybe, a little bit. It was kinda risky to ask a child to do an adult like strip show. Still, it's no different than Toddlers and Tiaras. It's so perverted both ways that it deserved to parody on. People need to come off their high horses. Bad or good, this movie provides what movies were made for; escapism. Some people just want to shut their brains off for 90 minutes and laugh. Intelligence people have been enjoying cheap, violent and low brow comedy for decades. It's not the film worth over analyzing about it. Just a fun little film to dumb down to.