Movies in 3D are known for throwing shit in the face of the audience, but with “Jackass 3D,” it’s not balls and yo-yos coming at you: it’s actual shit. And the balls are, well, balls. If you couldn’t handle the farts and piss stains on your small screens, we’d recommend that you stay away and watch the Jane Austen adaptation marathon hosted by your mom. But if you are game, just hope you’re made of something stronger than the film’s cameraman Lance Bangs, who puked twice on camera (literally).
With director Jeff Tremaine returning to the helm and Johnny Knoxville acting as tour guide, “Jackass 3D” travels a river of piss, shit, and puke that makes the Nile seem like a stagnant puddle. You will feel exhausted after its 90-something minutes of hell. Not (just) because of the moaning, groaning, and gasping you will do throughout all the foulness onscreen. When it’s at its best, “Jackass 3D” could make a limping run for the funniest film of the year, and all that laughing is guaranteed to make your face hurt.
It begins with a surprise appearance from two MTV antiheroes of yore, but it doesn’t start the action without the requisite warning for those who might rival the Jackass crew in idiocy. Each stunt is embarrassing to be sure, but it’s also plenty painful. There are more nut shots than a year’s worth of vintage “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and ladies and gentlemen, there will be blood. And bruises.
“Jackass 3D” works hard to earn its R-rating, particularly considering that it’s so delightfully juvenile. But Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Preston Lacy, Jason “Wee Man” Acuna, Dave England, and the rest of the crowd are near geniuses when it comes to the art of creating pain-and gag-inducing stunts. Some seem like rehashes of popular gags from their MTV show or the first two films, but others display a remarkable creativity and appreciation for physics and the resilience of the human body (and the stupidity of the brain contained therein).
The stunts that you want to stop (right now) are the ones that seem to go on forever, and the format largely worked better as a 30-minute show (complete with commercials to catch your breath) than it does a film that passes the 90-minute mark. But there somehow manages to be more pleasure than pain, if you’re in the right mindset.
Other than the familiar guitar theme, the music in “Jackass 3D” ranges from Twisted Sister to Wagner, but the highlight is undeniably the credit-dwelling cover of Roger Alan Wade’s “If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough,” by Karen O. And when the film’s art director is introduced, you get a sense that this might take a bit more mental effort than you’d thought.
For all its ridiculousness, this might be one of the smarter marriages of 3D technology and content to be released in recent memory. Sure, it’s gimmicky, but there’s some sick joy in watching punches thrown, asses kicked, and property destroyed, all in 3D. “Jackass 3D” also goes blow for blow with the work of Zack Snyder in terms of slow-motion shots. The closest thing to being hit in the face is watching someone else experience it in 3D and cheek-rippling slow-mo. We’re just glad that the minds behind “Jackass 3D” didn’t make it “Jackass Smellovision. [B]