RBR: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

The Jackass films take on a different life in Bad Grandpa as leader of the gang Johnny Knoxville dons old person makeup to play Irv Zisman, a newly widowed gentleman who is ask to drive his grandson cross-country to be with his dad after his mother is sent to prison. This narrative serves as a loose thread to string along a series of vignettes of Knoxville and the boy behaving badly in front of unsuspecting onlookers. Such narrative really isn't needed here and it would have worked better if they had simply gone more with the approach of the previous Jackass films of having it simply be a compilation of scenes. I had also wished that they would have gone further with some of the scenes. Not in terms of shock value, they make sure to maximize that. But rather in terms of commentary. There's an uproarious scene late in the movie where the grandson is entered into a beauty pageant and ends up performing a strip tease as mothers and daughters watch on in horror. The beauty pageant circuit is rife with material to mock and shed light on, yet the movie seems content with providing its shock moment and then moving on to the next bit. Despite these issues the film offers up some solid laughs in several scenes that carry the film to a moderate thumbs up. If you've enjoyed the previous Jackass films there's no reason why you won't find something to enjoy in this entry as well. Rating: ***