Jackass 3D (2010)

Four years after Jackass Number Two comes Jackass 3D, the fourth installment of the popular MTV franchise.  The film is a comedy which stars Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Ryan Dunn, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Preston Lacy, Dave England, and Ehren McGhehey; and is directed by Jeff Tremaine.
The plot of Jackass 3D is basically, none.  When I say none, I mean there are no heroes, villains, or protagonists in this film.  What you will find instead are a collection of pranks and skits.  The film starts off with another popular MTV franchise, Beavis and Butthead, explaining how 3D works.  From there, you are treated to 93 minutes of the Jackass guys doing completely idiotic things to each other.  For example, in one of the skits, they used super mighty glue to remove chest hair from Phil Margera and Preston Lacy.  In another prank, Johnny Knoxville wears makeup to disguise himself as a bad grandpa who makes out with his granddaughter in public.  One of the funniest skits was when Wee Man was at a bar talking to this lady when her man comes out and starts bar room brawl with
Wee Man.  This in turn, leads to the cops and the paramedics coming out.  The funny thing is, everyone is a midget.  Just like in Jackass Number Two, there is a skit which stands out and is probably the best one in the film.
One aspect of the filmmaking which I thought was a nice feature to add to this film was the direction they decided to go in, 3D.  I thought it was great in the beginning of the film when each shot is shot at 1,000 frames per second.  However, having said that, I was also a bit disappointed with the 3D.  When I was watching the movie trailers before the film, one was for the new Saw film.  They made 3D look cool, as if the images actually jumped off the screen.  I didn’t feel that in this film.  I also saw Johnny Knoxville on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and he said that during the beehive tether ball, people in their seats were actually throwing their hands up as if to shoo the bees away.  I did not do that nor did I see anyone doing that.
The other aspect of the filmmaking which I thought was great was the set design.  One that came to mind was when Bam Margera tried to pull a prank on the director, Jeff Tremaine.  What Bam did was, he would sneak up behind people, throw a glass of water to the left side of their face and then punch them with his boxing glove on the right side of their face.  He entered the back of this trailer and was going to enter the other door to sneak up on Jeff, but little did he know, they outpranked the prankster by building a large hole in the floor and covering it up.  Once Bam passed throw there, he fell into a floor of snakes (some fake, some real), which he hated.  As bad as that was, the hole was like 6 feet deep so he could not get out without help.  Another one that comes to mind is when Johnny Knoxville made himself invisible by painting himself the same color as the background to see if the bull would still see him.
I liked this film, even though I thought it lacked in comparison to the originals.  I would recommend this film to any fan of the series.  Having said that, I don’t think this film was as great as I thought it would be.  The reason is because I did not think the pranks and skits were as good as they were in the previous films.  In one scene, Johnny Knoxville (dressed up as bad grandpa) goes to a motorcycle shop and drives the motorcycle right through the window.  I feel like that was very similar to the one in the first Jackass: The Movie where he rents a car (as himself) from a car dealer and brings it back all beaten up.  Maybe they are out of ideas and are having a hard time coming up with new ones?  I give this film a B-.