Let's be honest about what Jackass: Best and Last actually is. It is partly a clip show. It is partly a documentary, partly a new movie, and partly a retirement party for a group of men in their fifties who have spent a quarter century doing the most inadvisable things possible to their own bodies. Calling it a film in the traditional sense is generous. Calling it a great time at the movies is completely accurate.
Directed once again by Jeff Tremaine, the movie blends new stunts with archival footage from the MTV show and the previous four theatrical films, including never-before-seen material that never made it to air. Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, and the rest of the original crew are all back, and most of them are well into their fifties now, which the movie leans into rather than pretending otherwise. Knoxville himself had to step back from the most dangerous physical work after suffering a broken rib, broken wrist, concussion, and brain hemorrhage during a bull riding stunt in Jackass Forever. So here he plays ringleader, silver-haired and grinning, egging everyone else into things he can no longer do himself. That shift in his role actually gives the movie a lot of its unexpected feeling.
The new bits hold up better than you might expect given the age of everyone involved. The film's most revolting new sequence involves laxatives and a game of Twister, and it fits right alongside the classics that made the franchise. The archive choices are good too, including early footage of Knoxville shooting himself with a gun and breaking into a hardware store dressed as an escaped convict. The boxy aspect ratio of the old MTV footage is a genuinely nice nostalgic touch. What the movie gets right is the framing. Each old and new clip is presented with this sense of fondness and finality that separates it from just pulling up a Jackass playlist on YouTube.
The criticism that lands is about the newer cast members. Rachel Wolfson, the first woman ever to join the Jackass crew, barely registers in this final film. That is a real miss. Bam Margera appears only through archive footage, which everyone knew going in, but there is still a noticeable absence around his presence and around any meaningful tribute to Ryan Dunn, who died in 2011. The movie does not quite give either of them their due, and for a franchise that has always been more about the people than the stunts, that gap is felt.
Still, Variety put it well when they wrote that you leave the film believing the gang will actually miss all this, and that is enough to make you miss it too. The camaraderie between these guys has always been the actual product, the stunts just the delivery system. If you grew up watching Jackass, go see this in theaters. The experience of watching a room full of people wince and laugh at the same time is part of the point. If you want to prep, Jackass Forever is streaming on Paramount Plus and is the best entry point for anyone catching up before this one.
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