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‘Jackass: Best And Last’ review: silly stunts and fond farewells

Time for one final goodbye to the kings of bloody, puerile pranks (or is it?)

“Fucking gnarly, dude.” So says one observer as Johnny Knoxville gets gored by a bull who tosses him in the air like a rag doll. If there were three words to sum up Jackass, those would just about cover it. For more than 25 years, from MTV to the big screen, Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man and the gang have been performing grossout gags, punkish pranks and wince-inducing stunts – all with the caveat that you should definitely not try this at home; because you’d be really stupid if you did.

Jackass: Best And Last, the fifth feature-length get-together (sixth, if you count the Knoxville-led 2013 film Bad Grandpa), is said to be the final outing. There’s a celebratory vibe to this mash-up of old and new footage, beginning with a flashback to 1998 and the birth of Jackass, as Knoxville – aiming to pitch a feature to magazines on testing self-defence equipment – dons a bulletproof vest and fires a .38 Smith & Wesson handgun at his own chest.

Unsurprisingly, there’s plenty of nostalgia with Best And Last, which features clips of some classic skits. There’s ‘Poo Cocktail Supreme’, a stunt guaranteed to make you wretch, as Steve-O is strapped into a port-a-loo before it’s flung in the air by bungee ropes, covering him in its foul contents. Or the brilliant ‘Silence Of The Lambs’, as Zach Holmes and Sean ‘Poopies’ McInerney are trapped in booby-trapped rooms – fully under the belief that a venomous rattlesnake is on the loose.

Still, this is no reminisci-package. There are plenty of new stunts and even a new ‘character’ in the shape of Larry The Robot. This moving mechanoid – voiced by comedian Adam Ray, who has a whale of a time – starts the film by giving Steve-O a rectum-ripping prostate exam, its condom-wrapped finger lubed up with peanut butter. There are special guests too, including actor Paul Walter Hauser who joins one stunt where a naked Holmes is suspended above a chair. Those sitting in it are subjected to trivia questions; get one wrong and Holmes’ plus-sized butt is lowered towards them. Eww.

Unfortunately, running the new gags alongside the best of the franchise does make you yearn for the glory days. It doesn’t help either that this swansong – directed, as ever, by Jeff Tremaine and produced by Knoxville, Tremaine and Spike Jonze – feels quaint in the age of TikTok, where slapstick skits go viral in nanoseconds. But Best And Last will still have you reaching for the sick bucket on more than one occasion, as the 54-year-old Knoxville seems determined to prove he can still hack it.

While it may not be peak Jackass, this feels like a suitably anarchic way to call time on the pioneers of self-inflicted torment. The explosive finale sees the team pay homage to a familiar-looking shopping trolley. With ‘My Way’ playing, Knoxville, the leader of these merry pranksters, looks misty-eyed as he’s confronted by the fact this chapter of his life is over. As the film takes a bow with one last gross-out moment – a foul-smelling remix on Twister – your eyes will be watering too.

Details

• Director: Jeff Tremaine
• Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius
• Release date: June 26 (in UK cinemas)