DVD Review: ‘Jackass 3.5’

Films that are relatively inexpensive to make have a tendency to result in a lot of extra footage.  The scene/stunt might not work, but if it doesn’t, so what?  A few of them almost work.  The perfect stuff makes it into the final product, but what about the other stuff?  If you have more scenes that would comfortably fit as DVD special features and have a cast willing to talk you through each of them, why not release it as a separate entity?  That brings us to ‘Jackass 3.5.’

Once again, you know exactly what this is: grown men doing very stupid things.

You should probably read the review of ‘Jackass 3‘ to get some back story as far as where Johnny Knoxville and company are at in their careers before continuing on.  I’ll wait.

The main difference between this installment and the theatrical release is that the stunts are usually less elaborate and straightforward here.  Not all of them work, but part of the fun is trying to see what they were going for and just how it failed.  Instead of outdoing all of the other installments and taking advantage of the 3-D gimmick (which the theatrical film couldn’t even really do), this mostly keeps things simple.

More importantly, the difference between ‘3.5’ and ‘Jackass 2.5’ is the fact that it is chock full of stunts.  These are comparable in number to the full-length films, actually.  ‘2.5’ was really just a collection of miscellaneous stunts that were padded out by excessive explanation and an underwhelming run time.  Knoxville’s claim that there was enough footage for another movie turned out to be completely accurate this time around.

On the downside, if you want to see giant hands knocking people over or Steve-O being propelled into the air while strapped into a filthy port-o-potty, there aren’t many of those stunts here.  Much of the stupidity is achievable or at least attemptable by some impressionable viewers.  Don’t try it at home dummies!

Special features include: the documentary ‘Jackass: The Beginning’, 11 deleted scenes, outtakes and the Jackass European Tour.

If you’re a hardcore fan of all things ‘Jackass,’ this is actually worth looking into.  It’s a better companion piece than you would probably expect it to be.  Unless it’s on sale for an unbeatable price (be patient, it eventually will be) this examiner doesn’t recommend that you rush out to buy it at full retail price.

Casual fans can mark this down as a rental because they should see it at some point, but they probably won’t revisit it often enough to warrant a purchase.

So go forth and enjoy this DVD for what it is: a collection of stunts that are hit and miss in terms of laughs.  In its purist form, isn’t that really what the series was anyway?

Rated R                            85 minutes                         2011