Jackass Movies Ranked
2. Jackass: The Movie (2002)
Everything that the Jackasses proved themselves to be in the ‘Jackass’ television show from 2000 went balls-to-the-wall (figuratively and of course literally) for this, the first movie.
Away from the confines of cable television, namely the MTV network, and slapped with a hard R (18) rating, Jackass: The Movie was everything the TV show was celebrated to be, only with more nudity and a great deal more profanity. In effect, it was Jackass as it always should have been.
Combining skits they couldn’t air for the series with all-new concoctions created for the film – including a high budget high-speed trolley ride through debris and into the a barrage of obstacles (all displayed in slow-motion) – the Jackass crew offered what will long be considered the most true representation of the group ever put to screen. If you want to know what Jackass is, watch The Movie.
For all of the funny skits that were a part of this Jackass film – of which there were many including Steve-O’s alligator tight rope, the golf course air horn, and the department store toilet poo – it’s the energy of the piece that makes it so fascinating, the skits looking like they’ve been imagined on the fly, the crew seemingly setting up cameras to capture the drunken antics of boisterous young men rather than intending to film well thought out comedy bits.
For all the ways in which Jackass would evolve to be more cinematic over the years, it would also become more convoluted, this movie becoming an exceptional example of low budget filmmaking that well-and-truly captured the do-it-yourself attitude of its time and remains such great fun to this day.
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1. Jackass Forever (2022)
For all the ways that Jackass: The Movie was perhaps the most true representation of the Jackass concept, the combination of nostalgia and ever-present confrontation with mortality that each of the original cast seemed to have in this 2022 fourth entry make Jackass Forever just that bit more touching, that bit more engaging, than any Jackass movie that has come before.
Reuniting so many of the original crew, including franchise favourites Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze, and bringing together the now middle aged original cast members (barring Bam Margera who was fired for failing a drugs test), the crew really did a lot to honour what brought them to the dance, offering by far the most cinematic film in the franchise to date but also the most touching – there is something so sweet about seeing Steve-O hang a hive of bees from his penis when you know he’s doing it all sober.
With just as many memorable moments as the original trilogy – including “Night Vision Rattlesnake Trap”, a pogo stick to the scrotum, a bear eating salmon from Ehren’s pants, and Jonny Knoxville nearly being killed by a charging bull – and featuring a few welcomed additions to the aging cast, each of whom were introduced in a way that didn’t feel like a forced soft-reboot for the Jackass name, Jackass Forever was an emotional welcome back to a crew of men we didn’t even realise we’d missed, and a sigh of relief to see them all on the other side of personal demons and real-life heartache.
Jackass Forever is the ending we all wanted to see for the boys we grew up watching, though one that inevitably left us all desperate for more: the best Jackass movie yet.
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Which Jackass movie do you think is the best? Who’s your favourite cast member? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow @thefilmagazine on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more insightful movie articles.
