Review of Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) by Drew D — 15 Feb 2014

Hit and miss for the most part, when its funny its very funny and when it isn't its boring and painful to watch. A lot of it has to do with the combination of a scripted plot elements and real life reactions of unsuspecting people. The director Jeff Tremaine had a great concept with real life and scripted elements but a lot of times mixing the two elements felt awkward, over used and very much put-on at times throughout the film.

I know that Knoxville and Tremaine put a lot of effort into making this concept as organic as possible but being that its a movie that's plot relies on the responses of the unsuspecting public to keep it moving forward, one can assume that multiple takes were made with many of the same people in order to get the best shot possible. Most notable is a scene in the first act where Knoxville's character is conducting a video conference at an internet cafe' with Billy's father at one end and a social worker present with Knoxville and Billy at the other. Not only was the scene lacking in any stand out laughs but the social workers performance seemed hammy and unconvincing, as if she were trying to remember her lines. The same can be said about about a scene near the end of the movie involving Billy's father and some bikers, only more cheesy I think.

Another problem with the real life elements is at times it feels less like a movie and more like a higher budget episode of jackass. This has more to do with the way it was filmed than anything. You can tell there is quite a contrast between scenes involving just the boy and grandpa than scenes involving the boy, grandpa and the unsuspecting public. Again I'm sure that they did all that they could to keep it all seeming like a big budget hollywood film than a reality tv show but in the case of this movie there is only so much they could've done to keep it from not seeming that way. The use of it in this movie not only dulls down the pace of the plot but some of the forced antics aren't as funny in comparison to a lot of the well timed ridiculous behavior you'll see from Knoxville and the boy throughout the film. Best scenes involving a soda machine, a male strip club, and farting at a restaurant.

If you are a hardcore fan of the dickhouse franchise there is no doubt you are going to enjoy the amount of stupidity this has to offer despite its flaws. To me, being that this movie is to have somewhat of a serious plot structure around the definitive aspects of jackass, it works both to this movie's advantage and against it. If there were someway they could've perfected the concept of both real and scripted elements I probably would've enjoyed Bad Grandpa a little more. Seeing as its a fairly new concept it probably would've been impossible to get it down the first time though I could see Jeff Tremaine really doing something special with it in the near future, but for now its a descent dose of comedic stupidity that is bound to have you on the floor if you are in an intoxicated state.