Review of Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) by Cody W — 27 Apr 2014

You just can't keep a successful franchise down, and in this case, Jackass creators Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine came up with an idea for a spin-off, which would have them reviving a character from the Jackass TV series and films, and give him his own film.

While this sort of thing has been done before, especially in Borat, there are still some good laughs here. 86-year-old Irving Zisman (Knoxville) has just lost his wife Ellie (Catherine Keener). At the funeral, his estranged daughter Kimmie (Georgina Gates) turns up with her 8 year old son Billy (Jackson Nicoll), and announces she's going to jail, and that Irving has to take Billy to his father Chuck (Greg Harris) in North Carolina.

Irving and Billy have little money, plus they have the body of Ellie in the trunk of the car, Irving can't stand Billy, and he'd rather go off to strip clubs and get drunk. They even sneak into a wedding reception to get some food, which doesn't go well, then Irving enters Billy as a girl into a child beauty pageant to win some money.

It has the usually formula of performing stunts on the unsuspecting general public, and if you're not impressed by one prank, don't worry, there'll be another one along in a few minutes that'll have you laughing, but it manages to have some kind of charm about it, even if some of it is just plain wrong.