Jackass: The Movie (2002)
★★★ — Jackass: The Movie (2002)
Jackass: The Movie arrived in October 2002 off the back of the MTV series of the same name, which had run from 2000 to 2002 before being cancelled amid mounting pressure over copycat injuries. Director Jeff Tremaine had been one of the show's creators alongside Johnny Knoxville and Spike Jonze (who takes an executive producer credit here), and the jump to cinema was less a creative leap than a commercial one, giving the troupe a bigger canvas and a looser leash than cable television ever allowed. Shot on a reported $5 million budget, it grossed over $64 million worldwide, a return that surprised even Paramount and greenlit two theatrical sequels. For Knoxville, Bam Margera and Steve-O, it was the moment a cult cable act became a genuine franchise.
Let’s not pretend this is cinema. Jackass: The Movie isn’t a film so much as a 90-minute dare gone horribly right, a glorified home video of grown men doing profoundly stupid things to their own bodies, all for the sake of a laugh. It’s gross, immature, badly produced, sloppily edited, and occasionally hard to watch. But it’s also undeniably, stupidly funny. There’s a primal, almost childlike joy in watching Johnny Knoxville get electric shocked, Steve-O snort wasabi, or Dave England shit in a plumbing store. The humour is entirely physical, rooted in pain, humiliation, and the sheer audacity of “what if we just… did that?” It’s not clever, it doesn’t have a message, and it certainly doesn’t care about taste but it commits to its own absurdity with such total sincerity that it becomes hypnotic. You laugh because it’s ridiculous, then you laugh because you can’t believe they actually went through with it. It’s not for everyone and it shouldn’t be. But as a distilled burst of chaotic, no-rules comedy, it works. The pacing drags in places, the skits repeat, and the low-budget DV look hasn’t aged gracefully. But the energy is raw, the camaraderie real, and the commitment to idiocy unmatched. It’s dumb. It’s gross. It’s poorly made. But yeah it’s funny. And sometimes, that’s enough.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2002 | Watched: 2025-08-19
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Jeff Tremaine: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) · Jackass: Gumball Rally 3000 Special (2002) · Jackass 3.5 (2011) · Jackass 2.5 (2007)
More with Johnny Knoxville: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) · Skiptrace (2016) · The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) · The Ringer (2005)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
