Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I sort of hoped I would have a good time with this one.

After all, I named JACKASS: THE MOVIE one of my ten favorite films of the year when it came out, and I’m genuinely fascinated by what motivates these guys to push themselves the way they do. When I saw the first film, I thought it was pretty much crazy, as crazy as anything I’d ever seen a studio release.

Coming back to do a sequel obviously begs comparison between the two films. Is this just more of the same? That’s the danger. There’s also the notion that this film is going to have to compete with how “crazy” the first film is. Can you really match the rush from the first film?

Director Jeff Tremaine deserves some sort of medal for riding herd over the madness on display this time out. This movie scared me more than any horror film released by a studio so far this year. There’s the vibe through the entire film that someone might die at any time. This film feels out of control in a way the first film didn’t. Everything seemed sort of fun and wacky and wild in the first film, but it seemed like they knew what they were doing. This time out, everyone seems to take more abuse than ever before, and there are some things here I can’t believe they survived.

Johnny Knoxville’s built a nice little career for himself as a “real” actor. If anyone from JACKASS has a reason to just quit and walk away and never look back, it’s him. But he throws himself into things with a grim glee in this film, and he takes some horrific hits, tempting death a few times. Knoxville seems game for anything. At one point, when they test some anti-riot gear that they want to use on the guys, the demo is so scary that Dave England cries, gets the shakes and refuses to participate. Knoxville’s the cheerleader, trying to talk everyone else into doing it with him. When he, Dunn, and Bam step up, the results are suitably apocalyptic. Knoxville also tempts large animals several times here, and the results are never good. The anaconda is bad enough, but the bulls are impressive and scary as shit on the big screen.

Bam Margera spent most of the first JACKASS torturing other people. That’s sort of his role. He tortures his father Phil constantly. He tortures Ape, his long-suffering mother. He tortures Don Vito all the time. He tortures Ryan Dunn, his friend. The whole shtick behind his show VIVA LA BAM is that he does whatever the fuck he wants. Well, in this film, Bam seems to take the punishment. They go after him hard, and it pays off when they get him to crack. Watching Bam Margera break down and cry because of how much the other guys fuck with him is something I never thought I’d say, and it’s oddly gratifying. Pontius does the most disgusting thing that he’s ever done, and seems totally unfazed by it, which makes me wonder what it would take to really shake Pontius up. Steve-O tries to up the stakes with a leech on his eyeball or a fishhook through his cheek while swimming with sharks, but I think it’s Eheren McGhehey who gets stuck with the worst of it this time out. He does a bit that goes so wildly wrong (thanks to the help of the rest of the JACKASS crew) that all he can do is break down screaming and sobbing for help.

Makes you wish they still made THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT films, eh?

There’s not a lot you can say about this film in terms of defending it to the uninitiated. I just saw IDIOCRACY the other day finally, and I was surprised by how angry it was. It’s as if Mike Judge feels a bit of residual guilt about introducing Beavis and Butt-head into pop culture, as if he might have contributed a bit to that dumbing down that we all know is happening. JACKASS is the kind of entertainment that the characters in IDIOCRACY would watch 24/7, but I still feel like you can sense the wicked wit behind the gross-outs and the crazy stunts. Look at the way Spike Jonze and Johnny Knoxville play off of people’s disregard for the elderly in a series of bits involving prosthetic make-up. It’s rude and visceral, but at the same time, there’s a vicious goad in there somewhere.

Looking for deeper meaning in a JACKASS film is pointless. Ultimately, this is a movie where they strap the star to a big rocket and then blow the fucker up. You know what you’re getting ahead of time, and the joy of JACKASS NUMBER TWO is that it delivers with even more intensity than the original. As long as you don’t vomit easily, JACKASS NUMBER TWO is the feel-good family hit of the year.

Seriously.

“Moriarty” out.