Spinoffs tend to be one of those things that aren’t always sought out but end up being something that we don’t mind happening. That’s the case with the upcoming Jackass spinoff Bad Grandpa, which takes Johnny Knoxville’s hilarious 86 year old alter-ego Irving Zisman and puts him in the spotlight in a Borat-style hidden-camera road trip comedy.
After the death of his wife and becoming a free man, Irving Zisman’s daughter decides to drop her son Billy (Jackson Nicoll) off so that Irving can bring him to his father’s home to be looked after while she goes to prison. Irving reluctantly agrees and the two go on a wild cross country road trip, causing mayhem on unsuspecting citizens while providing belly aching laughs for us.
Bad Grandpa is a funny film. Everyone that plans on seeing it already knows that going into it, especially if you’re a fan of prior Jackass films. The difference between this film and those films is that the cameras are hidden and that director Jeff Tremaine has had to weave a plot into the film to connect the different pranks that he, Billy and a couple of supporting characters play on the public. I’ll be honest, the story is stupid and any sort of emotional connection or dialogue the two try to have as they are travelling in the car is annoying, but once they exit that vehicle and enter the public eye that’s when things get funny.
The one major downside to the film is that if you’ve seen the trailer for the movie you’ve seen a lot of the funnier bits in the film. I was really surprised by this and thought there would be a lot more moments where I would be rolling over but instead many of those foolishly ended up in the trailer instead of using footage that ended up not being in the film. That being said, there are still a ton of scenes that are outrageous, over the top and laugh out loud funny and, for the most part, it should make fans of Jackass, Borat, or any R-rated hidden camera shows pretty satisfied.
I don’t want to spoil any of the bits but I will comment on a few scenes and then if you see it you’ll know what I’m talking about. My favorite scenes in the film include the opening scene, the stripper scene, the pageant scene, the diner scene when Billy and Irving fart and the string of scenes when Irving is drunk and Billy tries to get him some food. I couldn’t contain myself during those scenes and dying of laughter during most of them. There are just so many unexpected things that happen that the shock value is what really gets you but what follows is what keeps you laughing.
Overall, Bad Grandpa is a hilarious film that’s worth seeing if you are looking for ridiculous, raunchy and mindless entertainment. A lot of the film loses steam when the characters are not in public and return to focusing on the “plot” of the story and building their relationship. In this regard it can’t compete at all with Borat but when the cast is doing what they do best, the film delivers on the laughs you were promised.
Rating: A raunchy road trip comedy that delivers the laughs in classic Jackass style but with the added bonus of it being filmed in public (6.8/10)
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