Warning: Don't try this at home
You have to hand it to those "Jackass" guys — Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O and the rest — they can absorb insane amounts of punishment.
Of course, they proved their masochistic endurance beyond all doubt a long time ago, making "Jackass: Number Two" an exercise in overkill — some of it funny, some of it unspeakably vile, all of it demented. Apparently, self-abuse never gets old.
The sequel is a dizzying succession of pranks, "Candid Camera"-like sketches, and, that old crowd-pleaser, the boys actively courting their own grievous harm. This is what you get when a generation grows up watching far too many "Roadrunner" cartoons while sitting on the couch eating bowl after bowl of Lucky Charms.
Some of the examples of self-mutilation include sitting a guy in a shopping cart and then catapulting him point-blank at a wall, and branding Margera's posterior with an obscene acetylene-heated cattle iron.
Small wonder that when the boys strip down, as they do far too often, it's hard to tell where the abrasions, welts and scars end and the tattoos begin.
What motivates these gleefully suicidal stunt men? It's a question Margera's mother poses to one of her son's cohorts: "Why would you burn him in the first place?" "Because it was funny," he responds. Duh and double duh.
A number of these bits are merely submoronic, like Knoxville drinking fresh horse spunk, or Steve-O gagging down a cow patty. Obviously, not so funny. Ditto for the defecation gags.
If "Jackass Two" had a subtitle, it would be "Bulls and Snakes." Both species figure prominently in this film, from the Pamplona-comes-to-the-suburbs opening to the surprising Busby Berkeley-like song-and-dance finale. In one typically perilous interlude, Knoxville proves that if this squeamish showbiz thing doesn't work out, he could always pursue a career as a rodeo clown.
You have to marvel at the way these guys keep coming up with ingenious ways to hurt themselves. There is so much energy and creativity on display here, all in the service of destruction and dementedness.
The film carries the standard warning that viewers should not attempt any of the stunts they are about to see. Maybe it's time to do away with the advisory and let natural selection take over. After all, we really need to get anyone who is tempted to emulate "Jackass Two" out of the gene pool.
TITLE: "Jackass: Number Two"DIRECTOR: Jeff TremaineCAST: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Wee Man, Chris PontiusRATED: R (extremely crude and dangerous stunts, profanity, nudity)GRADE: * * 1/2 (out of 5)
