DVD Review: Jackass 2.5

Those Jackasses that perform outrageous stunts (usually involving cringe inducing harm to themselves) return in this compilation of unused footage from their second movie.

Seems that the boys just couldn’t stop shooting and had enough footage to make this short feature (and still some left for special features). For those not familiar with the show, Jackass was an MTV show that featured a group of friends that pulled insane pranks on each other and poor unsuspecting saps around them. The popularity of the show led to two feature films. It seems that they shot an enormous amount of unused footage for the second feature and was able to edit it together in this 64-minute film dubbed Jackass 2.5. They’ve shot some new footage of fearless leader Johnny Knoxville and his crew (Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Dave England, and Ehren McGhehey) and also director Jeff Tremaine discussing the stunts and a gag where Knoxville is giving a Patton-esque speech. There’s even some footage of Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill) as he made the poor choice to appear in the second film as they were blowing air up the ass of Preston Lacy in an attempt to reproduce a “powder fart.” They then give Steve-O a straw to insert it into Lacy and it produces the desired result – in Steve’s face who has to go to the balcony and puke his guts out. Needless to say there’s quite a large amount of deranged stunts in this version as well as a large amount of vomiting. Your enjoyment of these things will depend on your tolerance for such zaniness and your enjoyment of the first films or television show. Jackass 2.5 is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 23-minute “Making of Jackass 2.5” which explains how the film came about. Next up is the 21-minute “The Making of Jackass the Game” which has Knoxville and his cohorts being made up with motion capture dots and performing some of their lunacy for digital reproduction. If the entire film wasn’t enough, there’s still 43 minutes of Bonus Segments in this section. There’s also a text page that instructs you to visit jackassworld.com, a photo gallery, and previews of other Paramount DVDs. Jackass is an acquired taste, but there are some funny bits within. I’ve heard rumors that a third film is in the works and if you’re a fan of the show then this compilation of unused footage should tide fans over till it can grace theater screens. However, there were reasons that some of these segments were not used in the film because they fall flat but some of them do cause you to laugh. I still feel a bit guilty laughing at them since sometimes the poor bastards walk away with cuts and bruises. Jackass 2.5 is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Feb. 25th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.