Besides the fact that Johnny Knoxville has been around for quite a while due to his involvement in other projects, the world was most definitely suffering from the lack of Jackass-type humour. When the Jackass boys first burst onto the scene, it was programming many had not witnessed before. MTV had somehow perfectly managed to combine prank TV with a massive amount of self-harm… and managed to make the entire thing funny.
Jackass catapulted its cast firmly into the limelight and eventually, the crew began working on film projects, each just as successful as the last with Jackass 3D taking a whopping $117 million. One thing was for sure, Jackass was firmly a winner at the box office and it was only going to be a matter of time before we saw something else from the crew.
Bad Grandpa essentially follows the same rules as the rest of the Jackass films, with a slight twist.
86-year-old Irving, following the loss of his wife, is left to mind his grandson after his daughter gets thrown in jail… again. Irving was really looking forward to being free from his wife and so decides that the boy belongs with his father and begins a cross-country drive to deliver him to his new home.
However, during the trip, Irving becomes quite attached to Billy, who is just as mischievous as his grandfather, and finds that he is actually good company. When it’s time to hand Billy over, he has some difficult decisions to make.
To be entirely honest, the plot doesn’t matter at all across the entire film, it merely serves as a tool for Knoxville as Irving and Nicoll as Billy to have the most amount of fun and cause the most amount of trouble.
There are some excellent laugh-out-loud moments here, particularly with Irving’s visit to a male strip club and Billy’s venture into pageantry. However, the biggest laughs are always reserved for the reactions from the poor people who have no idea that this is all for the cameras.
The stand-out from the entire affair is, of course, the wonderful Jackson Nicoll who at eight years of age, commands more than his fair share of the laughs with genius comic timing. You may actually want to adopt this child at the end of the film.
Not many surprises here, but still worth your hard-earned money for the laughs, Bad Grandpa is well worth checking out.
