There are several different types of comedy. There's highbrow comedy. There's satirical comedy. There's romantic comedy. There's parody and dark comedy and slapstick and prop comedy and witty wordplay. But for some reason, nothing makes the majority of human beings laugh harder than man-gets-injured-falls-down comedy. Gimme someone hit in the groin with a football and I'll laugh for hours. This is why Jackass was such a hit-- both the TV show and the movies. It's a bunch of... well... jackasses hurting themselves for our amusement-- and damn did they hurt themselves for us. Ringleader of the jackasses has always been one of the most fearless men ever to live-- Johnny Knoxville. The group of guys themselves were pretty fierce with their choices of things they wanted to use to hurt themselves... but all the hardcore, most terrifying stunts were taken by Knoxville. The guy broke his own dick for us. And we will forever respect him for that. But in no way should we have tried to make him a movie star. I would happily watch a new Jackass movie every couple of years, but once they started putting "stories" around the stunts... that's when it started to go downhill. And Action Point is the lowest of the low for Knoxville.
Action Point is based off an actual amusement park in the 1970s that was run as the most dangerous park in the world. Six people are known to have died in the park and they were never hit with any legal problems other than a fine. It's actually quite an interesting story if you look it up. So, it's a decent set-up for a dude like Knoxville-- who still does his own stunts even at 47 years old. However, the end result is something not even die hard Jackass fans will find even slightly amusing. It's a very dull movie ruined, perhaps, by a trailer that reveals literally ALL of the funniest moments. A lot of comedy uses set ups and circumstance in order for a moment of hilarity to pay off. Knoxville and co. have never needed set-up and punchline to deliver the funny-- it's literally just guy-falls-down humor done in different and creative ways. So, the trailer for Action Point looks very funny because it's just a compilation of all the guy-falls-down moments of the movie. What you end up paying to see is a very thin and weak and poorly acted narrative surrounding each guy-falls-down moment, which, again, you've already seen in the trailers.
Obviously the Jackass guys weren't going to be able to keep up their antics heading into their late 40s. So, Knoxville and others decided to go a more Borat meets Jackass route and combine less stunts with a sort of filler narrative that gives the movie a more cohesive feeling. We, as an audience, don't give two left shits about any storyline, we're there to see the guy fall down. I thought Bad Grandpa was decent, but all of the filler narrative surrounding the stunts and pranks were the weakest moments. I watched it the entire time wishing it was just a fourth Jackass movie. But I still laughed. There's hardly any laughs to be had in Action Point. The narrative is too schlocky and poorly written to even give us a moment of connection to any of the characters. In long moments of dialogue I just kept waiting and waiting for the next stunt to get me in stitches laughing, but each one that came was anti-climactic because I'd already seen it half a dozen times in the trailer. I love Knoxville, but the guy can't act and as bad as he is, it's nothing in comparison to how terrible an actor Chris Pontius is. And the frustrating part is-- if you're going to have a movie of dumb stunts with both Knoxville and Jackass partner Pontius... maybe let Pontius do a stunt or two! He does nothing... literally nothing... but get a chuckle from the viewer once or twice for showing up wearing nothing but a speedo and mesh T-shirt. When I realized these moments were going to be the highlight of the comedy of the film, I knew I was in for a long and arduous ride.
Action Point is pretty wholly devoid of any laughs outside of what the trailer already shows-- save for the blooper reel at the end of the film while the credits rolled. I laughed more at the minute and a half blooper reel than I did in the nearly 90-minute movie of Action Point. The only thing I got out of this movie is the desire to go home and watch the Jackass movies again. Not only was it just underwhelming, it honestly is just kinda boring. The verbal jokes don't work, the physical humor has already been spoiled, and the "situational comedy" isn't really even comedy at all. So, unless you think a bunch of "characters" spouting rude variations of the last name Knoblach is the funniest damned thing you've ever heard-- you can definitely skip this one. Even if you have MoviePass, I'd say your time could be better served elsewhere. At least if you wait until it hits Netflix, you can turn it off when you realize it's nothing like what you hoped and wanted it to be.
D-
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