‘Jackass: Best and Last’ celebrates 25 years of friendship

When it comes to “Jackass: Best and Last,” the title doesn’t lie. It is, in fact, the last “Jackass” movie — confirmed, while sitting in an electric chair, by ubiquitous big brother/ringleader/co-creator Johnny Knoxville, who has been at this since 2000, when “Jackass” was merely an MTV curio. It is also, in my heart, the best “Jackass” movie, because it best expresses the true meaning of “Jackass,” which is, of course, friendship. Friendship, and doing ill-advised things with butts.

It is slightly tamer than its predecessors, because our dudes are older now, a bit battered, having accumulated too many head injuries and herniated discs to keep upping the ante the way they usually do. It’s a sweeter film, more emotional and deeply wistful. However, that doesn’t mean “Best and Last” skimps on the derring-do, or the daring doo — rectal-related stunts abound, as expected.

But it’s ultimately a look back on the last 26 years, and director Jeff Tremaine opens up the vaults to share the sketches, pranks and stunts that never made it to screen, mostly because they were too edgy for TV. He opens with the bit that birthed “Jackass” in 1998, involving Knoxville in the desert with a pistol and a Kevlar vest. “Best and Last” blends new material with greatest hits, and these jaw-dropping, never-before-seen gems involve huge movie stars, run-ins with the law and a stunning performance from Knoxville’s elderly alter ego Irving Zisman. They were holding out on us, but Tremaine has deployed it at the exact right moment.

“Jackass” means a lot to its fans because of the time we’ve spent with the franchise over the past 26 years, and the time that this crew has spent together, getting older, grayer, but hopefully none the wiser. Time is the essence of the reflective “Best and Last.” Getting older is a gift, a message made especially poignant through clips featuring original cast member Ryan Dunn, who died in a car accident in 2011 at age 34. But aging is also an opportunity for new kinds of outrageous bits, like when the guys chug a colonoscopy prep drink and play Twister.

So much of the appeal of early “Jackass” was the sense of youthful folly and vigor; of getting knocked down and popping right back up; getting scared or hurt but then laughing at danger with all of your best friends. “Jackass” is this gleeful expression of the friendship and foolishness that comes with youth, but we’ve grown old with them — most of them — against all odds, accepting the change that comes with time passing. There’s something so beautiful in that, and so glorious in the persistence of these crazy, self-destructive activities. It’s adorable that Steve-O laments he still wants to be MVP.

If the first “Jackass” movie was an announcement that this rough-hewn skate punk digital TV show was Capital C Cinema (and it is), and “Jackass Number Two” pushed the envelope in an intense, even dark direction, and if “Jackass 3D” was a return to fun, and “Jackass: Forever” was a gleeful deconstruction/send-up of masculinity, then “Best and Last” is about the importance of maintaining friendships over the years. It may be challenging, it may involve doing some really insane, hard and even painful things (at least in this group), but ultimately, it’s a worthy endeavor.

Enough sentimentality. At the end of the day, these old dogs still have the same tricks. Chris Pontius still swings his member around like no one else, Steve-O valiantly surrenders his bodily cavities for the cause, and Danger Ehren has the best horrified reactions in the game. The newer performers, like Sean “Poopies” McInerney and Zach Holmes, prove to be true “Jackass” all-stars too. Holmes fearlessly uses his form to attain new levels of physical comedy, “bawdy” humor if you will, while McInerney is the perfect kind of willing and lovable himbo that the original “Jackass” boys embodied.

But the sweetest part of the movie, and the sequence I will want to watch again and again, is the end credits — in which both Buster Keaton and Tom & Jerry are thanked, naturally. The montage is a masterful encapsulation of the best of “Jackass” over the years: bloopers, behind the scenes, recurring bits and so many laughs.

Tribune News Service