Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Jackass 3 Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's the 3D?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 23, 2011

It seemed good on paper.

Different strokes for different folks, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and so on and so forth. To some, Jackass 3 will no doubt represent the pinnacle of Comedy, a time capsule-worthy piece of cinema history that's to be cherished for all time and lauded for its brilliance as an unparalleled representation of early 21st century humor. For others, it won't be worth the Jackass 3-branded toilet paper Paramount so kindly delivered alongside the Blu-ray screener (ah, the perks of being a disc reviewer). How does that old Internet forum saying go? Flame suit on? OK, hold on...[zip]. Good, it's on nice and tight, and judging by the disc's current sales rank and 7.3/10 user rating on IMDB, the suit is certain to come in handy by the end of this review. Subjectively speaking, this movie stinks, and stinks worse than Preston Lacy's sweat and rear end put together, some combination of which is featured prominently in the film and is the direct cause of several scenes that result in fellow Jackass cast members upchucking their lunches. But hey, more power to Preston and the gang. It's Capitalism 101: find a product people want, sell it at a price they're willing to pay, and rake in the cash. If they can make money by gluing themselves to one another, taking a puff off a cigarette that's just been in another man's anus, or allowing themselves to be bitten by scorpions, then good for them. Highbrow Culture Vultures need not apply, of course, but if watching jackasses play tetherball with a beehive sounds like fun, well, just quit reading and see the movie.

Jackasses.

Jackass 3 opens with Beavis and Butt-Head trying their best to explain modern 3D cinema and its benefits when combined with the Jackass style of filmmaking (ouch, Paramount probably should have cut that scene out all things considered, dontchathink?), followed by the lawyerspeak that boils down to "don't try this at home." As for the film proper, Jackass 3 is nothing other than a series of vignettes that see people causing bodily harm to themselves and to one another to varying degrees of stupidity. The film's central figure is Johnny Knoxville. He introduces the film's first gag, "the high five," a spring-loaded (or so it would seem) contraption shaped like a giant hand that smacks unsuspecting (or suspecting, who knows how much of this stuff is scripted) people as they walk by, the hand hidden from their line of site behind a wall. Other various stunts include piloting a jet ski through well-maintained hedge work, playing tetherball while surrounded by a swarm of bees, attempting to flee stampeding farm animals on a muddy track while on roller skates, crawling through an electrified obstacle course, gluing one man's hands and/or rear end to another man's hairy body parts, exploding diarrhea that's supposed to be like an eruption from a volcano, farting into both a party blow-out and a trumpet, having a pig eat an apple out of a man's rear end, and so on. That's pretty much it; no real plot, just a bunch of people doing stupid things that really hurt and that make them a lot of money.

It's amazing the sort of abuse people will endure to make money and earn their 15 minutes of fame. It's nothing really new, though. Remember that old humiliating stunt that made people stand in a box with a high-powered fan on the bottom, and they could keep whatever cash they could grab ahold of? What about Survivor? Fear Factor? People are prone to do some pretty crazy things for a fatter bank account or a bit of public recognition; that's what makes them people and not robots. Still, Jackass 3 takes it to an entirely new level. It used to be that "slapstick" comedy was a pie in the face, Three Stooges style. Now "slapstick" means using a penis as a bat to hit a small ball into another man's mouth. Is this what Comedy has come to? What happened to the days of Uncle Buck? Those really weren't all that long ago. OK, so that's a different style of Comedy; classic humor is different than tasteless humor, but is there really anything at all funny about people who bang themselves up to this extent? Is this what Comedy has come down to? A pie in the face has been replaced by flinging a feces-filled porta-john high up in the air while occupied? Drinking a fat man's sweat? Is this the future of entertainment? Has Idiocracy's "Ow My Balls!" finally arrived? The answer to that last one, no surprise, is yes. Jackass 3 features a scene where a man smacks a baseball into another man's testicles. Heven help us.

Speaking of Mike Judge, it's almost insulting that Beavis and Butt-Head opened for this drivel. Sure, they're morons, but they're not jackasses. Beavis and Butt-Head were funny because they were so dense that they didn't realize that they led meaningless, meandering, empty lives, lives bereft of social know-how, common sense, and basic intelligence. They merrily went about their days eating nachos, watching music videos, and lusting after girls because they didn't know any better and couldn't grasp the concept of the benefits of a fuller life. Their world was escapist in nature and they were good, lighthearted caricatures who, at the end of the day, were actually innocent of all their wrongdoings because they honestly lacked good sense. The folks of Jackass, on the other hand, don't have the luxury of being stupid by nature; they're obvious quite smart, smart enough to come up with some elaborate gags and certainly with enough business sense to get their schtick up and running and making millions of dollars, or at least possessing the common sense to hire someone to help them in that regard. Besides, who can argue with lines as classic as "stun guns are the number one most thing that I hate now." Huh, huhuh, huhuhuhuhuh." Jackass 3 does have a few moments where it's almost funny. There's a rather humorous parody of the old Memorex commercials, and it's almost in line with those classic situational Comedies or a clip from America's Funniest Home Videos when a fat man gets blown over by the thrust of a jet engine. Unfortunately, most of the rest of Jackass 3 is either just boring, dumb, or tasteless; the three are distributed evenly, and the latter two cause quite a bit of on-screen vomiting by Jackass stars who themselves cannot stomach what they're doing to themselves and to one another.

Jackass 3 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jackass 3's 2D-only 1080p Blu-ray transfer is a mixed bag; the image appears sourced from several different cameras of varying qualities, but the film's general HD-video look is handsomely reproduced for this Blu-ray release. The Beavis and Butt-Head opening looks fantastic; crisp lines, great colors, and high detailing will make fans yearn for the duo to maybe someday appear in all-new HD adventures. As the film begins, viewers will immediately notice the barrage of color; this transfer never lacks bright hues and vibrant color schemes, and Paramount's MPEG-4 encode handles the diverse palette expertly, delivering a multitude of reds, greens, blues, and yellows with incredible accuracy. Detail, too, is quite sharp as evidenced in skin textures, hair, clothes, natural terrain, and manmade structures and contraptions. The image does fluctuate depending on the quality of the source; noise, blocking, banding, aliasing, and other uglies appear from time to time during the shots captured through lesser-quality devices. The bulk of the image, however, is clean, glossy, and a pleasure to behold. It can look a touch flat, but that's the nature of the HD video source. All in all, fans should be happy with the quality of Paramount's 2D Blu-ray release of Jackass 3; hopefully the studio will release a proper Blu-ray 3D version in short order.

Jackass 3 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jackass 3 explodes onto Blu-ray with an obviously amped-up but nevertheless exciting DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This mix tosses information into the surrounds and, indeed, all over the soundstage with regularity. Butt-Head's voice effortlessly bounces around the soundstage and, when he slaps a 3D glasses-wearing Beavis, the specs crash into the back of the listening area. Music pours from every speaker with regularity; it's energetic and loud with slicing guitar riffs and a fair low end, playing with a fair bit of crispness and attention to detail. The Rocky theme in particular plays with wonderfully crisp, pronounced, and spacious flair. The "high five" device slams into bodies with a good, solid "thud," and other assorted sound effects hit hard and/or maneuver around the soundstage to good effect, whether zipping paintball rounds, buzzing bees, or splashing water. The power of an active jet engine devastates the soundstage with a raw strength that's maybe the best all-around and certainly most all-encompassing effect in the track. It's all over-exaggerated save for what is generally accurate and distortion-free dialogue. It's a fun soundtrack no doubt, and fans of the film will get a kick out of the juiced-up mix; it's a shame the 3D visuals aren't here to back it up.

Jackass 3 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Jackass 3 limps onto Blu-ray with a relatively short supplemental section; highlights include a nearly 30-minute "making of," an assortment of outtakes, and a handful of deleted scenes. The disc also includes a 100-minute director's cut and a 94-minute theatrical cut.

• The Making of Jackass 3D (1080p, 28:39): Cast and crew take a look at the process of thinking up the crazy stunts, their preparation for the work, shooting in 3D, and building the various contraptions.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 16:05): Blue Room Andy Bell, Snake River Weedemption, The Driving Range, Phantom Dildo, Sweatsuit Cocktail, Preston/Duck Hunting, Jet Ski 1, Pontius the Barbarian, Poocano, Original 3D Test Day, and The Rocky.
• Outtakes (1080p, 27:37).
• Jackass 3D Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:31).
• D-Box compatibility.
• DVD/Digital Copy Disc: The DVD contains an anaglyph 3D version of the film. The digital copy, sampled on an iPhone 4, features the same over-amped audio that here only plays as muffled and messy. On the other hand, the video quality is fair, with good splashes of color and adequate detailing. It's certainly good enough to enjoy the film's lowbrow humor while waiting through that dull airport delay.

Jackass 3 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jackass 3 is a movie viewers are either going to love or hate. For those that love it, sorry, agree to disagree and all that, but please, support Blu-ray and buy the disc. For those that hate it, think they would hate it after reading some of what it's about, or have no interest, yup, skip it. This is one of those black-and-white, straight down the middle, divisive sort of pictures, but it's made to be just that. The filmmakers and stars probably thrive on negative reviews as much as positive reviews, and they're probably already hard at working putting together ideas for Jackass 4 that will only intensify the hate and more greatly please the fans. Paramount's Blu-ray release of Jackass 3 inexplicably (well, OK, explicably) eschews an actual Blu-ray 3D transfer and doesn't even bother to offer a 1080p anaglyph 3D image; that's reserved for the included standard-definition DVD. The 2D image is solid, as is the lossless audio, but no doubt fans will cry foul over the 3D fiasco and the absence of a broader grouping of extras. Fans who are going to let this play on repeat will buy regardless, but fence-sitters and 3D fans might want to wait and see if a "proper" 3D release will come out in the future. Minus an extra half-point overall for the absence of a 1080p 3D option, anaglyph or otherwise.