Jackass: Best and Last, 2026.
Directed by Jeff Tremaine.
Starring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jason ‘Wee Man’ Acuña, Dave England, Preston Lacy, Ehren McGhehey, Bam Margera, Sean McInerney, Davon ‘Jasper’ Wilson, Zach Holmes, Jeff Tremaine, Lance Bangs, Sean Cliver, Dimitry Elyashkevich, Paul Walter Hauser, Greg Iguchi, Rick Kosick, Eric Manaka, Trip Taylor, Compston Wilson, Rachel Wolfson, Spike Jonze, Loomis Fall, Brad Pitt, and Ryan Dunn.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows the Jackass crew as they perform their final series of dangerous stunts and pranks, marking the end of the franchise.
At one point, Jackass troupe ringleader Johnny Knoxville is jokingly asked how anyone can believe this supposed final chapter in the stunt show franchise testing what the human body is capable of (there is a very broad spectrum of what that entails), titled Jackass: Best and Last (once again directed by long time series collaborator and friend of the group Jeff Tremaine) is the end, since he said that about the last one and yet here we are? In Johnny’s defense, he has a solid answer and seems sincere this time about ending the series as we know it, leaning into aging more than ever with the unbelievably reckless stupidity on hand.
That means there are pranks involving prostate exams and other such precautionary health measures, with amusing behind-the-scenes footage beforehand, with Johnny Knoxville acknowledging that this is what Jackass looks like with jackasses in their 50s. There is a game of Twister on super laxatives (to clean out the insides before said prostate exam) that is 0h so disgusting and oh so funny.
Essentially, the whole crew is back for one more round (save for Bam Margera, still on a road to recovery from alcoholism, and the tragically deceased in an unfortunate event unrelated to the show, Ryan Dunn, although they do appear in archival footage much to the delight of anyone who watches) doing what made them famous; Steve-O possibly spends more time naked than clothed, this time letting a robot shove its metal hand up his ass, whereas humor is still mined through torture from everyone’s fears or simply how they can harm someone else with their body. Nearly every substance you can think of is here, from unfathomable amounts of fecal matter to vomit (sometimes even the cameraman can’t help but want to puke).
The difference with this cinematic installment is in the title, in that it also accompanies a “best” aspect, incorporating trips down memory lane to highlights for some of the best pranks and gags from the show and movies, or adjacent material such as Johnny Knoxville as Bad Grandpa (I’m almost certain one of the clips is taken directly from that film and not his appearances on the show). This turns out to be immensely effective when it is used for presenting never-before-seen material, such as the first stunt they ever recorded, which MTV rejected, involving a self-inflicted bullet wound to the chest while wearing a Kevlar vest and porn magazines for protection. Equally compelling and hilarious is footage of another skit that not only resulted in an arrest but also apparently got MTV shut down from filming in an area for 10 years.
There is always a point in these movies where, no matter how funny they are, one hits a wall, as they were always intended to be consumed in 20-ish-minute episodes broken up by commercials, not as feature-length films. With that in mind, such a feeling settles in here again, but this time more due to the fact that, at a certain point, the brief interjections about the crew having aged or previously unseen footage embrace those highlights for extended stretches, showing some of the best, most stupid, and dangerous stunts. Now, much of this is still funny (the X-ray involving a toy car, for example, which is all I’ll say for anyone who hasn’t seen it), but it stifles some of the momentum of watching the gang (which also includes Wee Man, Chris Pontius, and others including the returning newer members), for lack of a better term, go for it one last time.
They also did not phone it in for Jackass: Best and Last, which, as said, is a natural evolution of past stunts with an aging twist. Again, for as funny as the bodily bruising and copious amounts of bodily fluids are, there is also something moving about watching the camaraderie before each stunt, with the crew tenderly reckoning with getting old, preparing to film something stunningly idiotic while knowing this has to be the end. That these numbskulls addicted to pain and stupidity are mostly all still friends is a heartwarming miracle in itself. Perhaps more impressive than any stunt is that there are emotions to be felt during the final send-off.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
