‘JACKASS 3D’: Johnny Knoxville returns.
n moviereview Pain and feces Third ‘Jackass’ mines formula deeper. n Avoid “Jackass 3-D” if you want to believe in the intrinsic worth of the human spirit. The film contains urine ambushes. It celebrates malice toward testicles. It harnesses flatulence as weaponry. It leers at men’s mortal terrors. It enlists unsuspecting animals for its devilish stunts: buffalo, scorpions, Africanized bees, a woodpecker, a dog, snakes, a donkey, a ram, a bull, Minnesota Vikings lineman Jared Allen and a very realistic gorilla costume. It treats common decency as a suppository, and it doesn’t contain a single joke that would go over the head of a discerning 4-year-old. You’re better off if you can look away. No shame, though, if you can’t. Anyone not yet familiar with the
“Jackass” modus operandi has probably been living under a rock – one which ringleader Johnny Knoxville would gladly drop on his best friends’ testicles. Knoxville is the Terminator of pratfalls; it’s a mystery how the guy can still sit up all these years, let alone walk away from getting his face kicked by a bull. He and an assortment of equally heedless chums continually try to one-up one another’s dangerous/ridiculous buffoonery, like the Three Stooges crossed with backyard wrestling. In this installment, the third movie spawned from the eponymous MTV show, the crew has applied itself largely to playing with of elastic-band catapults and blindside haymakers and jet engine exhaust. The players’ age may be showing
a bit: There seem to be fewer falls and hard collisions here, as though the men know they’re becoming more brittle. But then, their ongoing love affair with their own excrement stops just shy of a make-out session with feces. On that note, somewhere deep in the second horrific hour of “Jackass 3-D,” you may realize you’ve lost count of how many bystanders to the film’s stunts throw up. As gross and gruesome as they are, some of the shots are plain mesmerizing. The 3-D is as 3-D usually is: just OK. But the film could just as enticingly be titled “Jackass Super Mindblowing Slow-Motion.” It’s a zoo of physical traumas caught in the same macabre rubbernecking style as ringside boxing photos, in which a fighter’s face crumples grotesquely mid-punch. You’ll never think of a fat man getting shot in the gut by a cannon the same way again. To assume it’s all nihilistic is shortchanging the brilliance of the comedic formula. Injuries aren’t really funny, but just barely avoiding injury is often hilarious, and so many of the laughs of this movie are foremost catharsis. Thus, when one of the Jackasses submits to having one of his teeth pulled out by a cord tied to a Lamborghini, and he begins blubbering about the pain through a mouthful of blood – well, that’s just damn awful. Alternately, when Bam Margera runs through a hallway festooned with live stun guns and cattle prods, and comes out looking like he regrets ever having heard the name Knoxville, that’s worth applauding. Say what you will about the players, but at least they always mete out their own comeuppance. — Sam Eifling
Joi n 103 .7 THE BU ZZ and DJ G-F orc e for
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Continued from page 29 Art of Entertaining,” Fine Arts Club’s annualfundraiser with designer Eddie Ross, 11 a.m. Oct. 28, $60 for members, $75 non-members, reserve at 396-0322. MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: “Uncorked: Mad Scientist Mash,” museum fund-raiser featuring 50 wines and specialty beer, raffle, 7-10 p.m. Oct. 21, $100; “Illusion Confusion,” optical illusions, through March 2011; “Harry’s Big Adventure: My Bug World!” through Jan. 9, 2011; interactive science exhibits. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. Admission: $8 adults, $7 children ages 1-12 and seniors 65 and up, children under 1 free, “Pay What You Can” second Sunday of every month. 396-7050. www. museumofdiscovery.org. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK: “Nosotros: Portraits of Latinas,” Oct. 21-Nov. 30, Gallery I; “Small Works on Paper,” touring juried show coordinated by Arkansas Arts Council, through October, Gallery III. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 569-8977. SAGE HOUSE GALLERY, 24627 Hwy. 365 N: “Farm-to-Table,” paintings of the Argenta Farmer’s Market by Pat White, Shirley Brainard, Tom Herrin, Bill Lewis David Cook; Janice and Marvin Crummer, and Suzanne Waggoner, through Nov. 27. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 851-4608. STATE CAPITOL: “Arkansans in the Korean War,” 32 photographs, lower-level foyer. 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: “Flowers: A New Medium,” workshop with Tanara Haynie, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 28, $100, reserve at 379-9512 or sarah@theafoundation.org. “1st Annual Juried Members Show,” Arkansas Pastel Society, through Oct. 29. 379-9512. n Rogers ROGERS HISTORICAL MUSEUM, 322 S. 2nd St.: Celebration of 35th anniversary of museum, cake, punch and commemorative gifts all day Oct. 25; “Honky Tonk: Portraits of Country Music 1972-1981,” photographs by Henry Horenstein, through Nov. 6; “Buried Dreams: “Coin Harvey and Monte Ne,” photographs; “Rogers Auto-Biography: An Automotive History of Rogers,” through 2011. 479-621-1154.
GALLERIES, onGoInG ExhIbItS
ARKANSAS STUDIES INSTITUTE, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Making Pictures: Three for a Dime,” photographs and text by Maxine Payne, through Dec. 10; Arkansas League of Artists juried show, through Nov. 27; “Raices,” new mixed media work by x3mex about Mexican independence, through Nov. 30. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5700.
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