In the "golden era" of television, there was a variety of shows that served to entertain, teach, and all out shock the audience. While sitcoms, cartoons, and the soap operas reigned supreme, there were a few shows out there trying to make their mark. One of these was Jackass, a show that was all about taking the wildest, stupidest dares and making them a reality. Despite all the self-harm, destruction, and lack of logic, this show thrived and led to Knoxville producing a number of movies to support his endeavors. After some hiatus, the master of stunts and ridiculousness is back again in the form of another of a stunt palooza. Robbie K, here to provide insight into the latest silver screen, as we review:
Movie: Action Point
Director:
Tim Kirkby
Writers:
John Altschuler (screenplay by), Dave Krinsky (screenplay by)
Stars:
Johnny Knoxville, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Susan Yeagley
LIKES:
Cute Motives at times: Among the ridiculous stunts, alcoholism, and dirty humor, there lies a soft, chewy center of family bonding and love. Action Point helps display the hardships of parenting, and in some cases grandparenting, which will speak to many and perhaps demonstrate the importance of balance and understanding. It's a small lesson embedded in the seas of ridiculous stunts, but decently presented to say the least.
Stunts: You can say what you want about how illogical it is to harm one's self for a laugh, but I give credit to Knoxville for still doing his own stunts. Despite being almost 50, he took point in all the injuring scenes and sequences, some of which could easily break a hip, or a neck. His youthful gang is starting to inherit the mantle, but the directors still has a few tricks up his sleeve to bring a laugh.
Fast Pace/Short Run Time: Editing is always impressive to me and Knoxville achieves his desired goal in a short amount of time. Action Point has cut out a lot of fluff, bringing pertinent shots, plot points, and balance between past and present while maximizing the disaster at hand. While you might feel gipped out of a movie for not being at least 90 minutes long, to have the movie feel complete in the short time gets mad props from me, which doesn't happen that often.
The Bear: I'm not talking the mascot, but the actual animal that is in the movie. Knoxville's crew got a bear involved in the movie, and his scenes are humorous to me, primarily when they start harnessing its unique skills for their own promotions. Nevertheless, have a laugh at the impressive performance from a non-English speaking cast member.
DISLIKES:
Little Story: I'm a story guy and no surprise, the movie has little to no story outside a paper-thin plot to ground the stunts to. While this is to be expected in this type of movie, as a reviewer I have to look at all components for my review and Knoxville's team fails on this level for me. Yes, there is some slight character development in the leads, but not much to warrant giving two thumbs up.
Stale Stupidity: Knoxville may get kudos for tackling his self-harm adventure head first, but subjecting himself to the illogical torture gets old after a while. The constant slapstick crashes, pranks, and running into stuff purposefully gets old after a while. Outside of a few scenes, including the bear parts, the movies repetitive comedic focus lost its touch very quickly, resulting in a rather bland attempt at laughs. Most of the audience in my group seemed to have the same reaction as well, so don't expect masterpiece here.
Over the Line: It wouldn't be Knoxville without crossing the line, but there were some major moments that I certainly did not enjoy. Seeing dogs get it on, rather heated sex scene, animal cruelty, and continuous abuse of alcohol are not the things that make a great movie for me. While small in number, the team maximized these moments and not in a classy way at all.
THE VERDICT:
Action Point doesn't sell you short on what the trailers promised. It's a ridiculous ride of Knoxville's usual repertoire of skits with a little cuteness/sincerity thrown in to sweeten the deal. While I understand this is the point of all his works though, the movie doesn't have enough gusto, uniqueness, or creativity to warrant a theater visit. Action Point would have served better as an extended TV special or Netflix series. In addition, it may not turn out as funny as you might expect, mostly because of either the inappropriate moments or the stale comedic slapstick (much of which was ruined by the trailers). Overall, I suggest skipping this one and trying something else in the silver screen.
My scores:
Comedy: 5.5
Movie Overall: 4.0
