First of all, the guy’s a fashion nightmare. Who wears a bathrobe outside of the home paired with pilot googles and a Trapper’s hat? By Hollywood standards, that style of dress makes a character either mentally-handicapped or a quirky Asian. And we can all clearly see this character is not Asian because he does not show off any karate skills. Secondly, he makes whooping noises and sticks his tongue out a lot. He’s essentially Arnie Grape with a flare gun. In which case, did Knoxville learn nothing from The Ringer?

Not that there’s anything wrong with a mentally-handicapped adult squaring off against a border-crossing psychopath. In fact, that’s a movie I’d really like to see. I just wish they’d play up that aspect in the marketing so I’m not left guessing.

The video does a nice job of showing the group’s camaraderie and how Dunn could be relied upon for his sense of humor and ability to keep the mood fun and light. It also points out that these guys don’t have many home movies that don’t involve punching one another in the groin, back, or head. Rest in peace, Dunn. (Dickhouse)

The irreproachable mimic has added his name to the dramatis personae of Josh Schwartz‘s upcoming Fun Size. He’ll be joined by Victoria Justice, Thomas Mann, Jane Levy, Thomas Middleditch, Thomas McDonell, Osric Chau, Jackson Nicoll, Ana Gasteyer, Josh Pence, Holmes Osborne, James Pumphrey, Willam Belli and Peter Navy Tuiasosopo in the Halloween adventure/comedy.

'Jackass 3D' Trailer Justifies 3D Technology

The story is centered around a sarcastic teen who loses her younger brother while trick-or-treating and must recover him before their mother finds out. We’ll see just how far that sarcasm gets her when Johnny Knoxville convinces her to fire a bottle rocket out of her butt. (Bloody Disgusting)

The digital release Jackass 3.5 is in many ways more inspired than Jackass 3-D. Perhaps it is because they include failed bits, but it feels like this collection pushes the boundaries of creative stunts more than the latest theatrical film.

The performers’ personalities are on display even more. In 3-D, Steve-O lamented, “Why do I have to be Steve-O” before letting a tee ball hit him in the nuts. In 3.5 he lets an alligator snapping turtle bite him on the ass. This shows way more of Steve-O’s personality as he screams, “F*** F*** F***” while it hangs onto a juicy chunk of cheek. The most telling part is that Steve-O complains he knew it wouldn’t let go, so his prophecy was fulfilled. Any time Chris Pontius introduces a bit it’s brilliant.

3.5 certainly feels more dangerous. In Doo Doo Falls, Dave England just falls off the vehicle, forget about riding it down a ramp. With the flaming gauntlet, Steve-O does what has to be the most dangerous Jackass stunt ever attempted. The graphic stitching-up of Johnny Knoxville’s hand shows what’s at stake.

The failures seem like they’d have more potential if they’d just stuck it out, but the displays of athletic prowess are mighty. Dave England and Bam Margera can jump really high for impressive flying kicks. Barrel surfing is actually a noble athletic endeavor and Chris Pontius and Bam Margera manage to stand for a few seconds. The Incredible Nut Shots are really clever setups and you see how hard they are to land, so it’s even more impressive.

There’s definitely more nudity, and way close up. Slow motion close-ups of Wee Man’s balls complement medium shots of Pontius’s limp dick twirling around. Enema Long Jump may qualify as the most disgusting and most inspired Jackass stunt ever. They’re measuring athletic ability and bowel movements in the same exercise.

Jackass 3.5 is a treat for a digital download or video on demand. It’s brand new material, completely at the level of the theatrical franchise, directly available in the privacy of your home.

Jackass 3.5 is available April 1 on Joost.com. I got to see the whole thing, but Joost viewers will get weekly doses, one stunt at a time, updated Tuesdays and Fridays on Joost.com.

Knoxville was considering the role, but wisely backed away before serious negotiations took place. Unlike the Farrelly’s, Knoxville has made several hit movies in the past decade, though both their filmographies include movies about bad things happening to dudes’ balls. I’m guessing Hall Pass was Knoxville’s pass out of Stoogeland. So that leaves the gross out brothers with three roles to fill, rather than two.

Knoxville is eyeing other projects, including a merging of the Jackass and Broken Lizard crews in a film amazingly titled Mustache Riders. He’s also producing, and possibly starring in, a movie about a man whose wife runs for president. It has the less amazing title of First Man and will be written/directed by Max Winkler. (Hollywood Reporter)

One sign they’re on the right track: hiring Johnny Knoxville to play Moe. Almost. The contract is being negotiated between Fox and Knox, so the Jackass star can bring his willingness to taser his own balls to this modern day Stooges update. He is the current reigning King of Getting His Ass Kicked For Laughs.

The film will be three long “shorts,” rather than a full-length narrative. One thing’s for sure: if the Farrelly’s screw this one up, angry Three Stooges fans will not be giving them hall pass. (Cinema Blend)

Paramount is also tweaking their dormant 2008 acquisition Mustache Riders, which I can only assume is a political thriller. It’s not, actually. It’s about three criminals who search for treasure with a grizzled prospector. It’s like Without a Paddle meets Jackass. Yay? The script is being changed so that Jackass co-stars Knoxville, Ryan Dunn, and Bam Margera can do their own stunts. Don’t look for this one come awards season. (Deadline)

He really lit up when I started asking him about Jackass 3.5 and told us some of the crazy stunts we’ll see in the digital exclusive sequel. It’s nice to know that a Jackass still takes pride in his work.

Q: Is the Venice Family Clinic the Jackass crew’s clinic of choice for your injuries?

JK: Yes, if we get injured, we demand to be taken there. No matter if we’re in New Mexico, we have to be flown back.

Q: Do you use your Jackass money to give back to charity?

JK: Yes, I have, yes.

Q: We’re very excited about the digital release of Jackass 3.5. What cool stunts got left out of Jackass 3-D that we’re going to finally get to see?

JK: Oh man, we’re really proud of Jackass 3.5. There’s a lot of great stuff in it. We name things so ridiculously. I love the bit it first starts off with. I can’t for the life of me think of what we named it but Ryan Dunn has a rocket attached to his crotch, and we ignite it and it goes on a line all the way up about, I don’t know, 70 feet away to Bam’s anus. Bam catches it with his anus, the penis rocket. That’s pretty artsy.

Q: You rode a jet ski in a tuxedo. What else do we see you do in 3.5?

JK: Oh, there’s a funny thing with Steve-O, a bit he’s turned down for 6-7 years. It’s with an alligator snapping turtle. He finally does it in 3.5. After he got finished doing the bit, he’s like, “No wonder I turned that down for 7 years.”

Q: Was he upset that it got cut out of Jackass 3-D after he finally did it?

JK: No. Well, everyone gets a little upset when something doesn’t make it, especially when they get injured. They understand that 3.5 is going to be a big deal and people will see it then. One of my favorite things I ever shot and one thing that took us longer to shoot than any bit we ever shot is in 3.5. It’s Incredible Nut Shots. Have you ever seen those basketball montages of people doing amazing basketball shots, from like 100 feet away, kick it and it goes into a basketball hoop.

Q: I see where you’re going with this.

JK: We do the same thing with nuts, with basketballs. Some shots took three days and 13 hours to get. I set a record, I did one in Long Beach off the Ferris Wheel. It took two full days, 1 ½ days, 11 hours of riding the Ferris Wheel continuously.

Q: And you wait ‘til you’re at the top?

JK: Yeah, I wait ‘til I get to the top and throw it and it ricochets off a trampoline into Dave England. No one’s ridden a Ferris Wheel that much down there.

Q: Are they all into Dave’s nuts?

JK: No, everyone. I got some. It was the last thing to go out of Jackass 3.

Q: Was there a lot of pressure at the studio to put it out theatrically since Jackass 3-D did so well?

JK: There was talk of it. Jackass 3.5 is great but we wanted to put it out like it was intended, on DVD and online. So we’re very excited about it coming out. We shot some really funny wraparound interviews for the bits in Spain and Ireland, took the cast over there. We got some great stuff.

Q: Do we have to wait until 2014 to get the gang back together?

JK: Oh, I don’t know, man. We’re open to it now. I don’t know what’s going on. We’re not saying no to a 4 but we’re just kind of stepping back for a second.

Jackass 3D, a film the Academy should be deeply ashamed for snubbing this year for Best Picture, returns on April 1st with an 85-minute half-sequel released right to the internet. Called Jackass 3.5, the film is a collection of unused bits featuring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera and should be Oscar-contender Wee Man. I’ve never seen Javier Bardem kick himself in the head or wear an Oompa Loompa costume. Not even once.

The movie will be available via the Jackass Facebook Page and Joost, the streaming media site I knew existed but never cared to use until now.

This is an awesome idea. Yeah, it’d be cool to see more 3D donkey nut punches, but $25 is still $25. My only worry is that the film is scheduled to release April Fools Day, so hopefully playing the movie doesn’t result in getting some kind of hilarious computer virus that forces your desktop pattern to be an animation of Steve-O vomiting. Actually, for a free Jackass movie, I’ll take that trade. (/Film)

Peter Farrelly dispelled the report to Entertainment Weekly. “You don’t want people to think ‘they already cast that thing,’ because we haven’t. It’s wide open to everybody. Right now, there is no leader in the clubhouse.”

Which doesn’t mean those guys aren’t in the running, they’re just a few of the names up for the film. Farrelly also told EW that he and his brother are looking for actors who can do exact impressions of the original Stooges (Mel Gibson Comeback Tour 2011?). The director also noted that things were ready to go with an A-list cast until Sean Penn grew preoccupied with relief efforts in Haiti. Which means an earthquake prevented Hollywood from making a gross-out version of The Three Stooges. What was the over-under on that, NASA?

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are on board to direct the film, which was originally part of MGM‘s lineup before financial troubles forced the studio to abandon the project. It’s a shame MGM couldn’t hold onto the rights. Mel Gibson did a TV movie based on the Stooges a few years back, and look at him now!

Director: Jeff Tremaine

Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Ryan Dunn

Synopsis: The Jackass boys are back at it again.

Release Date: March 2011

When Jackass 3D became the surprise hit of the fall, it was a no-brainer that we needed to see these guys hit one another in the balls some more. Luckily, they had additional footage in the can that could be used to milk more money out of the franchise.

An early plan was to release this new material as a second 3D film. That went away in favor of a DVD-only release. But that plan won’t earn enough money, so the new plan is to release the extras online for a price. The clips will begin rolling out in March, and then will also be available for purchase online as a feature length film. After that, it’s likely it will get a DVD release. And then you can get the Director’s Cut. And then the Producer’s Cut. And about a year after that, you can own a copy that was shoved up Steve-O‘s butt.

The Jackass 3D gang recently sat down with Break to discuss their favorite stunts, both past and present. Toy cars up orifices and beards made from Steve-O‘s pubes seem to be up there on the list. The most interesting piece of information I gleaned is Steve-O feels it’s necessary to save his pubes in his medicine cabinet instead of throwing them away. I guess it would be a sacrilege to not glue them to someone’s face. 

Check out the video below.

Jackass Guys Talk About Their Favorite Stunts – Watch more Funny Videos

There seem to be two schools of thought on Jackass. Of course there’s the one that deplores it and condemns it. Then there’s the one that exaggerates how much they like it and respects it ironically. I want to start a third school, an actual exploration of the artistic accomplishments of the Jackass franchise. It may have started out as just a bunch of guys acting stupid, but when you create a genre and then excel at it, that’s art. Cinema is first and foremost about entertainment, and Jackass is the purest form of entertainment.

I considered Jackass: Number Two the best movie of 2006. Its creativity and execution of stunts was masterful. The sheer task of pulling one over on people who’ve been doing it for years was a major hurdle to overcome. The guys played to the camera like professionals. There were recurring themes and motifs edited together with music in a profoundly effective way. Not a single stunt was a dud.

Jackass 3D is not better than Jackass: Number Two but it is the next solid entry of a crew that has perfected their art. A bit like The High Five shows how advanced the jackasses have gotten. Wee Man and Johnny Knoxville have set up a spring loaded hand in a hallway and trick other teammates into crossing its path. Ryan Dunn appreciates how well Wee Man set him up for it. Nobody thought Danger Ehren would fall for it, but the layer they add to his setup raises the stakes for the bit. So then the third slap has to add something else, and now you’ve got a layered joke.

The air of professionalism seeps through when you see everybody debrief after a stunt. They may want to be stupid, but after 10 years of performing even stupidity has standards and a certain visual is required to make the final cut. The fact that they’re analyzing a stunt that was stupid to begin with is a meta level that should be appreciated, not dismissed.

Some of the stunts actually create beautiful 3D visuals. In Bungee Boogie different jackasses slingshot themselves off a ramp. Whether riding skateboards, skates or other wheels, they fly through the air in aerial slow motion. As an addition, Preston Lacy sees an opening for a gag and he fills it. That’s another way these professionals build on the entertaining art they’re creating.

The editing continues to reveal the breadth of a setup at the exact moment when it’s funniest. With a jet engine in the shot, everyone finds something to do for a wind gag. This segment ranges from stunt to art because someone could take a physical risk, or they could just throw something ironic into the wind. Poop jokes also require more elaborate construction that should be appreciated on an intellectual level as well as a visceral one.

They still set up reactionary performance art bits, creating a scene in public. Here too, they start with a premise that’s already funny, then add the next level and then the next. Like a “Simpsons” joke, any one thing would be funny but the fact that there are three or four jokes elevates the entire premise. For one bit, they have a dummy cameraman quit the shot, but that’s just part of selling the reality of the danger they’ve invented. Experts.

It’s not as much in your face as you might expect. It’s just really good footage and some of it pops out in 3D. They let a few more duds slip through the mix this time and the latter half of Jackass 3D is less inspired. It’s still a work of art and if you don’t believe me, I took five pages of notes to come to this conclusion.
 

You may be excited to see what crazy new stunts they try in Jackass 3D but let’s be honest. What you really want to know is who got hurt the worst. And who got hurt the worst doing the stupidest thing. It’s a toss-up, but seeing Bam Margera take a taser on the head seemed the most life threatening. It’s one thing on your stomach or side, but is your skull designed to withstand electro-shock?

“I got tasered everywhere and it hurts so bad that I was still angry for the rest of the day about it,” Margera said. “It’s just one of those annoying kind of pains, like a stun gun 40 times, it makes you mad and I was just f*cking mad all day about it. I also broke my clavicle that day falling. I’m telling you that that probably sucked the worst out of this movie for me, except for the snakes.”

More after the jump…

Johnny Knoxville took a headshot from a bull. Again. He should expect that after so many bull stunts. “The bull, I got a pretty bad concussion on,” Knoxville said. “I got lucky on that one, because I landed on the back of my neck. Thank God the bull kicked me in the head at the last second and altered my course just a little, and I’m sitting here today, talking.”

Danger Ehren lost his tooth again doing another stunt, and now suffers chronic back pain from another one. “I broke my back and blew out my knee and ripped my tooth out,” Ehren said. “In the shopping cart going down the snow, I flew over the pond that was way too short and obvious. I’m still recovering. You can’t really fix a back unless you have surgery. You just have to deal with it so I go to the chiropractor and massage guy three times a week. I have bone growing out of my gums right now. Every once in a while, every other week I’ll feel it up there. It was pretty sensitive for about three weeks and then it just kind of went numb. They’ve already put the implant in.”

Actually, one of the guest stars suffered the worst. That’s why you should leave Jackass to the pros. “Loomis got the worst,” director Jeff Tremaine said. “He’s a guy that’s around with us all the time. He’s got the funny little beard. He weighs probably 68 pounds soaking wet. He wanted to jump behind the jet engine. We had that fighter jet and he jumped off a trampoline into it holding an umbrella and it just slammed him to the ground and it broke his collar bone pretty bad and it broke his hand. It screwed up his hand so he had to get surgery on his hand and his collar bone and it’s just been really slow to heal. He probably got it the worst unless microbiology takes a toll on Steve-O which we’ll find out later.”

Margera expect injuries though. “The way that I look at it is, when we film for 8 months straight for a new Jackass movie, I know that I’m going to wind up with at least 2 broken bones,” Margera said. “I don’t know when it’s gong to happen, but you can’t contemplate how you’re going to fall and what’s going to happen. It’s easier to just get up there and just do it.”

By now, the gang have been coming up with crazy ideas for 10 years. The promise of 3D actually fueled their creativity. Stunts like helicockter (a remote controlled helicopter attached to Chris Pontius’ penis by string) were inspired by technology.

“It only enhanced the idea process because now 3D can write jokes,” Tremaine said. “That idea was strictly for 3D. It’s not something we would probably have shot 2D but the rule was it had to be funny. It had to be a funny Jackass idea. 3D is just frosting on the cake. It has to be funny on TV for us to shoot it but we did definitely shoot some things that were just because it’s in 3D, some things to be so stupid with the technology.”

Experience has motivated deeper levels of stupidity too. It takes more to make Knoxville laugh today than it did 10 years ago, so he has to be more creative. “We end up one-upping ourselves,” Knoxville said. “It takes a little more to make us laugh than it did, maybe five, six years ago, because, okay, we’ve been there, done that, so what’s next? We don’t think going into this movie, ‘We have to top this.’ We just have to be funny. It’s such a competition to get footage, like if Bam gets something great, then it’s like, well, we all have to get something great.”

It turns out Margera is a big instigator of new ideas. “I’m on a lot of airplanes, so I just sip on red wine thinking of stupid ideas, and when I think of it, I wanna make it happen,” Margera said. “I’ll be like, okay, Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear in a boxing match. Maybe I can get Mike Tyson to bite off my ear. Then Paramount has to come, and like, ‘You really willing to do that?’ I’m like, hell yeah, you know the street cred I’ll have from a missing ear? And they say, ‘How did that happen?’ And I say, ‘Mike Tyson.’”

Since we haven’t seen that one yet, I guess Tyson turned them down. It was such a good PR move the first time. “Well, we didn’t consider that,” Knoxville said.

There is a procedure for deciding which stunts to film. It sounds kind of official. “The cast and crew, we just all come up with ideas,” Knoxville said. “Sometimes they’re just crude pictures drawn on a napkin, and sometimes we’ll get together and pitch ideas. Bam likes to fax hilarious pictures, that’s how he submits most ideas is through pictures, and they’re really funny. They all come to the office, and we compile them, and then we’ll send them to Paramount, just to go through all the legal stuff. Paramount leaves us alone, so we will vet the ideas. We decide what to shoot or not.”

10 years later, there are still more ideas than there are hours to film them all, so Jackass 4 is in no danger. “It’s a mixture of everybody,” Margera said. “If they come up with an idea, they submit it to Paramount, then we have a stack of ideas this high, and people look at it and figure out what they would like to do. Sometimes, if it’s involving a bull, it’ll be [Knoxville], because it definitely won’t be me. Most of the ideas are two pages long, really descriptive, and then it’ll be one page that is one sentence that says, ‘Sh*t shoe. Find a shoe, and then sh*t in it.”

Sh*t Shoe is still on the table for future Jackass movies.
 
Jackass 3D opens Friday.
 

You might think anything goes with Jackass, but there’s actually a complex system in place to ensure the most awesome Jackassery happens safely. Number one rule: You must be sober to dive into poo.

“It’s been a rule forever,” director Jeff Tremaine said. “You don’t do stunts if you’ve been partying that day. But right after… You can do in hung over but if I know someone’s been drinking or doing something else, then they don’t shoot that day. I might find out later that Preston did some Xanax the day he did the King Kong bit. He was terrified of heights one day and the next day, ‘Oh, no problem. I’ll climb up there.’ I should’ve known something’s up. Even Steve-O at his worst, I don’t think you were ever wasted during a stunt. The guys are never wasted during the stunt. You might get wasted right after. The guys watching it might get wasted but even buzzed.”

More insider info after the jump…

Steve-O is two years sober now. That actually means he’s more available for crazy Jackass bits in Jackass 3D. “There were some times when I wasn’t allowed to shoot,” Steve-O said. “Like the branding thing [in Jackass: The Movie], there were times where I was up for something but I was intoxicated so I wasn’t allowed. Nobody wants to see us really wasted I don’t think.”

There are also limits to how much a single performer is allowed to film. “To stop shooting, they lured me to the office for one reason,” Johnny Knoxville said. “Then they all got me into a big room, like ‘We’re out of time. The editors are bottlenecked with footage. You have to stop.’ It’s just fun, man, and I do get obsessed with constantly all day long thinking of ideas, but that’s just how it is.”

The rules get complicated when pranks are involved. Bam Margera or Danger Ehren might be working on a stunt, but Johnny Knoxville or Wee Man could be planning a prank on them. “It’s tense on the set because you can expect something horrible is going to happen to you,” Steve-O said. “After it does, you’re generally pretty happy that it did but you’re looking over your shoulder the whole time. I remember the tensity [sic] on the set just reached a fever pitch on the day that I got my nose broken.”

Some of the guys have learned how to make themselves prank proof. Chris Pontius doesn’t get messed with that much. “That was too tense where it was hard to actually do the work that we needed to do,” Pontius said. “Usually if you’re going to be someone that gets involved in these side pranks, if you don’t get involved in it it’s not going to really happen to you that much really. It will a little bit. A friend told me like the Hell’s Angels when they move into some neighborhood and set up a clubhouse, I asked, ‘Do they ever have to deal with any trouble?’ He’s like, ‘No, they set examples years ago.’ So whenever anyone ever did anything unnecessary back to me, like Mike Ellis did something very unsportsman-like to me, I do something 10 times worse in front of everyone. It makes you not have to worry about it as much because they know.”

When it comes to writing a bit, individuals contribute ideas but also take hints from the crew, camera, etc.  Once everything is filmed though, it’s up to the whole gang. Wee Man explained it takes a unanimous decision to choose the final array of stunts for the film.

“We all kind of decide once something gets filmed,” Wee Man said. “Even if we go and spend a little money to make something big and awesome, we could film something on the side of it just pranking each other that turns out way better. Then in the long run it depends on once we’re putting the movie together, what makes all of us laugh and we think is super awesome. So it’s not just one person going oh, cut that, put that, cut. It’s everybody’s input on it.”

The criteria is simple, said Preston Lacy. “The laugh meter is really what does it,” Lacy said. “If everybody’s laughing, it’s gonna make it.”

It does seem like when things get really dangerous, if someone says “Stop,” the rest of the crew respects that. At least on camera, we see the crew pause to let the performer back off. Maybe it’s tricky editing, because the gang says they don’t even trust the group safe word.

“[Say] ‘Oklahoma’ and that’ll buy you about 30 seconds,” Lacy said. “’Oklahoma,’ Trip Taylor will back them off of you for maybe a minute, but then it’s back on.”

Even if he goes to the hospital, Ryan Dunn is suspicious of anyone who examines him. They might be a ringer for another prank. “It usually doesn’t end there either,” Dunn said. “I don’t trust a doctor, I don’t trust anybody. Once those wheels start turning it’s tough to stop that train.”

Jackass 3D opens Friday.
 

Do you excel at hitting your friends in the nuts, and sticking things up your butt? If so, it makes you qualified to be a member of the Jackass crew. Johnny Knoxville and his Jackass 3D peeps are hosting the first Jackass 3D Prank Contest.

To enter, all you need to do is submit a description or drawing of your most outrageous prank to the official site. No video submissions will be accepted. If you win, you’ll be flown out to shoot your prank with the cast of Jackass 3D. You can enter at the contest’s site HERE.

Here’s my submission:

Imagine Wee Man in the middle.

Director: Jeff Tremaine

Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Magera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jason Acuna, Ryan Dunn

Synopsis: More dangerous stunts and jokes now in 3-D from the famous Jackass crew.

Release Date: October 15th, 2010

I thought the whole 3D thing was just a fad. But as of today, consider me converted, just lik Paul on the road to Damascus. But instead of an angry Jew riding a horse in ancient Syria, I’m a lazy gentile sitting on a couch in CA. And instead of being instantly blinded by the light of god, I’m slowly destroying my eyesight while watching the new Jackass 3D trailer on my laptop. Other than that, the comparison is spot on.

From the looks of it, Jackass 3D is the reason why 3D was invented. All the stupid stunts and senseless violence really go a long way toward justifying the technology. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the scene where the porta potty is bungeed into the air is a 1000 times more impressive than anything in Avatar. Plus, there are no blue people in Jackass, which is a plus. (Film School Rejects)

Watch the new Jackass 3D trailer after the jump…