Bad Grandpa Review (Without Having Seen It)

I’d like to believe myself above the humor of Johnny Knoxville and the rest of the Jackass crew. They inflict ghastly bodily harm upon themselves and call it comedy, which, to those of us who fancy ourselves cerebral in our sense of humor, can’t help but come off as lowbrow. The problem is that Johnny and company are, well, funny. Hurting yourself on purpose is not inherently comical. A YouTube video of a guy smashing his hand with a hammer would be horrific, not humorous. It takes intelligence to make a gag of any nature, violent or not, work.

Bad Grandpa is Knoxville’s attempt to show that he can elicit laughs without taking a staple gun to his scrotum. Starring as the film’s titular character, Knoxville goes on a cross-country adventure accompanied by the character’s young grandson. A safe bet is that hijinks ensue.

My concern with the film is, while Team Jackass is indeed funny, no one ever accused them of being the great comedic minds of our time. And, when doing their particular brand of physical comedy, there are few if any acts to compare them to. So by putting out a quality product in a very uncrowded field, they come off looking like gods. A hidden camera, cross country adventure starring a man in character dealing with people who aren’t, though? That movie was called Borat. And it was done really, really well. I’m not saying there isn’t room for other movies in the genre, but, much like you wouldn’t bet on some new guy throwing himself off a cliff for a laugh doing it better than a Jackass crew member, I doubt someone is going to top Sacha Baron Cohen at his own game.

Still, comedy doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel to be funny. And the film’s preview did contain a segment that had me reacting more loudly than a black slasher film audience. (Click here to watch it. Or don’t and save yourself a big laugh in the theater.) As long as its preview didn’t give away every funny segment, Bad Grandpa looks to be a good (not great) comedy, and I will probably cave and watch it on my local Rave Theater’s $5 movie day. It isn’t a ringing endorsement, but then again I’m a putz with a blog read by 40 people, so I doubt Johnny Knoxville’s losing any sleep over that.

Tagged as: Movie Review.