I was there when Jackass was first introduced to the world. There was a time when it was not available on MTV or anywhere else and it was just a bunch of goofballs who did crazy things and also went skateboarding together. They tapes - like yeah, VHS videotapes could be bought at skate-shops and people would rave about how crazy they were. They were called CKY2K which stood for Camp Kill Yourself 2000. The notion of what would late become Jackass was going to be such and amazing phenomenon probably never even occurred to any of the people involved. Now they are all millionaires.
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Jackass 4.5 is more of a "behind the scenes" feature than a real Jackass movie and if I am not mistaken this is the stuff that either didn't make it into the film Jackass Forever or it was just some stuff they wanted to focus or wouldn't be able to put on regular network TV because of the censors.
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It's the usual guys doing the usual crazy stuff such as doing a cup test at the hands of a professional bowler. Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Pontius, Party Boy, and Danger Ehren are joined by a few new guys in a bunch of skits that will definitely make you laugh. They also show some behind the scenes stuff about how nerve-wracking it can be to work on one of these sets, even if you aren't one of the actors, because you never know when you are going to be a victim of an unannounced stunt.
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I found it wildly entertaining but it also made me a bit sad to see that these guys that were kind of heroes to me as a teenager / young adult are all now either in their 50's or are getting very close to it. I guess they are just extremely resilient people because they are still doing the same level of crazy stuff but not getting horribly injured in the process.
One thing that is missing is that original member Bam Margera is not in the film at all and they don't even talk about him at all. This is because Bam had sobriety issues that were in a contract and Bam apparently repeatedly violated the contract before being eventually cut and kicked off the set despite his long-standing friendship with all of the guys involved. I am sure this was not an easy choice to make, but they did make it.
The actual film of Jackass Forever is not on Netflix but it is really easy to find that and download it for free from various torrent sites. I don't know where it is featured or if it went to theaters at all.
Should I watch it?
If you ever had any love for the Jackass franchise I think that you will not be disappointed by this. It can get a little tiresome listening to tons of testimonials rather than seeing actual bits but that is what a "behind the scenes" feature is all about now, isn't it? For me it was a fun little bit of nostalgia that kind of made me feel old because I have to come to terms with the fact that this is exactly what is happening to me as well as all the original cast members of the show.
