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Ranking Jackass Films

The Jackass series is a franchise of five films that spawned from a television show. It features a bunch of guys being fools together and organizing elaborate pranks. Most of these movies have no story, so they are difficult to differentiate, but I will do my best to try and rank all five entries according to how funny the pranks were in particular.

5. Jackass 3D

This entry was released back in the post-‘Avatar’ period of 3D craze, so the movie ended up being done in 3D. It was totally unnecessary, thus making the movie rather dated nowadays. The highlight here is Wee Man. He is hilarious, especially in his brawls. There are some strong pranks here, but most are forgettable, making this entry the weakest of the bunch.

4. Jackass Number Two

There is this truly inspired final Busby Berkeley-inspired musical sequence that was so cinematic and so entertaining that I wish the rest of this second entry was like that. The movie is still uneven in the quality and impact of its stunts while the editing is all over the place. Thus, these two first movies are pretty much the same in terms of quality.

3. Jackass: The Movie

The only slight reason why I ranked the first Jackass movie higher than its immediate sequel is that alligator sequence. It was so well done and so funny. The reactions from other people during their pranks stole the show here. The movie is highly uneven as always and some toilet humor gags were so disgusting, but those that worked wee very entertaining.

2. Jackass Forever

The last entry in the series brought back the entire crew after a decade or so with great results. The new members needed more screen time and better pranks, but Steve-O, Preston and Knoxville stole the movie here. The genital torture pranks were too abundant, but most were very funny with the opening sequence being particularly elaborate and cool.

1. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Bad Grandpa was the fourth entry in the series and the only one that had a genuine story to it and not just a collection skits. This instantly made it a better, more accomplished movie in my book. Knoxville was overshadowed here by this kid who was so funny, especially in his amusingly observational lines of dialogue. The second half was much less memorable and not as funny, but the first half was very strong and the movie has such an infectiously fun main dynamic that really worked. Thus, it gets the first spot on this list.