Johnny Knoxville has fashioned himself as something of a modern Evel Knievel, a notorious daredevil with a penchant for the extreme. But instead of performing stunts designed to amaze audiences, Knoxville's brand of mayhem is meant to make teenage boys and hungover college kids burst out laughing with their buddies. Knoxville rose to fame with the wildly popular Jackass series (the 3-D installment and Bad Grandpa both grossed over $100 million in the U.S.), and he's back this weekend with Action Point, another spectacle of outlandish stunts and juvenile humor. Paramount has basically buried the film, skipping critics' screenings and releasing it in barely 2,000 theaters. The final product isn't quite the unholy disaster indicated by the studio's strategy, but Knoxville's latest outrageous mess is a whole lot of punching, yelling, and screaming without much of a purpose. The loose style produces a few chuckles, but Action Point eventually becomes vaguely grating.
Knoxville plays D.C., the beer-chugging owner of a rinky-dink California amusement park called Action Point. It's the kind of place you probably would never want to visit, unless you have a serious death wish. The film basically uses the Princess Bride framing technique, having the older D.C. tell his granddaughter about the good ol' days in the 1970s. Helicopter parents weren't a thing, kids were allowed to be kids, there weren't so many rules, etc. Every summer, D.C.'s daughter, Boogie (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), would travel from New York to visit the park for three months of fun, hanging out with the locals and enjoying the heat. But when a flashy nearby amusement park arrives one summer, Action Point is suddenly in trouble. Dropping attendance numbers and the impending threat of a big-shot land developer (Dan Bakkedahl) force D.C. to take decisive action, finding a way to make his park bigger, better, and crazier. So what does D.C. do? He removes all the safety restrictions and rules, opting for a park full of "just pure fun." Dangerous stunts, nut shots, and constant mayhem ensue.
It's not difficult to imagine a world where Action Point ends up being at least mildly diverting and entertaining. The sunny joys of the 1970s are captured surprisingly well by cinematographer Michael Snyman, and there's a nostalgic sensibility to the story that feels reminiscent of Dazed and Confused and other mellow hangout movies. It's just unfortunate that director Tim Kirkby's film is so relentlessly obnoxious that any redeeming qualities are drowned out, falling to pieces in a sea of crass horrors. Look, if you're complaining about a Johnny Knoxville movie being loud and stupid, you were probably in the wrong theater to begin with. But there's something about the sheer volume of loud and stupid things in Action Point that makes this whole ordeal feel even more tiresome, compounding the pointless idiocy to intolerable levels. There aren't any actual cohesive jokes to build or develop, instead just a never-ending stream of dumb people doing dumb things. Sure, that's the general point of Jackass, but even the stunts don't have much of an impact here.
Maybe the fault lies with the script, which is credited to John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky with additional story credits for Knoxville, Derek Freda, and Office Space's Mike Judge. The writing team seemingly couldn't decide whether this was a plot-driven story or a character-driven one, so it's ultimately just a hodgepodge of random incidents. Sometimes the film opts to focus on the relationship between D.C. and Boogie, while other times it focuses on saving the park. You never really know what you're going to get- the one constant is just unrelenting stupidity.
D.C. and Boogie certainly have a nice dynamic, yet it's not nearly enough to sustain the production. The few attempts at sincerity are actually refreshing, even if they feel totally out of step with the rest of the film. It's worth considering that maybe, in a post-Vine and post-YouTube age, there isn't room for this kind of feature-length display of absurdity anymore. Watching guys get hit in the face and fall off mildly dangerous heights just isn't all that compelling, especially when you're inundated with it on a daily basis. Action Point also reveals basically everything in its trailer, so every stunt manages to feel stale and recycled. What's left is gross and unsatisfying, toilet jokes and bodily gags that feel cheap instead of inspired. There's nothing wrong with a good crude joke, but Kirkby's film fails to fall into the "highbrow lowbrow" category.
The best thing I can say about Action Point is that it's 85 minutes long. It's over quickly and it's never aggressively miserable. If it was much longer, who knows how insufferable it would be. As it is, Knoxville's latest foray into the realm of the spectacularly stupid is disposable and pointless, destined to leave little impact on its audience. In a way, Action Point feels like Knoxville's lament for the end of the Jackass age, an old man looking back on the good ol' days and complaining about the world he sees now. But that's probably reading too far into it. This demolition derby/silly comedy is merely the latest vehicle for its star's brand of madness, and it isn't a particularly good one at that.
THE FINAL GRADE: C- (4.7/10)
Images: Paramount/IMDb
Knoxville plays D.C., the beer-chugging owner of a rinky-dink California amusement park called Action Point. It's the kind of place you probably would never want to visit, unless you have a serious death wish. The film basically uses the Princess Bride framing technique, having the older D.C. tell his granddaughter about the good ol' days in the 1970s. Helicopter parents weren't a thing, kids were allowed to be kids, there weren't so many rules, etc. Every summer, D.C.'s daughter, Boogie (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), would travel from New York to visit the park for three months of fun, hanging out with the locals and enjoying the heat. But when a flashy nearby amusement park arrives one summer, Action Point is suddenly in trouble. Dropping attendance numbers and the impending threat of a big-shot land developer (Dan Bakkedahl) force D.C. to take decisive action, finding a way to make his park bigger, better, and crazier. So what does D.C. do? He removes all the safety restrictions and rules, opting for a park full of "just pure fun." Dangerous stunts, nut shots, and constant mayhem ensue.
It's not difficult to imagine a world where Action Point ends up being at least mildly diverting and entertaining. The sunny joys of the 1970s are captured surprisingly well by cinematographer Michael Snyman, and there's a nostalgic sensibility to the story that feels reminiscent of Dazed and Confused and other mellow hangout movies. It's just unfortunate that director Tim Kirkby's film is so relentlessly obnoxious that any redeeming qualities are drowned out, falling to pieces in a sea of crass horrors. Look, if you're complaining about a Johnny Knoxville movie being loud and stupid, you were probably in the wrong theater to begin with. But there's something about the sheer volume of loud and stupid things in Action Point that makes this whole ordeal feel even more tiresome, compounding the pointless idiocy to intolerable levels. There aren't any actual cohesive jokes to build or develop, instead just a never-ending stream of dumb people doing dumb things. Sure, that's the general point of Jackass, but even the stunts don't have much of an impact here.
Maybe the fault lies with the script, which is credited to John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky with additional story credits for Knoxville, Derek Freda, and Office Space's Mike Judge. The writing team seemingly couldn't decide whether this was a plot-driven story or a character-driven one, so it's ultimately just a hodgepodge of random incidents. Sometimes the film opts to focus on the relationship between D.C. and Boogie, while other times it focuses on saving the park. You never really know what you're going to get- the one constant is just unrelenting stupidity.
D.C. and Boogie certainly have a nice dynamic, yet it's not nearly enough to sustain the production. The few attempts at sincerity are actually refreshing, even if they feel totally out of step with the rest of the film. It's worth considering that maybe, in a post-Vine and post-YouTube age, there isn't room for this kind of feature-length display of absurdity anymore. Watching guys get hit in the face and fall off mildly dangerous heights just isn't all that compelling, especially when you're inundated with it on a daily basis. Action Point also reveals basically everything in its trailer, so every stunt manages to feel stale and recycled. What's left is gross and unsatisfying, toilet jokes and bodily gags that feel cheap instead of inspired. There's nothing wrong with a good crude joke, but Kirkby's film fails to fall into the "highbrow lowbrow" category.
The best thing I can say about Action Point is that it's 85 minutes long. It's over quickly and it's never aggressively miserable. If it was much longer, who knows how insufferable it would be. As it is, Knoxville's latest foray into the realm of the spectacularly stupid is disposable and pointless, destined to leave little impact on its audience. In a way, Action Point feels like Knoxville's lament for the end of the Jackass age, an old man looking back on the good ol' days and complaining about the world he sees now. But that's probably reading too far into it. This demolition derby/silly comedy is merely the latest vehicle for its star's brand of madness, and it isn't a particularly good one at that.
THE FINAL GRADE: C- (4.7/10)
Images: Paramount/IMDb
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