God help us. I still don't think it should have been nominated for an Oscar, but it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) finds himself a free man after his wife passes away. However, his drug addict daughter (Georgina Cates) violated her parole and is slated to go back to jail. She tells Irving that he has to take his eight-year-old grandson, Billy (Jackson Nicoll), from Nebraska to North Carolina to his father (Greg Harris).
The addition of a partial narrative makes something more of Jackass's usual hidden camera shenanigans. Personally, I don't think pranks involving unsuspecting bystanders equals comedy. Mostly, it involves making regular people feel awful, confused, or angry for no real reason. That does not blow my skirt up at all.
Looking at it from a sociological standpoint, it was interesting to see precisely how much sexual harassment the average woman would take from a stranger. It's a lot. It was actually almost disturbing to see how skillfully these women would politely and non-confrontationally blow off Zisman's advances. That comes from practice.
The only truly redeeming moments for humanity comes when Irving is about to turn over Billy to his father in a biker bar. The bar is the hangout of a group called Guardians of Children, whose primary mission is to protect abused kids. The group rallies around the boy when it becomes clear that his father is not a competent guardian. I am glad there are people out there who are willing to step in at a moment's notice with no care of the cost to themselves.
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