Action Point

As post-“Jackass” movies go, Action Point makes more of an effort to sandwich some plot between the literally painful slapstick comedy, but if you love that formula — Knoxville falls off something, or into something, or has something projected at him, making him wince and then deliver his famous high-pitched giggle — you’ll want a ticket to ride.

Action Point contains some crazy stunts and some funny-ish gross-out humor, but is ultimately a pale echo of the dark destruction Johnny Knoxville became famous for.

Believe it or not, Action Point in 2018 feels too safe. There’s way too much plot and even the stunts that gave Knoxville concussions feel routine. It’s not unlike seeing a once-great athlete attempt a comeback. There are flashes of what once worked, but it’s also a little sad.

Watching it is like travelling through a wormhole to a slightly crummier version of 2004.

Such a thin plot from some of the Jackass guys would have been completely forgiven, or even blissfully ignored, if the stunts were on par, or at least close to, what we expect from these guys.

True, Johnny Knoxville gets power-hosed down a slide and catapulted into a barn for our amusement, but the inventive, stake-raising, borderline surrealist gags of the old “Jackass” are gone.

For most of its interminable runtime, Action Point feels like a porno that deliberately ruins the sex scenes in order to stop you from fast-forwarding through the plot.

really funny movie about an amusement park with no safety regulations at all. everyone does drugs and gets drunk and has the time of their lives. no real point to the story but its pretty funny and it was just a good time.

I can see why this movie has such a low rating. It is pretty rough. Although, I have been a fan of Knoxville for quite a time now, and it was refreshing to see him return to the Silver Screen doing a film in the vein of Jackass. That being said, Chris Pontius is a pretty terrible actor. He should probably stick with media similar to where he got his start. I still found myself walking out of the theater smiling though. It was a fun summer flick. Knoxville literally put his blood, sweat, and bones into filming this movie. If there was just a little bit more effort in the writing though.

This movie felt like the son of jackass on steroids, without the really next level crazy cast. The performance of the actors was really great and felt real believable even for the tension filled and emotional scenes. Nothing out of the ordinary but still pretty good. The directing was really heavy on the practical shooting and did every single stunt in real life with added safety measures. And for most of the time there weren't even stunt doubles, and for this hats off to Johnny Knoxville for still being able to pull of some crazy things to hurt himself just to entertain. For this the entertainment value of the movie was good and overall it was fun to watch, the only bad thing about the movie was the cheesy script and sometimes cliche story. Due to this the immersion sometimes was broken. The bi-linear story-line felt too simple and to generic for most viewers even though the rest of the movie was executed with style and care. Overall it's an above average movie with a great production crew and humor filled scenes, even though the humor did not shine as much as expected. At the core the movie has a sweet message but sadly it was delivered in the cheesy way.

I've always been a fan of the Jackass (TV & movies) and found "Bad Grandpa," which starred Johnny Knoxville to be great fun. This one casts him as the owner of a failing amusement park. His decision to eliminate all safety rules results in slapstick gags and pratfalls in almost every scene. While many of them look painful, few elicit the expected comic response. It doesn't help that the supporting cast is full of bland characters (with Chris Pontius the only exception) and the script is dull, unoriginal and never funny. Sadly, this energetic mess falls as flat as one of those stunts.

For a movie about an amusement park that's supposed to be nothing but fun, Action Point isn't very fun to watch. There are a few moments of amusement when characters do Jackass type stunts and end up in quite a bit of pain. But apart from those few brief moments, Action Point isn't very funny, and frankly it's pretty boring. I found myself thinking about what kind of food I was going to pick up after I left the theater, and that's not what I want to be doing when I'm watching a 1.5 hour comedy. The story is quite cliched and is pretty typical of a movie of this nature. The problem is that while a comedy is usually able to get by with a less-than-stellar story because it's ultimately a funny movie...Action Point doesn't succeed in the comedy department. The story is also told in a past-present format and there was no need, at all, for the "present" storyline. It was completely pointless. The best part of Action Point is the ending. Both because at least it ended in a somewhat satisfying way, and because it was finally over.