Jackasses return

Johnny Knoxville stars in new stunt film ‘Action Point’

From the deranged and rattled minds behind “Jackass” and “Dirty Grandpa” comes “Action Point”—a wild romp of a tale set in of the late ‘70s where loose morals and even looser parental restrictions allow for dangerous and adventurous summer fun at the local amusement park. 

Johnny Knoxville plays D.C., the proprietor and mastermind behind the titular Action Point, a rough and tumble local amusement park that’s seen better days. The park is chock-a-block full of rides and attractions that would make even the most lax code-enforcer cringe. But it’s not enough to keep the park afloat. In the wake of a larger, corporate-owned amusement park opening up down the road, Action Point’s business is waning. When a local greaseball developer (played by Dan Bakkedahl, who you’ve seen in everything from “30 Rock” to “Brooklyn 99”) catches wind of the park’s struggles, he smells blood. New ideas must be had—the bigger, more audacious and dangerous the better.

“Action Point,” like many films cut from similar cloth, is about a group of weirdos, losers and oddballs who become family. What follows is a fairly ingenious way for Knoxville and his merry band of nerve-damaged buddies to interweave their trademark brand of over-the-top practical stunts and bone-cracking gags with an endearing plot about outcasts finding their place at a park that brings them joy. “Action Point” is also a warm-hearted story about D.C., an inattentive, part-time father trying to connect with his teenage daughter Boogie, played by Eleanor Worthington-Cox, as she comes of age in the era of punk rock.

Drawing inspiration from a real-life park in New Jersey, “Action Point” harkens back to the raunch and gags of the summer/camp comedies of the ‘70s and ‘80s when the hijinks were about as high as the tube socks. Think “Meatballs,” only with more nut-crunching brutality. Knoxville and gang managed to elicit some genuine knee-jerk laughs out of me with some well-timed gags and cringe-inducing physical stunts.

What made a show like “Jackass” brilliant was the fearlessness the crew had with every stunt and gag. No ounce of pain was off limits if it meant they were leaving the viewer, or themselves, in stitches from laughing. With “Action Point” they take that approach further by throwing themselves, quite literally sometimes, into this enjoyable distraction of a film. Say what you will about the prank and violence culture a show like “Jackass” may have wrought, but with summers becoming a perpetual assault of mindless, eye-popping, CGI-drenched chaos and mega-sequels, it’s quite refreshing to see the pain of a real, practical stunt where you can literally feel the on-screen aches and bruises. “Action Point” is worth the price of admission.