Action Point

Action Point

Starring Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, Eleanor Worthington Cox, Dan Bakkedahl

Directed by Tim Kirkby

The Story:
DC Carver (Johnny Knoxville) runs Action Point, a small amusement park in the desert, and hires local youth who aren't the most reliable people to run it.  The park is known for being unsafe, and when a big-name amusement park opens nearby, it threatens his business and nearly forces him to close his doors unless he comes up with a great idea.

With the help of his daughter Boogie (Eleanor Worthington Cox), he decides to amp up the thrill level of the park by eliminating many of the rules and opening a petting zoo for the children, creating mass marketing to draw in a bigger crowd in hopes of keeping his park.

The Synopsis:
In 2000, the small show "Jackass" hit MTV, and became a cultural phenomenon.  Featuring a steady cast including Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn and Wee Man, the show centered on a group of friends who go out and perform the most dangerous stunts and pranks that often resulted in them getting seriously injured for our amusement.  It became a huge hit due in major part to the controversy it produced: even though there was a lengthy message about the dangers of what they do and how it shouldn't be done at home, several copycats attempted to perform their stunts which often resulted in serious injuries and even death.  The show was heavily monitored and edited, and the cast decided to take their shenanigans to the big screen.

The result of that is four movies - "Jackass" ($64,000,000 domestic gross), "Jackass: Number Two" ($72,000,000 domestic gross), "Jackass 3-D" ($117,000,000 domestic gross), and "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" ($102,000,000 domestic gross).  The films, along with the series, became massive hits and made the stars into household names.

However, with the growing popularity of the Internet and YouTube, you can now find countless different videos of people doing stupid stuff, so it seemed the era of "Jackass" had officially come to an end - until Johnny Knoxville returned with "Action Point" which, despite lacking the "Jackass" title, still imbues the spirit of the series - seeing people performing wild stunts and crazy pranks that often results in bodily injury for our amusement.  Yet the allure and excitement seems to have gone from the franchise, because it's no longer a fresh, new idea - while it was funny and cringe-worthy in a good way, it just wasn't that memorable.

Only Knoxville and Chris Pontius returned for "Action Point," and the film took more of a serious tone than the other "Jackass" movies.  The original films centered on pranks pulled on unsuspecting people, while "Action Point" was an entirely scripted endeavor from start to finish, diminishing the true level of excitement (I still remember the "Bad Grandpa" scene where Knoxville - in full old man makeup - crashes a male performance strip club).  While the crazy antics in "Action Point" are still funny, they're not as funny as they were five to eighteen years earlier.  If you've seen the trailer, you've seen some of the best pranks and stunts in the entire film.

The story behind the film is reminiscent of the classic 80s comedies where an underdog gang of people go against the man in order to preserve their small slice of the pie, which only made the film appear dated and uninspired.  There's several moments in the film that didn't need to be there, and it would've worked a whole lot better if it was a television special and cut down to a lean half hour or so.  As it was, the film felt long and drawn out (even at a scant 85 minutes), with a few moments of pure hilarity (I loved the alcoholic bear, and the gruff park patron who just wandered around with a gruff look who always wanted to start a fight), but since the entire film was scripted with no true shock from unsuspecting participants, it became another by-the-books comedy.

Then there's the side story of Knoxville's DC and his daughter, who visits him for the summer after he divorced his wife who now lives in New York with her longtime boyfriend.  It seems to come across as an estranged arrangement, but DC and Boogie work extremely well together, until they don't, but then they work well together again, until something else happens, but then it all gets resolved in a few easy moments.  If they were trying to amp up the dramatic moments, it didn't deliver by any means, and only added to the padded length of the film.


The most interesting thing about the film is that it's based off an actual amusement park.  In New Jersey in the 80s, Action Park was a no-holds-barred amusement park that was understaffed and run by teenagers who didn't have the basic medical training, and the park resulted in six deaths and countless injuries.  So you might think a park this dangerous is just in the insane mind of Johnny Knoxville, but it was actually a real place - then again, it was the 80s, and safety regulations were rather lax at the time.  I remember being a kid in the 80s and not having to wear seatbelts in the car, riding my bike down the road without a helmet, and licking cake batter from the spoon - and I'm still alive and well today.

It's still impressive to see Johnny Knoxville - who's nearly fifty - perform the insane stunts he does (it even resulted in him visiting the emergency room several times), and you have to admire his desire to keep his baby alive, but maybe it's time to put the skull and crossbones the series is known for over this franchise for good.

The Summary:
While there's moments of laughter and hilarious stunts, "Action Point" is less than the sum of its parts, and if you've seen the trailer you've already seen the best stunts the film has to offer.

The Score: C-