Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013)

86-year-old Irving Zisman takes a trip from Nebraska to North Carolina to take his 8 year-old grandson, Billy, back to his real father.

Director:

Jeff Tremaine

Writers:

Johnny Knoxville (screenplay), Spike Jonze (screenplay),

Stars:

Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Greg Harris

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Knoxville	...	Irving Zisman
Jackson Nicoll	...	Billy
Greg Harris	...	Chuck
Georgina Cates	...	Kimmie
Kamber Hejlik	...	Doctor
Jill Kill	...	Pageant Reporter
Madison Davis	...	Juggalo Girl
George Faughnan	...	Juggalo Guy
Grasie Mercedes	...	Hostess
Marilynn Allain	...	Receptionist
Jack Polick	...	Funeral Worker
Spike Jonze	...	Gloria
Catherine Keener	...	Ellie
Marlon Davis	...	Himself
Quintin Duncan	...	Himself

Storyline

Eighty-six-year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companion: his eight-year-old grandson Billy, in "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa". Jackass characters Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicoll) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on camera. Along the way Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places, and situations that give new meaning to the term "childrearing". The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons, and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens. Real people in unreal situations, making for one really messed up comedy.

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Plot Keywords:

grandson | jackass | child beauty pageant | hidden camera | male stripper | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

14A

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Brazil]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 2013 (Canada)

Also Known As:

El abuelo sinvergüenza

Filming Locations:

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$32,055,177 (USA) (25 October 2013)

Gross:

$101,978,840 (USA) (17 January 2014)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dickhouse Productions, MTV Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min 102 min (Unrated)

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Throughout the movie, the same gray and white Dodge van is seen either in the background or following the car.

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Goofs

In the diner where Irving and Billy are having their farting contest, Billy is seen eating his breakfast, when shown again he is eating chicken parmesan.

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Quotes

[from trailer]
Bicycle man: Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me!
Irving Zisman: Hurt you? I'm 86 years old!

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Crazy Credits

In memory of Ryan Dunn appears at the end of the film's credits.

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Connections

Featured in Trailer Failure: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013)

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Soundtracks

Stoned Traveler
Written and Performed by Roger Alan Wade
Courtesy of Johnny Knoxville Records

User Reviews

Lewd, crude, tasteless - and incredibly fun.

In a world overrun by forgettable, banal reality television, Jackass has distinguished itself as a franchise with unexpected staying power. Who would have thought that a television show about pulling pranks on unsuspecting members of the public would go on to dominate the silver screen as well? That's precisely what Johnny Knoxville and his compatriots have done, however. Bad Grandpa marks the Jackass crew's fourth foray into the realm of feature films. The movie is itself more ambitious than its predecessors, betting that one character - an apparently doddering 86-year-old man - can carry an actual plot and an enormous arsenal of pranks. Surprisingly, it's a gamble that pays off: Bad Grandpa is frequently as funny as it is in bad taste.

The ostensible plot of it all goes something like this: Irving Zisman (Knoxville) is saddled with his grandson Billy (Jackson Nicoll) when his flaky daughter is sent to prison and his wife Ellie (Catherine Keener - yes, really!) passes away. Resolving to palm his grandson off to his ne'er-do-well son-in-law, Irving embarks on a road trip across America - an adventure that takes them from strip club to diner, from funeral to beauty pageant, and everything in between. Along the way, they meet people from all walks of life: most of them unsuspecting, several of them kind, all of them pretty good sports.

Much of the thrill of watching Bad Grandpa comes from knowing that it is a hidden-camera comedy - one that draws its greatest laughs and amusement from people who have no clue that Irving isn't actually a senior citizen. Many of the pranks border on the tasteless (Irving gets a crucial body part caught in a vending machine, grandpa and grandson engage in a flatulence contest in a diner with disastrous results), but the horrified looks on the faces of innocent passers-by make it all work. There are even some moments of inspired comic genius: chiefly, the set-pieces that take place in a strip club and at a beauty pageant. (To spoil you any further, dear reader, would be criminal.)

It takes a pair of seasoned performers not to crack and give the game away. Knoxville, of course, has years of experience and bodily injury under his belt, and he is astonishingly good at playing a bawdy old man with very few social (and some might say moral) filters. The great surprise is Nicoll, a child with the most perfectly deadpan of faces - he's hilariously convincing whether he's asking a complete stranger to adopt him or re-enacting a scenario reminiscent of Abigail Breslin's wildly inappropriate grind-bump dance in Little Miss Sunshine.

This is - evidently - very far from great cinema, even though director Jeff Tremaine does actually manage to sneak a little more sentiment and plot into the film than you might expect. But great cinema does not always equate into a fun, brainless night out at the cinema - which Bad Grandpa, if you set your expectations as low as they can go, will almost indubitably provide you.