Can JACKASS save 3D from itself?

Can JACKASS save 3D from itself?

Jun 08

Six months ago the news broke that a third Jackass feature was going into production, and that it would be shot in 3D. Collider recently chatted with series director Jeff Tremane, who confirmed that the shooting is near completion; they’ve got a bit of international shooting to do, and then they’re done, aiming for a mid-October 2010 release date. He also says the 3D aspect of the footage is “awesome.”

I don’t know why I love Jackass (and spin-off Wildboyz) so much. I could waffle something about how our agriculture-based society tends to indulge in self-destructive activities in a bizarre mating ritual (e.g. showing off to potential mates that our harvest is so plentiful that we can afford to drink ourselves sick every weekend), and that watching people like Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius take that to the next level is magnetically appealing; or I could concede that I was just a teenager at the right time and Jackass was the anarchic antidote to the systematic dullness of high school.

Either way, having projectile vomit, snakes, bees, genitalia and goodness knows what else coming at your face in 3D will do one of two things for me: it’ll galvanise for me the belief that 3D is a waste of time and money, and that I can never buy into it; or it’ll show me that with the right context 3D can be immersive and fun. Avatar was supposed to help me sort that problem out, but it didn’t. Now, instead of pinning my judgement of the format on a James Cameron-helmed monster, I’m putting my faith in the hands of a bunch of alcoholic sadists.

How the rest of the world will react to Jackass 3D is beyond my ability to predict. The first two flicks did moderate business, but the market’s pretty niche. I’m just hoping that Jackass 3D will be the movie that proves to studios that 3D movies don’t all have to be fantasy flicks and Dreamworks talking-animal pictures. Maybe that’ll lead the way for more mature, intersting projects in 3D.

Jackass 3D: a force for good in the world, or the bane of humanity’s existence? You be the judge.