Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

(2013)

Strange as it sounds, come March 2, one of the films that stands a good chance of walking home with an Academy Award is Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. It’s one of three nominees in the category of makeup, but still, the recognition marks real progress for films that open with a senior citizen getting his junk caught in a vending machine.

The funniest movie of last year, Bad Grandpa is also the funniest movie of this year (thus far), thanks to its unrated cut on Blu-ray. It’s not that the extra 11 minutes prove essential (they don’t) but that the gags from the theatrical release hold up, even without the benefit of playing to a packed house.

The disc’s real treats are in the extras, seeing an indisguise Johnny Knoxville and his young charge (Jackson Nicholl, Fun Size) pranking additional “marks” whose reactions didn’t make the final cut. A look behind the scenes reveals how such scenes were accomplished.

What’s missing, however, are the deleted scenes of Spike Jonze and Catherine Keener, glimpsed in the film’s end-credit gag reel. That means Paramount is likely to bridge the gap to an inevitable sequel with a Bad Grandpa 1.5. RL

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