Exploding toilets, tarantula tubes, and screamin' Steve-O bode well for Jackass Forever

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      Back when movie companies had money they would sometimes send journalists on "junkets", wherein they'd fly them to a big city and put them up in a fancy hotel--all expenses paid--to get their upcoming movies seen and written about.

      You'd sit around with a bunch of other freebee-loving print-media weasels and they'd bring out "the talent" for roundtable interviews--which means you'd jockey with dudes from the Boston Globe or the Toronto Star to try and get a question or two in edgewise. 

      Of the half-dozen or so junkets I attended, most weren't particulaly memorable. I remember sitting around a table in New York City with R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe in 1999 when he was promoting the bizarre flick he'd co-produced, Being John Malkovich. And two years earlier it was pretty cool to hang out at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the presence of the marvelous Martin Sheen while he charmingly outlined his villainous character in Spawn.

      But by far the best junket experience of my 40 years in the journalism biz involved getting flown to L.A. to interview the cast of Jackass Number Two at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 2006.

      The day before the interviews were to take place there was a pool party with most of the cast members showing up. There was a margarita station operated by a bartender who refused to skimp on the tequila, and the good times really started to roll when Jason "Wee Man" Acuna stripped down and hopped in the pool simply because Johnny Knoxville mentioned it as a possibility.

      These fading memories of jackasses past came back as I watched the trailer for Jackass Forever, which is scheduled for release in February, 2022. Check it out:

      The first three Jackass flicks--2002's Jackass: The Movie, 2006's Jackass Number Two, and 2010's Jackass 3D--were all money-making hits. At a budget of less than $20-million for each one, they collectively raked in $335-million in worldwide box-office.

      I'm betting Jackass Forever makes a killing as well. They'll be getting my money, at least, 'cause true American heroes are hard to find. Go Johnny, go!

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