Weekend Movies: Bunch o’ Jackasses

This weekend, the ‘Jackass’ guys pull a ‘Borat’ and Ridley Scott directs Pulitzer-winner Cormac McCarthy’s first original screenplay. Also, award-winning lesbians.

I’m a glutton for the ‘Jackass‘ crew. Their bits are so distastefully hilarious that I weep from laughter while watching them unfold. Having said that, I’m worried about ‘Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa‘. Johnny Knoxville’s heavily made-up prankster character Irving Zisman isn’t new, but the narrative/improve hybrid format we see him in this time is. Scripted bits of story stitch together the improvised bits, but the reactions of the unsuspecting victims are all we really want to see. Are ‘Jackass’ fans devoted enough to watch Knoxville rip off Sasha Baron Cohen’s schtick? We’ll see. Despite being a ‘Jackass’ fan, even I’m unsure about it.

Sadly, ‘Bad Grandpa’ isn’t the only wide release of the weekend to worry about. ‘The Counselor‘ is an ensemble drama that reunites a pair of Inglourious Basterds (Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt), the leading ladies from ‘Vanilla Sky’ (Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz), ‘No Country for Old Men‘ star Javier Bardem and author Cormac McCarthy, and a real-life married couple (Bardem and Penélope Cruz). Fassbender leads this ensemble as a rooked lawyer looking to fund his lavish lifestyle by buying into a major drug smuggling operation. Of course, things get complicated.

As much as I love McCarthy’s novels ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘The Road‘, as well as the big-screen adaptations of both, Ridley Scott hasn’t exactly been on a winning streak as of late. Over the last decade, he’s put out more lemons than keepers, and this one is another mixed bag. (Read my full review here.)

Meanwhile, opening on four screen’s is the Cannes-winning three-hour NC-17 drama ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color‘. The buzz surrounding the film almost solely derives from its supposedly graphic lesbian sex scenes. The plot synopsis makes it sounds like a gay version of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, in which a blue-haired girl wins over a misfit and teaches her how to live life to the fullest. I don’t know how the film actually is, but its box office returns ought to be interesting to follow.

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