Review: They're finally too old for it in the middling clip reel 'Jackass: Best and Last'

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Set us as preferred The best weapon in the “Jackass’” arsenal isn’t the taser, the beehive or the booby-trapped latrine.It’s the explosion of relief when a prank ends, often in humiliation, always with hoots and claps.

The first film, 2002’s “Jackass: The Movie” was slow to discover that carnage without camaraderie is painful; several injuries limped off-screen in horrified silence.Laughter heals, except for the brain hemorrhage that Johnny Knoxville suffered in 2022’s “Jackass Forever” when, dissatisfied by the clobbering he took from a bull, requested a second ramming that knocked him out cold.Hence “Jackass: Best and Last,” the goon squad’s alleged final film, is underwhelmingly tame.

Shot quickly by stalwart director Jeff Tremaine this spring, half of it is a clip reel of past hits, like the time fan favorite Steve-O slingshotted into the sky in a port-a-potty.The rest is scraps of hastily assembled chaos, the most elaborate of which is a puppet show in which veterans Ehren McGhehey, Dave England and Jason “Wee Man” Acuña dangle helplessly from strings, trying to recite cue cards while being pummeled by tropical fruit.

“A pineapple!” Wee Man moans.I’m no sadist.They’ve suffered plenty for our amusement.

Still, it’s a shame that for the first time in two and a half decades of cringe comedy, the guffaws feel forced.Acknowledging the Jackasses’ age, if not maturity, are a couple skits about prostate and rectal checkups.(The gnarliest involves clear pants, colonoscopy prep liquid and a game of Twister.) Modern technology enters the arena with a nimble-fingered robot.

If the team had invested any actual energy into brainstorming this entry, they’d have played paintball with a sniper drone.At least for the sake of torch-passing, someone should have thought of something for the ...