Haggard

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Screening Suggestions

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To begin with, let me just say that if you have little or no interest in 'Jackass' or Bam's infamous 'CKY' videos, or anything associated with that - this movie is NOT for you! It's incredibly off the wall and sort of fits within the realm of Bam Margera's brain at the time (2003). There's a LOT in this that's just random and weird, and it doesn't skip on toilet humour at all. A select few will really appreciate this one these days, but I just so happen to be one of them.

Back in the day, I was into a lot of weird, whacky stuff, and a friend introduced me to not only 'Jackass' (which I was kind of lukewarm on), but the CKY videos - specifically, 'CKY2K'. At the time, this was all a branch from, of all things, 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3', which has CKY's '96 Quite Bitter Beings' as a part of its soundtrack. Liking the song, naturally, I was curious. Other than a few nasty things along the way, the DVD featured more music from CKY (the early, good stuff), introduced me to 'HIM' (one of my all-time favourite bands), a bunch of skate tricks and really random comedy (which I just eat up). Needless to say, I had to check this movie out.

The plot, in question, involves Ry (Ryan Dunn), who has recently just been broken up with by his girlfriend, Glauren (Jennifer Rivell). Already devastated by the breakup, he further finds out that some heavy metal dude named "Hellboy" (Rake Yohn) has been involved with her. While Ry's friends Valo (Bam Margera) and Falcone (Brandon DiCamillo) want their friend to move on, Ry would rather pay them to do things like vandalizing Glauren's house, and doing a bunch of unnecessary deeper digging. A lot of this is hilarious, but fair warning, very low-brow stuff. Most of the humour comes from DiCamillo's physically comedic performance and their shared dialogue.

While that's the gist of the overall story, there's also some side-story stuff going on, including Falcone trying to patent a "reverse microwave", Falcone's ridiculous cousin, Raab (Chris Raab) coming to town (who has, by far, the funniest 2 seconds of the entire movie), Ry living with his hedonistic... I dunno, roommate?, Don Vito (as basically himself) and Bam... well, being the Bam Margera we 'Jackass' fans love. It feels somewhat unfortunate now that 'Jackass' and everything associated with it feels "so early 2000s", but what's crazy is that the heart of this movie, at least for me, isn't even in the "jackassery" of it all.

I said in previous reviews about how these movies have different "volumes" to them in terms of being somewhat cruel to whoever is suffering the loss. Well, this is our volume 11. Now, just to put myself out there a little bit, I think it's safe to say that I have had some really sad heartbreak in my day - as in spending all day in bed, sobbing about it, and having my mind think the worst of everything. That's Ry's character, in a nutshell, and this movie acts as a great reflection for such a situation. For me, it acts as a sort of reminder to, essentially, not be stupid about things, and I still give this a watch when I'm feeling like crap in that way.

However, as I said from the get-go, this is definitely not for everyone. I might sooner recommend 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' for something that gives a similar vibe and is far less random and kooky. I might also give HIM a listen to before attempting this, as almost the entirety of the soundtrack is HIM. Being a huge fan, myself, it's a pretty easy one for me to get through. So, I guess, in the end, this is really only a "Screening Suggestions" for anyone who's ever been a fan of 'Jackass', 'CKY', HIM, and even with all that, willing to take a trip back in time to the early 2000s, and able to appreciate incredibly random comedy that often has toilet humour attached to it... so it may be a select few. Still though, it holds a place in my heart, and it's worth the watch whenever I'm hurtin'.

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