Rent Action Point (2018)

Action Point (aka Action Park) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Part of the appeal of Johnny Knoxville and his Jackass boys in their dangerous and stupid stunts was that they were a freak show of slapstick performed all on their own, letting the audience know ahead of time not to try any of their gross and violent actions at home. Now comes Action Point, a plot-based stunt show by Knoxville and company, playing characters who encourage the danger, as though there was a Jackass theme park assembled for all to try out rides which usually ended in injury. And it’s just as dangerous, dumb, and ill thought as one would think, both for the concept of the park and this movie.

Knoxville plays Deshawn Chico "D.C." Carver, an amusement park manager in the loosest of terms, wandering around and delegating with a tall boy beer constantly in hand. His park is filled with waterslides and go-karts just barely held together with duct tape. The risky safety of the park leads to many injuries but curiously no lawsuits. As an older D.C. explains to his granddaughter in telling this story, it was a time when you didn’t complain or sue if you got hurt. Must be another dimension as well considering how the park seems to get by just fine for how dirty and rinky-dink it appears. D.C.’s daughter Boogie (Eleanor Worthington Cox) visits and can only smile while her dad lets little kids play with crocodiles and heals wounds with duct tape. Anything to get to that Clash concert I suppose.

There’s no lesson for D.C. to learn from this dangerous and redneck style park; only money to be made, laughs to be had, and injuries to inflict. The major problem with the park isn’t the safety but the income. Action Point has competition against real amusement parks that are driving the aged park out of business. D.C. needs to bring in more crowds and make some extra cash. His brilliant scheme: make the already dangerous rides even more dangerous. He states there will no longer be speed limits or rules but were there any to begin with? And so he proceeds to kamikaze his business model because I guess he needs something to do while he drinks beer.

I’ve enjoyed Knoxville’s antics in the past but only as skits. Placed within a lackluster story of encouraging more injury on the park guests, including kids that play with dangerous animals and punch each other, the amusement is lost and replacement by a rancid creepiness. Consider how Jackass alumni Chris Pontius appears in the film as D.C.’s park partner that not only runs around with a hatchet but takes an uncomfortable attraction to D.C.’s daughter. Also consider how D.C. has no real arc, merely being reminded that his daughter is important as he burns his park down to the ground to prove a point. The point: He likes beer and won’t adhere to safety to sacrifice a good time, even if it means destroying his own business.

And yet the film seems too safe for its own good. Nothing all that daring or ouch-worthy comes across that the Jackass boys haven’t staged before. This makes Action Point one of the worst Jackass ventures considering its lack of visual vulgarity while still being morally rotten at its core. And considering how lacking the plot is of the let’s-save-the-park formula, even when made askew by the let’s-destroy-the-park twist, I wished the Jackass boys would stick to their skits of sticking squirrels down their pants and Knoxville taking dives. They still seem to be masters of it, even in their older age. Unique comedy narratives, they are not.