*** outta *****

3 outta 5

Action Point is sort of a Jackass movie but if it actually had a plot and story.  Sort of.  The setting of Action Point has a distinctly anarchistic vibe; set at an amusement park, this ‘70’s throwback features unsafe rides that creak menacingly. The plot can basically be boiled down to a standard comedy trope of misfits rallying to save their hangout place from the evil corporation who wants to bulldoze it.  Some viewers may be irritated this slows down for characters and plot instead of Jackass style constantly featuring people being crushed.  Oddly, this gives Action Point a distinct vibe from the Jackass films.  Also the fact that there’s a bunch of dopey idiots causing a ruckus makes it kind of endearing. 

In the late 70s, D.C. (Johnny Knoxville) is running a park named Action Point.  It is a rickety death trap of multiple unsafe attractions with some very intoxicated and negligent supervisors.  It turns out he’s in debt to the bank and a much flashier park is drawing away his business.  The arrival of his daughter Boogie (Eleanor Worthington-Cox) forces D.C. to try to keep the park running.  With the assistance of his buddy, Benny (Chris Pontius), and the generally incompetent staff, they try to attract more customers to Action Point by making the park even more dangerous.  The notion of losers trying to keep their hangout alive is a sturdy premise for a comedy, if really creaky and contrived. 

The tonal setup of people falling off of rides all in good fun is done rather well in a voice-over where D.C. reminisces wistfully “Back then we had something called ‘personal responsibility’.”  If someone got hurt they don’t go to the media or the lawyers, they just dust themselves off and got at it again.  In fact, a plot bit in Action Point is when the lawyers get involved it is seen as a very bad, needlessly authoritarian and unfair thing to do. 

Jackass films are shot with grainy handheld video that looks like someone just grabbed a camera and ran after the chaos.  Action Point doesn’t really look like a Jackass movie as there are actual shots setups and a script and story. It loses some of real immediacy and sheer number of stunts of the Jackass brand. 

D.C.’s relationship with his daughter does give the movie some heart as a scene where he confronts her after running off is actually rather sweet. And there’s also a bit where his daughter wanted to go see a punk band with her dad but he totally spaces out on it, which makes her really sad.  Action Point may strain a wee bit too hard for sympathy as the story is framed in flashbacks as D.C. tells his history to his granddaughter.  This does make the movie kind of a family drama which feels unnecessary.   But Action Point is not all that sappy as D.C. is mostly drinking his way through the film and coming up with harebrained moneymaking schemes.  This is a guy who admits some of his best ideas come to him when he’s been newly concussed. 

The gags in the film are gleefully hard hitting and the movie has a carefree craziness.  There is one bit where things edge into an adult sex comedy territory where Benny, for convoluted reasons, has to hide out while two lovers are going at it. The entire scene seems tonally incompatible with the rest of the film, going for gross out as opposed to amusingly daft.  Something that is very funny and very silly is when D.C. is hiding up in a tree from an alcoholic beer drinking bear.  D.C. doesn’t want to give the bear beer because the bear was “kind of a mean drunk,” so, to escape the bear, D.C. jumps from the tree and lands straight on a shed and rolls off painfully. 

The movie sings along when it randomly has people engage in dangerous, chaotic park antics and making quips.  The crew coming up with schemes to keep the park in the green are pretty fun, like when they protest their own park to drum up business.  Another bit that really sells the lawless vibe is when Boogie says to Benny that they should be monitoring people as life guards and Benny just shrugs and says “Ah, let God sort them out.” 

Pontius has some decent lines as he rumbles his way through the film as D.C.’s dumb sidekick.  There are a few park workers who have wacky names like Four Fingered Annie who are good for some funny reactions and build dangerous contraptions like a tennis ball firing tank.  In one of the movie’s funniest scenes, D.C. sets up a kids section of the parks that is just porcupines, snakes, kids smashing up broken cars and beating up mascots all while being madly unsupervised.  And it seems actually like wholesome fun! 

Action Point is sort of in between a proper Jackass movie and a ‘70s throwback nostalgia dream.  And it does click in a zany, drunken, reprobate way with a few poignant scenes.  Overall, this is a movie that revels in being dumb and painful, which is actually kind of refreshing.