[6]

Taking a cue from the staged reality antics of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Bruno), Spike Jonze, Johnny Knoxville, and director Jeff Tremaine team up for a slightly more scripted endeavor than their usual daredevil showcases. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa features Knoxville under old age makeup, playing a horny old widower suddenly charged with the care of his young grandson. The two hit the road to find the kid’s dead-beat dad and, well,  wackiness ensues.

The boy is played by Jackson Nicoll, who has improvisation and timing skills to match Knoxville and the remarkable will power keep a straight face when duping the unwitting public. One of my favorite moments is when Nicoll tells a porn shop employee that he’s going to call her Cinnamon… whether she likes it or not. Comic set pieces tend to veer toward the puerile, with Grandpa swinging his very low-hanging testicles around a strip bar and accidentally shitting on a diner wall. Yep. If you need to satisfy your hankering for low-brow humor and can’t find any re-runs of Beavis and Butthead, Bad Grandpa will do.

Oscar Nomination: Best Makeup