Jackass: Best and Last review: A bittersweet greatest-bits package for a cultural juggernaut

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

Danger Ehren, Dave England, Johnny Knoxville, and Wee Man in Jackass: Best and Last

Paramount Pictures

Published: Thursday, 25 June 2026 at 2:00 pm

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A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Following the 12-year gap between 2010’s Jackass 3D and 2022’s Jackass Forever, the arrival of Best and Last so soon after its predecessor raises questions about its potency. Does it feel like a footnote to a storied legacy? Yes. Does that matter? Not at all.

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Led as ever by naughty impresario Johnny Knoxville and director Jeff Tremaine, the gang returns for another procession of juvenile masochism and warm-hearted camaraderie. And this time, we’re told, the story that began on MTV in 2000 and has unfurled across five feature-length films and several spin-offs, really does come to an end.

Per its title, Best and Last is a clip show, with classic and archival footage intercut with new bits and interviews. Yes, 'Golf Course Airhorn' is still as unfathomably funny as it was in 2002’s Jackass: The Movie, but there are deeper cuts here too.

Best and Last features some of the quasi-mythical stunts that MTV deemed too dangerous or imitable to air. 'Self Defence', in which Knoxville dons a bulletproof vest and shoots himself with a .38 revolver, opens the movie with a bang, while 'Box Down Stairs', in which he is sealed in a cardboard box and pushed down a flight of concrete steps, is one of those classic Jackass bits that’s stupidly simple yet led to serious injury.

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The new stunts largely deliver too. Scatophobes, avert your eyes – 'The Human Pretzel' is perhaps the most revolting bit Jackass has ever filmed. Like many of the most effective exploits, the new sequences are largely uncomplicated, but the minimal production value leaves Best and Last feeling less spectacular than its predecessor.

If Jackass Forever was a showcase for the penis – the film features more full-frontal male nudity than any other R-rated movie – then Best and Last is a stage for the butt. With the main players now in their fifties, their ageing bodies provide the framework for much of the banter and many of the new capers, including comedy colonoscopies and a Steve-O prostate exam conducted by a robot (crunchy peanut butter is not a recommended lubricant).

The clip show format allows the core cast to safely circumnavigate the pitfalls and pratfalls that come with more dangerous and demanding stunts. It’s a shame, then, that Poopies, Zach Holmes, Rachel Wolfson and Jasper aren’t given the opportunity to step up and seize the reins.

With the introduction of new blood in Jackass Forever, it felt as if Knoxville was indeed prepping his flagship to sail on indefinitely. Their arrival suggested that, as long as there were people young, dumb and tough enough to operate under the skull-and-crutches flag, Jackass could live on. But Best and Last gives the newcomers less screentime than Forever did. If this truly is the end, it feels as if Knoxville is clipping his successors’ wings.

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Maybe that’s for the best. Sometimes it’s good to let things go. The grief we feel at their passing makes clear what made them so special in the first place. Knoxville understands this. At multiple points, he fights back tears as he confronts the end of Jackass. But Best and Last cuts away too soon, denying its audience the catharsis of seeing their icon break down and cry.

Knoxville hides behind his signature sunglasses and cardigan, with the camera almost scared to peek beneath them. For all the poop, penis' and broken bones, the most boundary-pushing thing the film could’ve done is linger on a 55-year-old man as he bids farewell to his friends, his persona and his life’s work. Best and Last would have been stronger had it leaned further into the elegiac. For better or worse, it keeps things light.

Still, some things never change: shots to the crotch are funny; Lance Bangs will vomit on his camera; age comes for us all; and laughter is the best release for life’s ills. Is Best and Last a minor addition to the Jackass canon? Maybe. But don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

Jackass: Best and Last is released in UK cinemas on Friday 26 June.

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Authors

Sean McGeady

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