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Jackass Presents Mat Hoffman's Tribute to Evel Knievel
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (4th June 2008). |
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The Show
 Even though “Jackass” (2000-2002) ended as a TV show in 2002, Johnny Knoxville has expanded the brand name into an empire, reaching from the kingdom of “Wildboyz”(2003-Present) to the latest non-“Jackass” franchise piece “Mat Hoffman’s Tribute to Evel Knievel” (2008). Originally run as a one hour special on MTV, this short-special features daredevil style stunts to honor Evel Knievel and features professional BMX riders and stunt men performing long distance jumps and all kinds of flips and crashes. Other than Knoxville this actually has little to do with “Jackass” as most of the stunts are done under professional supervision as the riders try to make and break world records. However this doesn’t keep Knoxville from getting involved with fellow “Jackass” creator and director Spike Jonze to have some fun on the jumps for themselves. With a special feature advertised on the back of the packaging called “Knoxville’s Hospital Visit” my razor sharp deductive powers reasoned that Knoxville wasn’t going to be on the sidelines, or feeling healthy, for very long. Connecting the stunts is a conversation between Knoxville and the individual riders about how they decided to do what they do and what they thought of Knievel growing up and how they knew him. There’s a few interesting segments where he talks with people like Hoffman who actually knew Knievel, but it ends up feeling like mostly filler. Overall the made for TV special is a nice, short tribute, but is nothing particularly special. If you came for the "Jackass" element, Knoxville gets into a serious crash, but for the most part all the stunts are performed within a well controlled and tested environment. If you came for the Evel Knievel aspect, there are a lot of tricks, but for the most part the stunts lack the showmanship of Knievel. Rather than jumping buses in front of huge crowds, Hoffman and the gang jump and flip around somewhere in Oklahoma in front of each other. There are some stunts worth watching, but BMX and stunt jumps aren’t really my thing.
Video
In a word, disappointing. Even though it was a made for TV special, “Tribute to Evel Knievel” was filmed in widescreen. However, MTV or whoever did the production of the DVD didn’t feel it necessary to actually present the special in widescreen on DVD. In the end the special is TV quality both in appearance and frame, the 1.33:1 full frame aspect brings down an otherwise clean transfer.
Audio
Again, since this originally aired as a made for TV special on MTV, it’s TV quality audio in English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. There are no subtitles on the disc, no alternative sound options. For what they’re trying to do, however, there’s no real need for going the extra mile on audio as it sounds good enough for what it is, a tribute special filmed in the style of “Jackass.”
Extras
Even if you don’t like the “Jackass” style or stunts, you have to admire how well they pack their DVD’s. The packaging boasts over an hour of special features, but with a big claim like that it’s surprisingly filler-free, but also commentary-free. There’s about 8 featurettes, a photo gallery, 3 The first big featurette is “Mat Hoffman’s Career Retrospective” that runs for 18 minutes and 26 seconds. The title says everything, Mat Hoffman talks about his career, his near career-ending injuries and his family that has come in the meantime. Again, I’m not interested in BMX very much, so this didn’t really catch my interest. Next is “Thoughts on Evel Knievel” that runs for 6 minutes and 14 seconds. This featurette expands and adds some interviews with the performers about their experiences with and stories about Knievel. The third featurette is “Behind the Scenes” and runs for 15 minutes and 16 seconds. Here’s everything they couldn’t fit into the 47 minutes of the actual special, along with some crew shenanigans. “Travis Pastrana pit session” featurette runs for 3 minutes and 38 seconds, covers Pastrana doing flips and testing out the ramp over the foam cube pit seen in the special. “Plamer vs. Jolene” featurette runs for 2 minutes and 37 seconds, shows skydiver Palmer attempting a backflip off of a ramp on a motorcycle, only to be shown up by Jolene VanVugt. “Knoxville’s Hospital Visit” featurette runs for 2 minutes and 47 seconds, but there’s surprisingly little hospital, but just expands the scene after Knoxville gets hurt with footage of him getting checked “Tattoo Montage” featurette runs for 3 minutes and 27 seconds and briefly shows 4 riders featured in the special getting tattoo’s commemorating Knievel. The final featurette is “Stephen Murray” which runs for 11 minutes and 13 seconds. This short clip on former BMX rider Stephen Murry following his career ending injury that paralyzed him from the neck down and the support he receives from the BMX community. There are a couple of ad stills accessible through the menu disguised as actual special features. There is no runtime, only a menu displaying an ad for Hoffman’s book, another for jackassworld.com, and a third for Evel Knievel days in Montana. Also included is a photo gallery that has 40 photos and shows a fair amount of behind the scenes pictures and some cool stills of the stunts in action. There are also 3 music videos directed by or somehow affiliated to the Jackass gang and are for: - "Let’s get f**ked up" by Smut Peddlers and runs for 2 minutes and 20 seconds - "Thailand" by HDR runs for 2 minutes and 49 seconds. - "Shannon Tweed" by Black Ladies runs for 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Plus there are bonus trailers for other MTV related shows that round out the extras: - “Thrillbillies” trailer runs for 37 seconds. - “Jackass 2.5” runs for 1 minute and 2 seconds. - “Rob and Big: Complete Seasons 1 & 2” runs for 40 seconds. - “Human Giant: Season 1” runs for 1 minute and 32 seconds. - “The Animation Show Volume 3” runs for 56 seconds - “Shot at love with Tila Tequila – the complete uncensored first season” runs for 1 minute and 53 seconds.
Overall
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