What can I write about Jackass: Number Two that I didn't already say about the first one? I guess I should start out by telling everyone that most of guys from the last movie and the Jackass television show are back, ready to top their past antics with a new series of gross-out pranks and stunts.

Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, and more have returned to inflict pain upon one another and pull a few public pranks for the amusement of a paying audience. They've also brought "guests stars" (like director John Waters and featured Murderball athlete Mark Zupan) along for the carnage. 

Knoxville and crew seem even more eager to do some damage this time around, exemplified by such sketches as a game of dodgeball played in a pitch-dark room (with medicine balls, to boot), a leech attached to an eyeball, and various attempts to fly off a dock with a little boost from a rocket. As dumb as it all sounds, I gotta say I laughed a lot as I felt -- vicariously, of course -- the guys' collective pain. After all, you really  have to admire the spirit of a bunch of grown men willing to jump off bridges with bungee cords attached to each other. 

WARNING: This movie gets pretty gross. One downright disgusting scene involving a horse can't even be described in a review. And Steve-O impales himself with a fish hook. Although many of the stunts are hilarious, some like the "anaconda ball pit" scene make you wonder why the guys would put their lives on the line for three minutes of movie time. And the last big skit, meant to be a grand cap-off to all the insanity, ends up almost crippling the film with its surprisingly mean-spirited tone. 

It's not easy to review a movie without a story, especially one filled with immature pranks and self-inflicted acts of violence -- even though two-thirds of the film comes across as quite funny. However, dear readers, if seeing a bunch of guys go toe-to-toe with angry bulls (and who don't think twice about stripping down to their birthday suits in the name of performing yet another painfully hilarious stunt) trips your trigger, then Jackass: Number Two is for you. But if you didn't bother seeing the first movie, you'll probably want to pass on this one. Personally, I had a ball.

MY RATING: *** (out of ****)

(Released by Paramount Pictures and rated "R" for crude and dangerous stunts throughout, sexual content, nudity and language.)