Director Tim Kirkby
Starring Johnny Knoxville, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Chris Pontius
Rated MA
Score 3.5/6

A daredevil designs and operates his own theme park with his friends. D.C. is the crackpot owner of Action Point — a low-rent, out-of-control amusement park where the rides are designed with minimum safety for maximum fun. Just as his estranged daughter Boogie comes to visit, a corporate mega-park opens nearby and jeopardizes the future of Action Point.

Ok, for those of you who might be interested Johnny Knoxville was inspired to make the film after seeing Matt Robertson’s 2013 short documentary about Action Park a theme park in New Jersey.

This is a movie that kind of crept up on me because I really don’t remember seeing anything about it at the friendly neighbourhood cinema. I’ll admit it when I first came across Johnny Knoxville’s work, back when the first of the Jackass movies came out in the early 2000’s I did not like it. I might have laughed a few times but there was every chance that I was expecting more of it and left the movie disappointed. Now 16 years after the release of the first of the Jackass movies Knoxville’s work is still moronic and idiotic. But that’s ok with the world the way that it is sometimes we need the moronic and idiotic especially when it comes from the heart like I’m sure the plot of Action Park appears to. I also liked how the plot of the movie was framed with Knoxville’s telling his granddaughter the story of when her mother came to stay for the summer at an amusement park he owned. I also liked the ‘save the orphanage’ direction of the plot, it’s a plot trope that I have not seen used in a while.

I really wasn’t familiar with anybody involved with the production of the movie except for maybe Knoxville. Knoxville’s character D.C’s arc was expected and I liked how it added to the warm and fuzzy vibes of the movie. For some reason I thought that Susan Yeagley who played the grown-up daughter reminded me of Sarah Chalke who among other things played Elliot on Scrubs. I also enjoyed Eleanor Worthington-Cox’s performance who played the younger daughter ‘Boogie’ and I hope that she gets cast in more movies. Reading some of the casts’ filmography’s its going to be interesting to see how many of some of the younger actors I will see cast in other movies.

Though there is a blooper/on set prank reel during the first portion of the closing credits be sure to watch to the end because there is a scene with the bear.