Action Point (R)

I like Johnny Knoxville. He’s funny. But then a terrible film like “Action Point” comes along and no matter how contagious his laugh is, you (probably) won’t laugh with him. Keep in mind, this is a film that thinks alcoholic bears and Chris Pontius wearing thongs are the funniest things in the world. 

Knoxville stars as D.C. Carver, who we first meet as an old man reminiscing about the good old days when his daughter, Boogie, would visit him at his amusement park called Action Point, which the daredevil runs with his friends, complete with waterslides and an alpine slide and all. 

The summer’s 1979 and Boogie (Eleanor Worthington-Cox) comes to visit, but attendance is down because a corporate amusement park opens in town. Action Point’s employees need to figure out a way to attract people to the park, and meanwhile a villainous land owner named Knoblach (Dan Bakkedahl) really wants the property shut down for some reason. It’s a half-decent plot for the ’80s or even the mid-2000s, but in 2018 it’s dull and unfunny.

The film’s inspired by a notoriously unsafe New Jersey park called Action Park and Knoxville was inspired to make the film after he saw a 14-minute documentary called “The Most Insane Amusement Park Ever” (link here https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x158v48 if you’re interested). It’s super interesting and makes the lawlessness of the place look totally fun. It’s a shame because the film doesn’t capture any of that nostalgia or spirit. It’s lifeless. 

The characters aren’t developed outside of D.C. and Boogie. The twentysomethings that work at the park have cool jobs and it would have been fun to explore (think “Adventureland”or “The Way Way Back”) but screenwriters John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky don’t give them anything to do. 

Benny (Chris Pontius) is also an employee at the park. He’s a lifeguard but has more interest in telling stupid stories than saving anyone drowning. The character’s awful, and so is Pontius, but he hangs out with D.C. more than the others, so much so he even gets a love interest (Camilla Wolfson). 

A decent part about the film is the father-daughter chemistry between Knoxville and Worthington-Cox as his daughter Boogie. The relationship humanizes the boring D.C., as he’d be a complete asshole otherwise. 

The relationship’s one-note and the main drama of it is that Boogie wants to see The Clash in concert this summer and brings it up repeatedly to D.C. When there’s drama because of this it’s not believable because it stems from bad communication from Boogie, and simply shouldn’t be a conflict. The film also thinks you’ll care about the conflict, but you won’t. 

The story’s truly where “Action Point”falls flat on its face. At least with the “Jackass”movies we knew it was just stunts, and “Bad Grandpa” it had a decent story and good stunts. “Action Point” has mediocre stunts and a terrible story. Maybe this would have been better if most of the “Jackass” crew would have been in the film besides Knoxville and Pontius – but these two seem to be the only ones interested in still doing this stuff while in their ’40s. Still, props to Knoxville to doing his own stunts. 

The plot’s so paper-thin I’m convinced it only has the scenes of D.C. as a grandpa to pad the 85-minute runtime. It’s 15 minutes of filler throughout and it offers nothing to the story. It’s either filler or Knoxville just wants to be dressed as an old man in all his films, but in “Bad Grandpa” at least there was a reason.  

There’s a scene of him as a grandpa here that’s so bad I considered walking out. It’s a gross-out gag with his granddaughter painting his hideous toenails. My gut was telling me this film wouldn’t get any better and I should have listened.