Category Archives: Documentary

Movie Review: Jackass: Best and Last

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For the promised very last, “Jackass: Best and Last” movie, it is as disgusting, stupid, dangerous, and idiotic as all the other films, with scenes from previous Jackass movies, and new scenes created for this current documentary of the stupidest and most dangerous stunts any group of insane people has ever produced. Due to the ridiculously high 86% Rotten Tomatoes rating, I was fooled into seeing this movie, mainly for this blog.

Given that this latest Jackass is not really a movie, it is difficult to review, even as a bad documentary. Like all the previous five Jackass movies released in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2013, and 2022, this one is once again a series of insane and disgusting stunts, with almost all of them having the potential to permanently injure and kill any number of cast members. At the end of every stunt, the entire cast laughs hysterically, even though another cast member is lying on the ground in extreme pain.

One of the most dangerous is when a cast member is strapped to a red plastic rocket and shot into the air over a lake, only to fall off as the rocket almost lands on the unfortunate passenger. By far the most disgusting is when cast member Steve-O flies into the air strapped into a porta-potty – with the obvious horrific trauma filmed inside.

The injuries the cast members have sustained during the filming of these six movies, starting with Johnny Knoxville, include 14 severe injuries, including a brain hemorrhage, multiple concussions, and numerous broken bones. Knoxville’s worst injury was when he was attacked by a bull in “Jackass Forever” (2022), and sustained a brain hemorrhage, concussion, broken wrist, broken rib, and loss of consciousness. Steve-O has sustained third-degree burns and multiple broken bones, numerous concussions, chemical burns, and has a pellet permanently lodged in his chest. Considering so many years of surgeries, non-stop pain, and risk of life, one has to wonder how much this group of insane people has been paid to make these ridiculous movies, while trying to figure out if all those stunts were worth it.

The Rotten Tomatoes of 86% is crazy, even for the most rabid fans of this movie franchise. My rating is 5% and a big pass.

Netflix Movie Review: Marty, Life is Short

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The new Netflix documentary “Marty, Life is Short”, is an outstanding look into the life of Martin Short, who is one of the most talented and funny actors and comedians we have ever seen. Despite his talent, Short has seen more than his share of tragedy. Short’s brother Gordon died in a car accident when Martin was only 12 years old. Both of Martin’s parents died before he reached 20 years old. In 2010, Martin lost his wife of 30 years, Nancy Dolman, to Ovarian Cancer, the same disease that Gilda Radner died of in 1989. A few months ago, Martin lost his adopted daughter, Katherine, to suicide.

Through all this tragedy and an extremely difficult career in show business, there were years where Short was making movies regularly, but a large percentage of them were not financially successful. As Martin says in this documentary, you succeed only about 10% of the time, and have to weather years of no work and bad times when nothing seems to work. There is a scene where Short bought a house with his wife, thinking that the two movies he was about to make would pay for it, only to lose one of the movies. The reaction from his wife was, “We will just move”.

Martin Short’s appearances on the Johnny Carson show were as memorable as his close friend Steve Martin and Robin Williams (see videos below). Short’s timing and delivery were always flawless as were his impressions of many celebrities, including Katherine Hepburn, Betty Davis, and even Magician Doug Henning. Like the many celebrities who appeared on the Johnny Carson show, Martin was one of the very few who could turn his appearances into a major event.

In 1985, along with Billy Crystal, Martin Short helped rescue Saturday Night Live, which was close to being cancelled, and created one of the best seasons of the show, which included some of Short’s most famous characters.

This documentary also shows the many family events at Martin Short’s house, which even included friends, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Steven Martin, and even Steven Spielberg. This documentary is very well directed by the well-known director Lawrence Kasdan and includes many interviews with Martin Short about his life and career.

Marty, Life is Short is receiving perfect 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and I agree with this rating, giving this documentary my highest recommendation.

Movie Review: The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

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One of the most important lines in the new documentary about AI, “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” is: “We are either building the greatest tool in human history… or the last one we’ll ever need.”

The creator and director of this well-produced documentary is Daniel Roher, who interviews both the AI Optimists and AI Pessimists and determines at the end of these two hours that there are no checks and balances to control the negative aspects or manage which country or organization should be allowed or prevented from using AI. There is also no way of separating AI into its positive and negative components. This technology is potentially as important and powerful as nuclear weapons are, but there are no plans to create a worldwide organization like the UN or NATO to monitor the direction of AI and prevent what could result in some unknown potential disaster for humanity.

The conclusion is AI is here to stay, and the wave of improvements and new discoveries is exploding like no technology ever has. For me, it seemed like the main message of this documentary was “let’s learn and expand AI, one day at a time, see what happens, and hope it is all for the best” – a message that did not provide any level of confidence about AI for the future.

This documentary is about the director Daniel Roher interviewing many of the top people in the AI field, Sam Altman, of Open AI,
Dario Amodei, CEO & Co-Founder, Anthropic, Reid Hoffman Co-Founder, LinkedIn & Inflection AI, Shane Legg Self – Co-Founder and Chief AGI Scientist, Google DeepMind. Some of these interviews were very positive about AI, and an equal number were negative. At the end of this movie, they show several babies, suggesting that they will inherit a new AI world, with no definitive opinion on whether this will greatly improve the human race or end it.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this documentary are a very high 89%, and I agree with this rating and highly recommend this important film.