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CKY The Box Set
For those that don't know, CKY is a certain group of the Jackass crew, who had been filming themselves doing stuff years before Jackass hit the airwaves. Fans of Jackass will know the names, Bam Margera, Brandon DiCamillo, Ryan Dunn, Raab Himself, and so on. CKY stands for "Camp Kill Yourself", the band featuring Bam's brother, all of whom also contribute to the shenanigans.
When my dad was a kid back in the 1940's, while hidden in the branches of tree by the roadside, he used to throw gravel and acorns at passing cars... In the late 60's, after failed attempts on the same day to ride his bike down some steps and performing stunts with a pillowcase over his head, my brother made two trips to the doctor to get stitches... When I was a youngster in the early 80's, I pretended to be Captain America and had my friends throw rocks at me. Rocks I barely managed to deflect with a trash can lid... During my teens, 90% of my male friends were casual or fanatically reckless skateboarders. Though my main physical activities during this time were smoking and playing guitar, I identify with the passion, goofiness, and the slanted worldview of skate culture.
Anyway, this preface is just so I can point out, think what you may of reckless youth, it has been around since the dawn of man. The only difference between kids of the present and the past, is the kids of today can videotape themselves (and in the CKY and Jackass crews case, make money off of it). Despite what many may fear, I don't think that any of the CKY buffoonery is necessarily going to inspire anyone that wouldn't already consider doing such junk anyway. I hardly agree that kids are so malleable and susceptible to influence, like media being some kind of cancer that corrupts them. Especially when it comes the extreme and distasteful, some of the things in CKY being so outrageous, if the germ is there- it is there. The imagination for tomfoolery exists without CKY or Jackass as primer to going out and being stupid. And just because you do a bunch of harebrained and potentially dangerous junk as a kid, that doesn't mean you're going to grow up maladjusted- it just seems to be part of the male creature, this potential for idiocy, prank calling, risking breaking bones, playing around violently with your friends... Though if mine attempted some of the CKY stuff on me, they'd be dropped really quick.
CKY: Landspeed or Vol One's early buffoonery basically has 1/4ths of material that made it onto Jackass; the rest is exclusive to CKY... Some bits that were on Jackass include Bam Margera tumbling across a golf course, ruffling the geriatric golfers feathers and the gang doing some shopping cart crashing. The newer bits include some prank calls, Bam serenading pedestrians with 80's metal ballads, football and war skits, making fun of people with mullets, and a funny Rocky spoof with a metal version of "Eye of the Tiger", and, of course, some skateboarding.
CK2Y from the get go is a step above the first volume. Right away the camerawork is better, the editing a little more professional, and the sound is improved on a majority of the segments. Also, the grossness, the extreme nature of the goings on, is stepped up a notch. Most notably in a segment in Iceland where some serene shots of the awe inspiring Icelandic landscapes is interrupted when Brandon wipes his crap on Ryan Dunn's mouth while Ryan is sleeping. Then of course Ryan must get his own revenge. There is also a lame baseball skit, some trampoline and fat suit stuff that made its way onto Jackass, and a bit showing the damage one can do on a rental car.
CKY3, once again, is a better production, slicker editing, better camerawork. Opens with a weak 1-800-COLLECT parody. Ryan Dunn walks into a public restroom and pulls his pants all the way down while using the urinal. The guys jump off van roofs and into the bushes. yes, quite a lot of skateboarding. Skater Mike Valley attempts to single-handedly throw down on four guys who called him a "skater fag". General jumping off of very high stuff. HIM. And, a whole lot more defecation.
CKY: Documentary. Well, this was a big disappointment. A documentary is supposed to inform you about something. While the crew give on camera interviews, it is very banal stuff, and there is never really a good attempt made to inform, to say "...this is who we are, how we started, how I met so and so, where we grew up, how we got away with this..." and so forth. Basically they give intros to some of their early stuff. Most of it is skits like "How to Rob a House" that are not particularly funny. Sure, they are fine if you were there, probably very giggle worthy to them, but to outsiders they are about as funny as, I don't know, a tape of those Ernest commercials or the "Larry Bud Melman Couch Potato Workout".
Okay, so none of them are going to be on Inside the Actors Studio- ever- and technically it is very rudimentary. It is still a lot of fun, and the slapdash nature just lends to the lowbrow tone and empty your head enjoyment. CKY brings me back to the days when my friends I (well mainly me since I'm a camera/film buff) would capture ourselves fooling around on tape. We certainly never thought it would be profitable, fun for anyone outside our circle, and didn't keep a camera on us as much as the CKY guys obviously have. Silly as it sounds (and I cant believe I'm actually about to type these words) CKY is not as refined as Jackass. A lot of the CKY is very insider (the bands music videos, for instance) and a tad repetitive (here they go jumping into bushes again), and the narrative comedy skits are pretty weak. Yes, it is still fun, but it doesn't have the flow and quite as much imagination as Jackass' silly mayhem.
Finally, I cant finish this review without addressing the slippery slope of watching this kind of thing and having a good laugh. Without a doubt there is a lot of stuff they do that is completely distasteful and are unquestionably degenerate acts. I don't find taking a dump off a building particularly funny or pleasant to watch. I certainly don't condone anyone wiping feces on anyone's face either, especially anyone you consider a friend. And, when it comes to the innocent bystander, while filming and mocking a fellow airplane passenger who spends most of the flight picking his nose and eating it is certainly okay, kicking footballs into cars, throwing dummies off a bridge, and drinks at fast food employees is a bit too much... But, what I come back to is this- Would I do it? No. Would I hang around anyone who did it? No. Sure, I've done similar things, but not as close to that gray physically violating or potentially criminal line. But, I will watch it. I look at it the same way as watching COPS. While I disagree with what they are doing, that doesn't mean it isn't a guilty pleasure to watch- just so long as it is only the CKY crew that really gets really hurt.
The DVD:Well, the four DVD cases are in one of the thinnest slipcases I have come across. This thing is going to be haggard no matter how hard you try to preserve it.
Picture: Full-screen, standard. Well, it was mainly shot on video, some digital, some tape, and some occasional 16mm. In terms of transferring the video material, the DVD is as good as it is likely to get. No artifacts or glitches of any kind. The only minuses it gets is just because, you know, its mainly home video. Simple as that.
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. By the second volume they began to have someone capturing the sound sometimes, other than the camera captured sound. Once again, any sound defects are due to the actual low rent nature of the recording, not the DVD audio transfer.
Extras: Scene Selections--- The three main volumes contain various bit of bonus footage.
Conclusion: Anyone interested in dumb youth doing stoopid things, look no further than CKY and this entertaining and often disgusting or dangerous (or both) box set of idiot prankster adventures. Technically, there is no reason why each of these releases couldn't have been fit onto one or two discs. The main CKY volumes are each just over an hour (thats including bonus footage) and the doc is a mere 41 mins. And its not like they had to use a lot of disc space on image and sound info, so, although expensive, if you are a fan, it makes far more sense to buy the box set rather than dole out the cash for the individual releases.
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