Impractical Jokers: The Movie (2020)

[Flack]

Impractical Jokers is a television show in which four friends put one another in uncomfortable situations and dare each other to say awkward things to strangers. At the end of each episode, the joker who fails the most challenges gets punished with a mega-awkward situation.

Other than clip shows, handheld hidden camera shows are among the cheapest to produce, so after nine successful seasons on television it only made sense to capitalize on the show's popularity by moving it to the big screen. With a budget of $3 million and a gross (to date) of $10 million, the movie was a financial success*. But does that make it worth watching?

(*The movie arrived in theaters two weeks before the current pandemic closed down the country. The film has since been released as a direct download purchase.)

In my opinion, the only reason to move a show to theaters is to escape the limitations of cable television. Yes, the show is funny, but raising the stakes with some R-rated situations could only improve things (see: Jackass). Instead, Impractical Jokers: The Movie comes in at PG-13, and that's only because we live in a world where 2019's Dumbo and Frozen II were both PG. Save for a couple of forced curse words, there's nothing in this film that couldn't air on cable during prime time. Even in the scene that takes place in a strip club, everyone is fully clothed.

The film opens with a (way too long) flashback in which the four guys supposedly crashed a Paula Abdul concert posed as security guards back in 1994, which gave birth to the four men issuing dares to one another. Fast forward 25 years, and a chance encounter between the guys and Abdul sends the jokers on a cross-country road trip to once again see her in concert. The catch is that Abdul only handed them three tickets, and so they've decided whoever loses the most challenges along the way won't get to watch Paula Abdul in concert, which in all honestly it tough to describe as "a loss."

It takes almost 20 minutes for the movie to turn into the show. In the first challenge, the guys have forced Sal to appear as a department store Santa... in the middle of the summer. Two kids sit on his lap, he does minor things like pretending to fall asleep... and that's it. The whole segment feels like a rejected skit from the show. It's not particularly funny, and it's not "big" enough to warrant appearing in a film version of the show. This formula is carried on throughout the film. Q is forced to ride a horse for a couple of miles. Sal gets locked in a hotel room with a tiger chained out of harm's way. All four guys interview for a position with the Atlanta Hawks.

The Abdul subplot (with long segments at the beginning and end of the film), which is approximately 1/3 of the film's run time, takes away from the main reason fans of the show would ever watch this film. What's left are skits that for the most part seem like they weren't good enough to make the telelvision show. Fans of the show won't hate the movie, but when the show airs for 12 hours a day on truTV, it makes it hard to justify paying for a less-than-great 90 minute episode.

[Jizaboz]

That show can be super funny sometimes but the way you've written this review makes me totally envision something I am glad you sat through and I did not. Thank you!

[Flack]

My wife watched it tonight and here is her review.

"Not as funny as the show."

[Jizaboz]

hahahah I read that in her voice and lol'd

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Do they fuck? And in what combos?

[Jizaboz]

Thanks for the mental scarring for tonight friend.