The boys are back in town

It's hard to believe that four years have passed since the "Jackass" boys last graced movie screens with their outlandish stunts, but the boys are back, finally, with a new stable of even grosser, cruder and more death-defying gags to please their core audience. \nSince the boys' last appearance in theatres, Johnny Knoxville has fostered a modest movie career, Bam Margera made "Viva la Bam" his own and Steve-O and Chris Pontius lorded over the circus that was "WildBoyz." Neither of those shows held a candle to "Jackass," and their new movie "Jackass: Number Two" makes fans long for the glory days of the MTV series.\nA cautionary note should be afforded to those with a weak stomach because if you thought the first "Jackass" movie was nauseating at times, you're probably unprepared for the onslaught of vomit, blood, feces and horse semen in this second installment. From the first scene, involving Pontius' penis and a hungry snake, to the last skit, featuring Ehren McGhehey as a terrorist with a beard made of pubic hair, this movie must have gotten an R-rating by the skin of its teeth.\nEvery cast member takes his fair share of punishment during the course of the film, but the majority is doled out to Margera. Always the merry prankster in the first film, Bam ends up in tears not once but three times in "Number Two," and by the end credits, he pleads for there not to be a third installment. Also taking some serious punishment are Dave England and McGhehey, with the latter enduring the most intense mental gag this crew has ever pulled off. Steve-O is his usual masochistic self, squaring off with a fish hook, a beer bong, a leech and Preston Lacey's flatulence with equal abandon.\nAn obvious difference this time around is that all the primary cast members are rather well-off financially. Since 2002, most of the cast members have become millionaires, yet they're still willing to put their lives on the line for the good of the franchise. Knoxville, the richest of the bunch, comes out of the gate here as the most enthusiastic, making himself the gracious victim of an anti-personnel mine while England has an anxiety attack after watching a demonstration of the device. The only scene in the movie that falls flat is the grand finale, an homage to Hollywood musicals complete with the movie's most benign stunts.\nMost "Jackass" fans will know what to expect from "Number Two," but the intensity of much of the material here might still be surprising. If this is the last project the boys undertake together, it'll be an impressive send-off. If they choose to make a trilogy, somebody's bound to die during the filming.