Impractical Jokers: The Movie

I’ve reviewed a few films I’ve caught up on recently but here’s something new, Impractical Jokers:The Movie which dropped onto video on-demand services last week.

This is a big screen adaptation of the successful TV show, for those who aren’t familiar, the show is a modern candid camera where four lifelong friends create hidden camera challenges for each other competing to avoid the end of show forfeit, a simple format and for those who enjoy it one that works well.

Always two questions with these kind of adaptations, does stretching the 30 minute format into 90 work? Would people who’ve never seen the show find it funny?

The answers for me are just about and I don’t really think so. Taking the second part first, Jokers is an unapologetic film for fans of the show and that’s fine, it doesn’t take time setting up the concept or explaining it to the uninitiated, but with that in mind I’m not sure this will appeal to new audience.

Secondly does it stretch to 90 minutes? Just about, although I did get the feeling that the movie lost the courage of its convictions half way through, it started with a nice setup a look back at the four portraying their younger selves having a run in with Paula Abdul which leads, in a roundabout way, to a roadtrip to Miami, which in itself acts as a device to shoehorn in some Jokers sketches.

The setup is fine but it feels as though they ran out of story ideas as the film progresses ending up with more Joker games than film. The problem with relying on that, is what works so well on TV is the games include an unexpectung public and it doesn’t quite transfer to the big screen as it’s never clear if these are all actors and scripted stunts or members of the public.

As a fan of the show I found plenty of laughs and it could’ve been much worse, but as an idea it was stretched pretty much to breaking point and to non jokers fans, not sure it would’ve worked well enough.

There were snippets of a fun story in there and its a pity they didn’t take the punt on it and instead fell back into more familiar territory which they just about get away with.