Going to see the new shock doc feature “Jackass: Number Two” is like paying to see a sideshow act at a deranged circus run by inmates of an insane asylum.

For two hours and around seven bucks you get various exercises in masochism that, for the stunt crew, defy the need to keep dignity, sanity or empathy.

We open to see a fantastical slow-motion shot of the Jackass posse running through the streets of a quiet American suburb. Close-ups reveal sheer terror on their faces and a wide shot reveals the group being chased by angry bulls. The sequence sets the sophomoric tone of the film.

The premise of the television show and the two movies consists of grown men performing tasteless stunts that don’t bother with any sort of setup or resolution. Here’s a grown man explicitly defecating on a miniature mock up of a bathroom. Another skit involves a mechanized punching glove popping out of a fake love letter posted in a hallway for our unsuspecting players to take a closer read. Seriously, feces, vomit and bruises isn’t entertainment. It’s disgusting.

This isn’t family-friendly material and it surprised me to see many parents enjoying the film with their children in the audience. Some scenes weren’t quite as depraved.

It was somewhat amusing to see a man hold onto a fire engine hose at full blast as it’s suspended in the air — simply absurd and surreal. And my favorite clip involved a rather large man and a much smaller man connected to each other by a Bungee cord. The men stand over the edge of a bridge as the smaller man takes a plunge into the water below. We can thank Sir Isaac Newton for what happens next.

There certainly is a market for this type of humor. It’s a deeply seeded visceral pleasure to watch people suffer and humiliate themselves in exchange for laughs.

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Still, the picture isn’t the kind of thing I’d want to throw into the DVD player for a second look.

“Jackass: Number Two” isn’t cinema. It’s not filming. It’s made like thoughtless television and there are much more interesting and authentic clips of funny stonework and oddities to find on the Internet’s YouTube site for free.

Jackass is the kind of movie that makes its money off that base human desire to not look away from something grotesque.

And it’s all pure Schadenfreude — pleasure at the misfortune of others.

Personally, in the cinema, it’s much more gratifying to watch the misfortune as a means to the end of some sort of meaningful character development or message.

One star out of four.

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos@lompocrecord.com.