Posted: 04/20/2001

Joe Dirt

(2001)

by Hank Yuloff

David Spade carries a torch for the ’70s, all the way down to his bad-ass hairdo!

Joe Dirt is so much better than I expected. There. There is my review. Pretty basic, I know. But so is the movie.

As a child, Joe Dirt (David Spade) was abandoned by his parents at the Grand Canyon. This drove Joe to make his life an odyssey searching for them. One day when he is working at a mythical radio station in Los Angeles, the morning jock, Zander Kelly (played by Dennis Miller, who holds this movie together better than Krazy Glue at a flypaper factory), puts him on the air to hear his story. Why? Oh just go with it.

And speaking of Miller, I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but if you are in the target demo of boys 11 to 22, you will get this movie. You will think it’s the best movie of the year and when your parents are swooning over all those films next Oscar time, you’ll wonder why they’re not mentioning the “Joester.” Kind of like why they didn’t mention American Pie in 1999, which was clearly superior to that other American some-thing-or-other flick which only won because they showed a couple of teenage girls’ tits and called it “art” instead of gratuitous flashing. Doesn’t really matter though, ‘cause you can jag off to either movie. But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Seriously, I don’t get why Ebert and that other guy didn’t give Joe Dirt more of a thumb’s up. It was funny. Not Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein funny, but definitely more funny than Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo (same production team). Spade is on camera 95% of the time and does a great job of being the rock and roll dude we all knew in junior and senior high school, except he is NOT cool. And there’s the joke. From heavy metal t-shirts to showing his non-existent muscles and being ready for a fight (which he always loses), Dirt is on a Auto Trader induced magic Plymouth Hemi ride to discover the family that left him behind.

This is director Dennie Gordon’s first movie, having done a ton of successful TV shows like Sports Night (shame on you ABC), Dawson’s Creek, Ally McBeal, and The Practice. She has thrown in sight gags, incest humor (not really, but a good reason to imagine Jamie Pressly naked like she was in Poison Ivy: The New Seduction…available for rental at your local Blockbuster) and enough short TV-length, meandering story lines to keep your attention from wandering.

Some excellent homage’s to Silence of the Lambs and The Wizard of Oz make there way into a movie full of one-liners. And they remind you of other movies because they were taken right from them. And there are a lot of familiar actors showing up for small supporting rolls: Christopher Walken does what he does best as the creepy Clem. Joe Don Baker makes one helluva good drunk ol’ boy. Rosanna Arquette, Kevin Nealon and Kid Rock (stick to singin’!) all show up as more Middle-America trailer trash.

Also excellent is the sound track. I knew every song. OK, so I’m 40 and grew up with this soundtrack. But if you like Bob Seger, AC/DC, etc., you will love the soundtrack for Joe Dirt.

That’s it, really. Not much substance. But no gaping plot holes to keep you questioning it, either. The good guy gets the girl (which one? I ain’t telling!) in the end and it was worth the shekels for admission, coke, and corn.

Hank Yuloff is an entertainment industry entrepreneur living in Hollywood. His hairstyle will not change any time soon.

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