Dirty Work (1998)
Director: Bob Saget Cast: Norm Macdonald, Chevy Chase, Artie Lange, Christopher McDonald, Traylor Howard, Don Rickles, Jack Warden Screenplay: Norm Macdonald, Frank Sebastiano, Fred Wolf Producers: Robert Simonds Runtime: 80 min. US Distribution: MGM Rated PG-13: crude sexual humor, language
By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
When one goes into a "Saturday Night Live" spin-off movie starring Norm Macdonald, one should not have high expectations. I didn't have high expectations, although the trailers for Dirty Work made me laugh hard enough to want to see the movie. Dirty Work is profoundly dumb, centering around a ludicrous premise and going way over the line with it. It's also amazingly funny, filled to the brim with jokes that actually work and scenes that are unusually hilarious. Although it's clear that absolutely no thought was put into the script, it's nice to sit through a comedy that actually induces laughter.
Macdonald stars as Mitch Weaver, a loser. He fills his life with odd jobs, such as delivering pizza. The film opens as he gets fired from his job for delivering a pizza two minutes late. We then see that his girlfriend kicks him out (even though he offers "dirty sex" to make up for losing his job). Soon we meet his best friend, Sam (Artie Lange). They've been best friends for their entire lives (the film opens with a funny introduction showing their childhood).
Jack Warden plays Sam's father; in a really silly subplot, it turns out that he's also Mitch's father. I have no idea what the point of this is, but it's present in the film and highly stressed throughout. The title of the film comes in when Mitch realizes that he can make a lot of money by charging people to take revenge on their nemesis. In the required Villain role, Christopher McDonald (who is now one of my favorite silly-movie bad guys) has fun hamming it up.
Macdonald co-wrote the film, along with Frank Sebastiano and Fred Wolf, and though he doesn't know the first thing about intelligent storytelling, there's something in the dialogue and his execution of the lines that makes this film hysterically fun. He always seems to be on the verge of laughter (I don't really think he can act), but this only adds to the odd dynamics of the film. In fact, every time he opens his mouth, it's funny -- you should laugh excessively at the scene in which he shouts, "Who's that dude?"
He also has a strange fixation with prostitutes. The film doesn't go for ten minutes at a time without mentioning prostitutes or brining them on screen. By the end of the film, he's enlisted so many prostitutes that he can refer to his "loyal army of prostitutes." Just hearing Macdonald refer to such things is funny, but I'm not sure why. I think it's just the way he says it, because, if I referred to my loyal army of prostitutes, I don't imagine that it would make people laugh. One of the funniest scenes in the film has Mitch using a live commercial to advertise his business; this segment involves a lot of dead prostitutes in the trunks of new cars.
Like all stupid-but-funny films, it has scenes and subplots that just don't work. Warden is disappointing; most of the scenes with him fall flat (although the picture in the locket is pretty good). He tries really hard to be funny, but his lines just aren't that good, and he's a little too over-the-top to be light and fluffy the way Macdonald is. Lange is also pretty funny, though overall I doubt he's much of an actor. And the story is totally ridiculous -- how did they even come up with it? I certainly have no idea, but I'd be the first to agree that they took the premise as far as it could possibly go, and then further than that.
Dirty Work is stupid and funny. If you want to laugh and not think, then go see it. I don't see how you couldn't enjoy it if you like Norm Macdonald, and especially if you think prostitutes are inherently funny. I liked it while noting its enormous flaws, and it passes swiftly enough that you might not even notice that it's a full-length film. No matter how you look at it, though, I'm just glad that I was able to laugh at all. An unfunny comedy is unacceptable, and Dirty Work is, at least, a good time.
**1/2 out of **** (6/10, C+)
Visit FILM PSYCHOSIS at http://www.pyramid.net/natesmovies
Nathaniel R. Atcheson
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews