“Life is a garden — dig it,” says David Spade in the character of Joe Dirt, an acid wash jean-wearing, Lynyrd Skynyrd listening mullet-head with backward charm that helps to elevate him to hero status in trailer territories everywhere.
However, Spade’s latest film is not something to be dug.
After being abandoned by his parents in a trash can in the Grand Canyon when he was eight years old, Joe Dirt dreams of finding his long-lost parents. He searches the country, looking mainly in white trash-inhabited locations, and in the midst of his adventures he becomes the first national symbol of hope that sports a straggly mullet. Dirt narrates his escapades on a radio show, with a wise-cracking Dennis Miller as the host.
At a recent interview in Los Angeles, director Dennie Gordon (“Dawson’s Creek”) overstated the film’s profundity when she said, “What’s fun about a script like this is that it’s just not gag after gag, but that there’s a real journey, a real quest.”
In actuality, the film lacks consistent humor, seems patched together and even misses the few guilty laughs one usually has during most “Saturday Night Live” graduate films.
“It is what it is. It’s not supposed to be a drama Oscar nominee. I love campy stuff and I love comedy,” asserted actress Jaime Pressly (“Tomcats”). Former model Pressly plays a fling of Joe Dirt’s, whom he meets at a carnival. He is drawn to her mainly because he believes she could be his sister. Nothing like good-old-fashioned carney incest.
Spade, who spawned the idea of “Joe Dirt” and co-wrote the screenplay, departs from his usual biting and caustic characters with this film. Dirt is sweet, harmless and just plain pitiful.
“I really didn’t get any snide comments,” Spade said. “It’s mostly ‘nice guy.’ I let Dennis Miller do the David Spade part. I’m just trying to inch into other stuff that’s funny to me, and it was funnier for Joe Dirt to be more of a loser and let the other characters make fun of him more.”
Too bad Spade’s regular and long-lived smart-ass works, and “Dirt” doesn’t quite cut it.
“It’s hard to complain about the sarcastic guy because on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ it was hard to get noticed. You’d do anything to get some sort of hook,” Spade continued. “It gets old to me faster than to the fans. I just go, ‘what’s another way to be funny;’ and if I think of it, I think they’ll like it because it’s still coming from the same guy.”
Not quite. We wish we could laugh more at “Joe Dirt,” but there are only a handful of scenes in the film that are somewhat memorably funny. “Dirt” tries to be full of stupid gross humor, but one of the only scenes with a high yuck-factor is when a dog’s genitalia gets stuck to an ice-cold porch. The scene is reminiscent of the classic “tongue stuck to the telephone pole in winter” deal and is sure to make one squirm.
“Shooting that dog ball scene — I couldn’t even stand it,” said Brittany Daniel (“Dawson’s Creek”), who plays Dirt’s goody-goody childhood friend and later love interest. “It looked so real when we were shooting it. That’s totally my kind of humor, so I absolutely loved it and I loved the little shot between the legs.”
Right.
“Joe Dirt” also features the talents of the creepy Christopher Walken and rock musician Kid Rock. As always, Walken is too scary for words, but we love to watch him. He even entertains us with a small song and dance number. Although Kid Rock has a minor role, he probably should not quit is day job in pursuance of an acting career.
Unless one has a penchant for monster truck rallies, incest, Southern rock and simpleton humor, “Dirt” should be buried underground on any list of movies to see. Props to Spade for trying to expand his horizons, but this one just didn’t work.
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