JOE DIRT is a below-average movie about a below-average man whose parents abandoned him at the Grand Canyon at age eight.
Joe Dirt is a radio station janitor on a quest to find the parents who left him behind some 20 years back. Station DJ Zander Kelly (Miller) takes interest in Joe and invites him to be a guest on his morning show. People all over LA are glued to their radios as they listen to the mullet-sporting, Van Halen t-shirt-wearing loser tell the tale of his quest to find his long-lost mum and dad.
It was almost painful to see a talented comedian like David Spade appear in such a horrendous excuse for a movie. Of course, I suppose his appearance was inevitable as he co-wrote the film. I had hoped that Spade would have learned from his previous writing experience (the failed LOST AND FOUND) and created a better product. And if he didn’t learn from his own mistakes, he also had co-writer Fred Wolf’s previous disaster, BLACK SHEEP, to work from. I’m not sure what the logic was behind putting two failed writers together to work on a project, but the audience is left suffering through the results.
The movie just wasn’t funny. Sure, it had its moments, but they were way too few and far between to call this film a comedy. Spade does what he can with the ridiculously stupid story line, but the problem is that it’s not the sort of ridiculously stupid that’s funny. To make matters worse, it’s too long. I don’t think I’ve checked my watch that much since counting down the minutes to the new year.
It’s a low down dirty shame to see the hilariously funny David Spade at his worst in this film. I suggest he stick with his small-screen successes like “SNL” and “Just Shoot Me” and bury JOE DIRT six feet under.
—K. Theis
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out of 5
