Joe Dreck

I braced myself for yet another film with low grade humour, plenty of bodily function jokes and not enough plot to go around.

Well, 'Joe Dirt' has all that and more... but surprisingly it turned out to be not half bad.

Perhaps the day of the preview caught me in a particularly good mood, because this story of a white trash loser searching for his parents who left him for dead at the Grand Canyon when he was eight was relatively enjoyable entertainment.

The movie is told primarily in flashback; Joe stumbles into the studio of a radio disc jockey who coaxes out of him his incredible life story. In the process Joe Dirt becomes a media darling as his story of woe and misfortune is heard by an ever sympathetic audience.

This is another movie which relies on the gross and disgusting to get its laughs; dogs balls stuck to the front porch, being covered in excrement, blowing up atom bombs, consumed by alligators and much much more!

The movie works for the most part because of David Spade's affable loser Joe Dirt. He plays a character that is not a 100 miles away from his 'Just Shoot Me' personna - a loveable idiot. He goes through life having all these setbacks - but he still maintains his positive outlook.

The movie does lag a bit at the three quarters mark, but this is a minor quibble for a film that does what is sets out to with a lot more style than its lamentable cousins.

A whole lotta fun

6 out of 10.

Yeah, this movie took a trashing from the critics, but what would you expect from a movie produced by Adam Sandler? I had a blast. Joe Dirt had a rocking soundtrack, I likeable lead character that you really want to beat up, a rockin' soundtrack, funny dialogue and situations, and the usual slew of Sandler humor; fart jokes, humping dogs, etc.

Even though, about a half-dozen of these movies come out a year, Joe Dirt stuck in my mind mostly because of its hilarious premise. Dennis Miller also shined as the Howard Stern-like DJ who rips into Joe every chance he gets through out the movie, with insuluts like, "you are exquisitely pathetic" and such.

All in all, I really enjoyed. Movies like this aren't aiming for Oscars. They're just to make you laugh, which this one does. Kid Rock also has a funny cameo as Robby, the bully who, like everyone else in the film, loves giving Joe a hard time.

Despite the fact that this movie was trashed by critics, Joe Dirt still makes me laugh every time I watch it. If you've seen other movies made by Adam Sandler, then you should know what to expect: lots of low-brow humor and implausible situations. This movie definitely isn't for film snobs, but if you're just looking for a cheap laugh, Joe Dirt is definitely worth a rental.

This movie tells the life story of a man named Joe Dirt (played by David Spade), the mullet-wearing, hard rock-loving embodiment of every white trash stereotype in existence. This is a very different type of character for David Spade, who usually plays sarcastic and bitter male secretary types as opposed to the likable moron he plays in this.

As the movie begins, Joe Dirt is working as a janitor at a radio station when he is noticed by a Howard Stern-like DJ played by Dennis Miller. The DJ calls Joe Dirt into the studio and starts asking questions, intending to use the trashy janitor as a target for ridicule. It is here where we begin to learn the back story of Joe Dirt, beginning when he was a little kid abandoned by his parents during a trip to the Grand Canyon.

After the initial radio interview, the story of Joe Dirt becomes a national pop culture phenomenon. Our hero is invited back into the studio to continue his story, which consists of his various adventures as he travels around the country looking for his long-lost family. During his travels he befriends the beautiful and kind-hearted Brandy (Brittany Daniel), is bullied by a arrogant jerk named Robbie (Kid Rock), teams up with an American Indian fireworks dealer named Kicking Wing (Adam Beach), and crosses paths with a school janitor with a shady past (Christopher Walken). You also discover that, despite the fact that Joe Dirt is a crude and ignorant individual, you can't help but find yourself rooting for him and admiring his ability to keep a positive attitude despite all the bad things that keep happening to him.

I gave this movie a 7 out of 10. It's funny, even uplifting, and worth seeing at least once if you aren't offended by toilet humor.

For a typical low-brained Hollywood comedy of this era, it was a pretty nice film. Of course, few if any modern-day comedies are "family fare" and this one isn't either but the lead character is a gentle, harmless guy. David Spade is very entertaining as "Joe Dirt," a down-and-out nice guy (but not exactly pure, either) who tells his tale of trying to find his parents to sleazy disc jockey "Zander Kelly" (Dennis Miller). Brittany Daniel is an attractive, likable female lead.

It's a fast-moving hour-and-a-half. Some of the scenes are outrageous, such as a dog getting his - can I say this? - testicles stuck to the porch. Yes, it's good family fare!! Ha. Ha. No, really, this was a funny film and worth looking for if you need a laugh. I'm surprised there wasn't a sequel.

I'm no huge fan of David Spade and I tend to find the whole ex-SNL-star feature film genre lame and unfunny, but I happened to catch JOE DIRT while flipping through the channels yesterday afternoon and was intrigued enough to watch. And oddly enough I stayed intrigued for the next 90 minutes. The humor was crude, but rarely so much so as to turn me off, and the cast was very good (sure Dennis Miller was obnoxious, but isn't that his shtick?) but what surprised me the most was how caught up in the story I became. Sure it's farcical and impossible to take seriously, but for some reason I couldn't turn it off --- I kept hanging in there to see what would happen next. Even the slightly lame-ass ending didn't ruin things for me. I'd have to say JOE DIRT beats the crap out of similar, more favorably received movies like TOMMY BOY (which I found simply unbearable). Give it a chance.