Joe Sujo

Before I saw this movie, I was turned off by all the negative reviews and the fact that it was a SNL spinoff. But I bought a used tape from my video store. Instead of war coverage and serious drama, this has become a ray of hope. Make no mistake, it ain't winning any Oscars. But the slapstick is funny, has great co-stars like Joe Don Baker and Chris Walken. It has a good plotline, a search for his family. It's a lot of laughs and fun for plebes at heart. Serious, deep people will be offended, but when we try to make humor serious and deep, we're in trouble.

I just thought that it was amusing reading the reviews all the way from 2001 to the present. This movie received almost entirely negative reviews when it first came out, but now there is nothing but positive reviews.

It seems that most people that saw this when it first came out were expecting something closer to Tommyboy or Blacksheep, with David Spade portraying a sarcastic sidekick with little more to offer than the occasional zinger. Instead we have a great tale of an average Joe that makes keeps a positive attitude even though he is constantly thrown into hilarious (for us) situations.

Whats the deal? It's a great film, maybe it was ahead of its time.

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.

As a young boy, Joe [David Spade] got seperated from his parents [Caroline Aaron and Fred Ward]. Ever since then he's spent his life on a journey to find them. On his journey he meets a nice girl named Brandy [Brittany Daniel], a Fireworks salesman named Kicking Wing [Adam Beach], and a friendly janitor named Clem [Christopher Walken]. David Spade is great in this hilarious adventure/comedy full of crude humor. It also has a fantastic soundtrack featuring classic songs from Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, The Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eddie Money, Joe Walsh, and more!

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.