Joe Dirt (2001)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Dennie Gordon

Writers (WGA):

David Spade (written by) &
Fred Wolf (written by)

Release Date:

11 April 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

Keep on Moppin' in the Free world.

Plot:

David Spade stars as Joe Dirt, an idiot who works as an oil weller who is on the search for his parents who abandoned him when he was a baby at the grand canyon.

Plot Keywords:

Grand Canyon | Janitor | Father Child Reunion | Wig | School

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

David Spade	...	Joe Dirt
Brittany Daniel	...	Brandy
Dennis Miller	...	Zander Kelly
Adam Beach	...	Kicking Wing
Christopher Walken	...	Clem
Jaime Pressly	...	Jill
Kid Rock	...	Robby
Erik Per Sullivan	...	Little Joe Dirt
Megan Taylor Harvey	...	Joe's Little Sister
Caroline Aaron	...	Joe's Mom
Fred Ward	...	Joe's Dad
John Farley	...	Security Guard
Bob Zany	...	Man
Bean Miller	...	Man
Lee Walker	...	Zeke

Also Known As:

The Adventures of Joe Dirt (Canada: English title) (TV title) (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, and for language.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Iceland:L | New Zealand:M | Netherlands:AL | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #37628)

Filming Locations:

Dead Horse Point State Park - State Highway 313, Moab, Utah, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The part of Kicking Wing was originally intended for Evan Adams, who starred in as Thomas Builds-the-Fire in "Smoke Signals" with Adam Beach. To remedy the mistake, Beach's hair was braided and he wore glasses like the Thomas character.

Goofs:

Factual errors: At the end of the movie, when Joe's new family were all in the '67 orange Plymouth and Robbie wanted to race, this comment was made: "You think that Slant 6 can keep up with this 426 Hemi?" Robbie's car was a Pontiac Trans Am. Mopar made Slant 6.

Quotes:

Joe Dirt: So your gonna' tell me that you don't have no black cats, no roman candles, or screaming mimis?
Kicking Wing: No.
Joe Dirt: Oh come on man. You got no lady fingers, fuzz buttles, snicker bombs, church burners, finger blasters, gut busters, zippity do das, or crap flappers?
Kicking Wing: No, I don't.
Joe Dirt: You're gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen spliters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser?
[...]

Movie Connections:

References "Dallas" (1978)

Soundtrack:

That Smell

This movie is a garden...dig it!

Joe Dirt is simply one of those underappreciated comedies. Having reacquainted myself with it recently (and repeatedly) after having not seen it in almost two years, I myself am beginning to realize that. Not only is it thoroughly funny, it is entertaining and fast paced. David Spade plays Joe Dirt, a kind, well meaning radio-station janitor with an unusual hairdo (mullet!) and extremely bad-luck. He shares his life-story with the listeners of the radio station, which mainly focuses around his never-ending search for his parents (who ditched him on a family trip to the Grand Canyon) and his unrecognized love for hometown hottie Brandy. Joe meets many unusual people along the way, has many misadventures, and as if you couldn't guess, sets himself up for many disgusting and painful situations. The humor is pretty low-brow, but who cares? The movie is funny and that's the bottom line. What I like about this movie is that I can just turn it on and let go. The movie is so well-made for a simple comedy. Spade wrote the script himself, and you can tell he took his time. Every event in the movie happens for a reason and alludes to something that will occur later down the road. Also, Joe Dirt is Spade's first likeable character. You actually feel for this doofus. Even though he looks like white-trash, he is still a good person. Which of course, leads to this movie's moral: Good things come to good people. Or as Joe would say "Life's a garden, dig it!" or "You can't have 'no' in your heart!" Christopher Walken has a hilarious bit as Dirt's co-janitor at an elementary school that has been placed in the witness protection program and Kid Rock plays Joe's bully perfectly (I love the part where he reads the note just like those guys in high school who couldn't read past 2nd grade reading level). But Spade is the real star here. Too bad this character/movie never took off. I seriously love this movie. It is consistently hilarious, has dozens of quoteable lines (stuff that you say to people in your daily routine) and has an overall feel good vibe to it. I don't know how anyone can trash this movie. For one thing, it's an Adam Sandler production, you know what type of humor you're in for. And secondly: The movie is called 'Joe Dirt!' There are no pretensions here, folks. I wish there were more movies like this out there. And although not everyone appreciates it, I am glad that I at least have this movie and can watch it a million times if I want to. Joe Dirt, you're my hero.

10/10