Joe Dirt (2001)

After being abandoned by his parents at the Grand Canyon, Joe Dirt tells the story of his journey to find his parents.

Director:

Dennie Gordon

Writers:

David Spade, Fred Wolf

Stars:

David Spade, Brittany Daniel, Dennis Miller

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Joe Dirt is a janitor with a mullet hairdo, acid-washed jeans and a dream to find the parents that he lost at the Grand Canyon when he was a belligerent, trailer park-raised eight-year-old. Now, blasting Van Halen in his jacked-up economy car, the irrepressibly optimistic Joe hits the road alone in search of his folks. As his wandering, misguided search takes him from one hilarious misadventure to another, Joe finds his way to Los Angeles, where a shock-jock brings Joe on his radio show to insult him. But as Joe's life story unfolds, jeers turn to cheers, and an entire captivated city tunes in to hear the adventures of Joe Dirt.

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Plot Keywords:

public nudity | psychopath | forced to strip | mini skirt | blonde | 

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Taglines:

His name's not mud... but it's close.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 April 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Adventures of Joe Dirt

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,700,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,016,008, 15 April 2001, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$27,087,695, 3 June 2001

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Happy Madison Productions, Robert Simonds Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dirt's character was loosely based on Spade's childhood friend, Ryan Taylor.

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Goofs

Cafeteria Scene: When Joe goes to clean up the puke pile in the cafeteria, he clearly flinches before being hit with the first 2 hot dogs; he clearly knew they were coming.

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Quotes

Joe Dirt: My name is Joe Dirte, I added an e to the end, cause it sounds cool.

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Alternate Versions

The DVD contains several Deleted scenes including Joe shopping for Eight Trax, and Joe getting heckled about his encounter with Buffalo Bob.

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Connections

References Song of the South (1946)

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Soundtracks

That Smell
Written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant
Performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Courtesy of MCA Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

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