Joe Dirt is a
2001 comedy film starring
David Spade,
Dennis Miller,
Christopher Walken,
Brian Thompson,
Brittany Daniel,
Jaime Pressly,
Erik Per Sullivan,
Adam Beach and
Kid Rock. The film was written by
David Spade and
Fred Wolf.
[Dirt's character was loosely based on David Spade's childhood friend, Mitchell Brunton.]
Spade is currently working with TBS on an animated series based on the film.
Plot
The film opens at a
Los Angeles radio station, where Joe Dirt (
David Spade) works as a janitor and lives in a boiler room. When a producer at the radio station discovers Joe getting bullied in the hallway, the producer finds Joe's natural
white trashiness too impossible to be believed, and insists he be brought into the studio to talk live on the air with a
disc jockey named Zander Kelly (
Dennis Miller). The bulk of the movie consists of Joe recounting his life story in flashbacks to Zander who, along with the audience, seeks laughs at Joe's expense. Joe's life story begins with him being abandoned at the
Grand Canyon at the age of eight. After growing up in a series of bizarre foster homes, Joe finds himself living in the town of Silvertown, Idaho, where he pursues a love interest named Brandy (
Brittany Daniel), while evading a bully named Robby (
Kid Rock).
After a bizarre twist of events leads to the death of Brandy's dog, a reflective Joe feels the need to seek out his estranged parents. The search for his parents leads Joe on a series of adventures, meeting colorful characters and working odd jobs. Joe narrowly escapes death when
thrown in the hole and forced to "put on the lotion", by Buffalo Bob (
Brian Thompson). Eventually Joe lands his janitorial job at the radio station where he recounts how, at one point, how he decided to give up the search and return to Silvertown to be with Brandy. When he got there, Robby informed him that Brandy found Joe's parents, but instructed Robby not to tell Joe. Robby produced a note from Brandy to prove it. Hearing this, Zander insists on getting Brandy on the phone to find out why she did this. Brandy admits to writing the note to Robby. She did it because she wanted to tell Joe in person, but never had the opportunity. Brandy goes on to tell Joe that his parents were killed the day they were at the Grand Canyon and pleads with Joe to come back to Silvertown.
Joe is unaware that recounting his story on the radio has won the hearts of listeners and made him a media sensation. The media exposure results in a phone call from a woman claiming to be Joe's mother. Joe goes to meet her, but is disappointed to discover that his parents (
Fred Ward and
Caroline Aaron) are really just using Joe's publicity to help sell clown figurines. When asked how they could simply abandon him at the Grand Canyon, Joe's father replies "How exactly does the posi-trac rear end on a Plymouth work? It just does!" Depressed, Joe goes to a bridge to commit suicide, but Brandy appears and says that she only told Joe his parents were dead to protect him when she found out what horrible people they were. A policeman tosses a
bungee jumping cord around Joe to stop him from jumping, but inadvertently pushes Joe over the edge. The bungee cord breaks Joe's fall, but as Joe bounces back upward, he hits his head on the bridge and is knocked unconscious. Joe wakes up in Brandy's house, surrounded by Brandy and other friends he has met on his journey. He realizes they are like a family to him. With his new family, and car out of hock, he rides off in the firework sunset.
Cast
Production
According to the DVD commentary,
Bryce Canyon subbed for the
Grand Canyon scenes in Joe Dirt's flashbacks.
Soundtrack
Reception
The film's critical reception has been generally negative. The film has an average rating of 3 out of 10 with an 11% fresh rating at
Rotten Tomatoes.
both gave the film a thumbs down.
Richard Roeper called the comedy for being predictable and strained, and said that the radio station storyline was absurd.
Roger Ebert agreed, but praised Spade for taking on a different role than he is normally associated with, and added that Spade's performance was convincing, despite the film's other shortcomings.
[Ebert and Roeper]
Despite the poor reviews, the film did earn 27 million dollars in the US, surpassing its 16 million dollar budget
[Joe Dirt (2001) - Box office / business]. On the
DVD commentary, Spade states that at the time of recording,
Joe Dirt is the number one film in
New Zealand, and jokingly adds "It's a country the size of
K-Mart, but we'll take it".
Joe Dirt has frequently been a topic of discussion on Miller's real-life radio show, and he has actually interviewed Spade on the show.
The second verse of
"Weird Al" Yankovic's
Close but No Cigar from his album
Straight Outta Lynwood contains the lyrics "I thought after all these years of searching around, I'd found my soulmate finally/But one day I found out she actually owned a copy of
Joe Dirt on DVD..."
