Joe Dirt (2001)

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:

Character's Journey Shown On Map | Surreal | Grand Canyon | Mushroom Cloud | Statue Of Liberty

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	...	KXLA Security Guard
Bob Zany	...	Bullying Man #1
Bean Miller	...	Bullying Man #2
Lee Walker	...	Zeke

Also Known As:

The Adventures of Joe Dirt (Canada: English title) (TV title) (USA) (working title)
Aventuras de Joe el sucio, Las (Argentina) (video title) [es]
Joe Dreck (Germany) [de]
Joe La Crasse (France) [fr]
Joe Lacrasse (Canada: French title) [fr]
Joe Sujo (Brazil) [pt]
Juntti-Joe (Finland) [fi]
Sucia historia de Joe Guarro, La (Spain) [es]

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:

Iceland:L | Singapore:NC-16 | 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:

Continuity: When Joe goes to the crime scene the camera passes through the police tape in Joe's first person perspective and he talk to the cop about the situation. After that, Joe passes under the tape again to speak with his deceased friend.

Quotes:

Joe Dirt: Turn it up

Movie Connections:

References Billy Jack (1971)

Soundtrack:

Bad To The Bone

Surprisingly enjoyable

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.