Dirty Work (1998)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

A very dumb film, Norm Macdonald can come across as observational funny & truthful on a tv set or standup, sketch show etc but this films script is unremittingly bad and the film blows, up a tree down a tree ... prosaic, you see every scene, plot device, setup and practically every line coming before it happens, if your above a certain age, all the cameo's are almost prosaic, a pointless use of people who are a bit past themselves, Norm does not translate to the cinema in this film. No strong chemistry between arte and norm. a film to really pass, maybe it would have been a 4 out of 10 - 25 years ago now it's a 2 merely for the fact that the film has bearable production values and because any film is a great deal of work to make, but just ideas wise its real dirty dumb work. 2 or 3 lines worked for me from a humour perspective, but they didn't even have an impact long enough to be remembered after the film ends. makes me wonder whether national lampoons or any of the frat comedies have aged any better? the world today has moved on and this film wasn't great to begin with but has aged badly.

I don't know why I''m even writing this review. First, I couldn't finish watching the movie all the way through for it being such a dumb movie. Maybe some ten year old might enjoy it, but even at that he'd have to be dimwitted to see any real humor in it. Second, don't waste your time. Even though there's some recognizable names in this fiasco, I can only imagine that they needed the money to even participate in this. Not worth it. Dumb. Boring. Not funny. Move on to something that's funny.

"Dirty Work" is one of those somewhat rare comedies where the pieces of the puzzle just all fit. The actors have great chemistry between one another (it really seems like they're having fun), the screenplay is excellent, and the entire film bathes in a delightfully wrong atmosphere. Prison rape, dead hookers, an Asian chick biting off Chris Farley's nose, none of these things have ever been as funny as they are in this movie. "Dirty Work" sorta sank into obscurity before it had a chance to take off, perhaps because some of the dirty stuff isn't for everybody, but if you're a fan of unbelievably stupid, obvious (occasionally even "Naked Gun"-style) jokes and borderline disgusting situations (and deep down, you know you are) this movie has everything needed to be one of your favourites.

Norm MacDonald and Artie Lange play two friends who aren't particularly bright and have a long history of screwing up their lives and losing jobs. Then they get the bright idea of opening up their own business--one that will get revenge for a price. The acts of revenge are among the funniest things about the film. I especially loved how he got revenge on the loud neighbors and the sleazy car salesman. There were some serious negatives in the film such as quite a few flat jokes here, the unfunny bit where MacDonald makes notes to himself on a tape recorder (it was overdone on SNL--it was even worse here) and there was the ending--it seemed to end way too quickly and the resolution wasn't particularly satisfying compared to the earlier parts of the film.However, this film has the phrase "guilty pleasure" written all over it. While the film has many flat moments, crude jokes and horrible messages, it did make me laugh and laugh--and that's the most important positive about the film. I know I should be ashamed of myself, but you can't ignore a film that puts a smile on your face like this stupid movie did. In addition, I hate to admit that I also laughed at MacDonald's other critically scathed film SCREWED. I feel so dirty--these are NOT deep or sophisticated films and they abound with juvenile humor--but they make me laugh.By the way, keep note of all the unusual supporting actors that appeared in this film such as Chevy Chase, Don Rickles, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley and Jack Warden (among others). Obviously, there were a lot of folks out there that liked MacDonald and wanted to help him with this film.