I really adore the original Joe Dirt. It could have just been bad low-brow jokes, but it ended up having a ton of heart. Despite being silly the characters and themes felt genuine and sincere, and the crude jokes never went too low. Joe Dirt was a lovable underdog, a Beautiful Loser if you will (GET IT, GET IT.)
This movie however, is a mess. To give it some credit, when Joe Dirt's new life with Brady was shown it was really sweet. He got his happy ending. Regardless of how bad the movie is, it would have been worse if they had broken up after being in love for 15-20 years (a lot of movies do this crap.) The film still has some heart but it's not as well integrated into the movie. Some parts are really nice, other parts are much stupider and cruder than original. Its all very disjointed. The scene where Joe Dirt meets Lynyrd Skynyrd is really great. It's funny, clever, and a tiny bit sad, but then there's a scene where Dirt get farted on for several minutes with no comedic pay off. Some things don't fit.
The fact that everything was just a dream can be used as an excuse for some of the technical and storytelling problems, like the fact that people are older and have different hair in the past and the fact that Joe Dirt spends over 20 years in the past and doesn't age into a 70-year-old, but then at the end they claim it was all true? Did the angel magic keep him young or something? This movies throws any kind of logic about time and continuity out the window about half an hour in and ends up being a story told by Dennis Miller about a time Joe Dirt told another person a story about a dream he had that was also true and an angel gave him self confidence, with other dreams and flashbacks throughout. What?
Also, the movie relies on references to other films almost as much as a Seltzer-Friedberg parody. They take from Forest Gump, Back to the Future, Cast Away, Silence of the Lambs (again, but that was actually kinda funny both times,) The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, and others I'm sure. It was a bit too much.
The performances were okay but not nearly as tight as in the original. This could be blamed on an editor, but most people have at least a few moments that are really off. The only standout performances were by Kevin Farley who had a bit role as a cop in original and plays one of Jimmy's friends this time, and Patrick Warburton, who plays a very crass guardian angel. It would have been nice to get Jaime Pressly back playing a different role, especially after seeing how fantastic she was as Joy on MY NAME IS EARL, the spiritual successor to Joe Dirt.
The music in the movie is great an appropriately used. Despite the tighter budget there is still quite a bit of classic rock.
The biggest crime this movie commits is not ending on Freebird after that fantastic and well researched Lynyrd Skynyrd scene. It's the best scene of the movie by far. None of things Colt Ford sings about happened in either story. One of the things just rips off the George Jones lawn mower story. The music video ending was out of place.
This movie could probably be re-cut into a short film that does justice to original but in the way it's presented on Crackle, it falls short. It's just so uneven.
Watching movies like this is not where I want to be when Jesus comes back, but at least there wasn't a Larry the Cable Guy cameo. Thank god for small blessings.
This movie however, is a mess. To give it some credit, when Joe Dirt's new life with Brady was shown it was really sweet. He got his happy ending. Regardless of how bad the movie is, it would have been worse if they had broken up after being in love for 15-20 years (a lot of movies do this crap.) The film still has some heart but it's not as well integrated into the movie. Some parts are really nice, other parts are much stupider and cruder than original. Its all very disjointed. The scene where Joe Dirt meets Lynyrd Skynyrd is really great. It's funny, clever, and a tiny bit sad, but then there's a scene where Dirt get farted on for several minutes with no comedic pay off. Some things don't fit.
The fact that everything was just a dream can be used as an excuse for some of the technical and storytelling problems, like the fact that people are older and have different hair in the past and the fact that Joe Dirt spends over 20 years in the past and doesn't age into a 70-year-old, but then at the end they claim it was all true? Did the angel magic keep him young or something? This movies throws any kind of logic about time and continuity out the window about half an hour in and ends up being a story told by Dennis Miller about a time Joe Dirt told another person a story about a dream he had that was also true and an angel gave him self confidence, with other dreams and flashbacks throughout. What?
Also, the movie relies on references to other films almost as much as a Seltzer-Friedberg parody. They take from Forest Gump, Back to the Future, Cast Away, Silence of the Lambs (again, but that was actually kinda funny both times,) The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, and others I'm sure. It was a bit too much.
The performances were okay but not nearly as tight as in the original. This could be blamed on an editor, but most people have at least a few moments that are really off. The only standout performances were by Kevin Farley who had a bit role as a cop in original and plays one of Jimmy's friends this time, and Patrick Warburton, who plays a very crass guardian angel. It would have been nice to get Jaime Pressly back playing a different role, especially after seeing how fantastic she was as Joy on MY NAME IS EARL, the spiritual successor to Joe Dirt.
The music in the movie is great an appropriately used. Despite the tighter budget there is still quite a bit of classic rock.
The biggest crime this movie commits is not ending on Freebird after that fantastic and well researched Lynyrd Skynyrd scene. It's the best scene of the movie by far. None of things Colt Ford sings about happened in either story. One of the things just rips off the George Jones lawn mower story. The music video ending was out of place.
This movie could probably be re-cut into a short film that does justice to original but in the way it's presented on Crackle, it falls short. It's just so uneven.
Watching movies like this is not where I want to be when Jesus comes back, but at least there wasn't a Larry the Cable Guy cameo. Thank god for small blessings.