Stumbled upon this mediocre comedy gem from my days as a projectionist 20 years ago. It tanked so it wasn’t around longer than a week or two, thus, I didn’t get a chance to watch Dirty in its entirety. I did recall some zingers Norm MacDonald made via his deadpan delivery I enjoy in his stand-up.
Dirty‘s plot is about Mitch and Sam starting a revenge-for-hire business in order to raise $50,000 for Sam’s father’s heart transplant. Revenge is something Mitch excelled at when they were growing up as a quick exposition shows. I’m not talking murder or assault, more like mean pranks. For example, putting dead fish the HVAC system of a rich person’s house or popcorn in a car’s fuel system.
After several low-paying successes, the duo gets the attention of a local construction magnate Travis Cole by disabling one of his bulldozers set to destroy an elderly woman’s home. Cole decides to drop the charges if they accept a vandalism job on his behalf for $50,000. Obviously they will be double crossed because Cole is played by Christopher McDonald who was often cast as a villain in the Nineties. This leads to a more elaborate revenge plan for Mitch with funnier and grosser results.
Again, the plot and dialog are not the movie’s strength, they’re really the excuse for MacDonald’s style of humor or joke delivery. He makes some great ones to get Dirty tolerable despite Chevy Chase being a minor character. There’s also brief appearances of Adam Sandler and Chris Farley; can’t remember if this was the latter’s final film. Beyond the one-liners, there’s some sight gags and homosexual digs people don’t make any longer.
If you have 90 minutes to waste and/or you enjoy Norm MacDonald’s stand-up comedy, sit through Dirty. Not in the two categories I listed? Then skip it, Dirty may be mildly amusing but it’s a funny movie for a wider audience.