N/R
Starring David Spade, Brittany Daniel, Mark McGrath, Christopher Walken, Patrick Warburton, Dennis Miller
Directed by Fred Wolf
The Story:
Joe Dirt (Spade) returns! Picking up where the last film left off, Joe and Brandy (Daniel) are happily married and raising three adorable triplet girls. However, a twister sends Joe back in time to 1965, and he must attempt to get back to his life and meet Brandy before the timeline is ruined and Brandy winds up with Jimmy (McGrath) instead.
If ever there was a movie that I never thought I'd see a sequel for, Joe Dirt has got to be right up near the top.
I have unashamedly admitted that I find the original to be hilarious from start to finish, and one that I have no problem watching at anytime.
It's pretty funny, and has a lot of heart.
Well, in the 14 years since we last saw our mulleted friend, it seems like some of the heart was forgotten in the sequel.
There are a few amusing gags and scenes throughout the film, but the backstory narrative that worked so well as Joe described his life in the first one, is kind of overthought and skipped around quite a bit.
It seems like Spade and Wolf thought, hey, if we're taking Joe "Back to the Future", this would be a funny gag, and this would be awesome to do, and this, and this and this...
So it's a lot of ideas that try and tell a story with a weak bridge holding them together.
Almost like an "oh yeah, and Joe loves his kids and Brandy and wants to get back to them."
However, if you're going to borrow, you might as well go with gusto, so besides Back to the Future, It's a Wonderful Life gets a good chunk of plot used in this film as well.
If it sounds like I'm picking on Joe Dirt, well, I guess I am. However, that's what people do with Joe Dirt.
I love the original, it's a classic, cult comedy.
Any sequel has some big shoes to fill, and they don't quite pull it off with the same sincerity of the first film.
I did appreciate that almost the entire cast returns in some shape or form in the sequel. It was fun to see them all together again.
I must also give props for Mark McGrath stepping into Kid Rock's shoes to give us a villain to boo, and someone to never want to eat popcorn with.
Plus, I must give credit to Spade and everyone else who worked to make this film streamable exclusively on Crackle.com.
You get the movie, streamed to your device with just a few commercials randomly inserted along the way.
With the proliferation of shows going to Netflix, Yahoo, Amazon, Hulu, it's neat that movies are going to also be given another venue to be made and seen.
If you enjoyed the first Joe Dirt, this will give you a few glimmers of amusement that make you remember why you really enjoyed that film, and those characters so much.
Lightning like that rarely strikes twice, but I'll give them an A for effort.
The movie however, only a C.
Sorry Joe.
