Sequel Week Continues: "Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser"

Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser

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.

Alliteration At It's Finest..."A Lot Like Love"

If it walks like a duck...

The Story:

Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) is flying to New York to visit his brother.  At the airport he spies Emily (Amanda Peet) and the two lock eyes for a bit, but nothing more.  On the plane, they bump into each other again... Then over the next seven years, the two come back into each other's lives, sometimes for some romance, sometimes just to have a shoulder to cry on.  Will the two realize what they have together is special, or are they fated to remain apart?

Hmm...

Running a Dot Com business sure can date a movie! :)

I never heard of this one before, but trying to find some romantic comedies to make up for all the action, drama and thriller movies that have come through recently, this one was running through the top of the Netflix pile, so here it is. 

It's already been 8 years since the movie came out, and since they deal with the previous 7 years leading up to 2004/5, the movie feels closer to 15-20 years old.

Nothing wrong with that, just realizing that the dot com revolution really dates a movie to a specific period of time.

Kutcher remains the goofball that he is, but he does seem to generate some nice chemistry with his co-star, and the movie is the better for it.

An interesting addition to the movie is Oliver's brother, Graham (Tyrone Giordano) who is deaf.  This is used to great comic relief in several parts of the movie, and it's neat to see Hollywood try something different in a family relationship like that.  Too often they seem to either make the siblings bitter and cynical or they opt to go the wise and gay route.  Rarely anything in between.  A deaf brother who gets along with his sibling and is happy and content in his life, yeah, that's like spotting a unicorn. :)

It did catch me off guard at first, because I looked away from the movie, and it went silent for a moment, and realized they were signing and putting up subtitles.  Otherwise, the brother was used to great effect throughout the rest of the movie.

The plot became contrived in a few instances, otherwise the movie had its heart in the right place, and it made for a pretty good viewing experience.

Of course, if you can't stand Ashton Kutcher, you'd be advised to steer clear.

: )

Final Grade: B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Good but not great, I doubt I would be seeking this one out anytime soon.  But if it was on cable as I'm surfing, it would be fine background noise.