Dirty Work

Having listened to the Howard Stern show for years, I have come to love Artie Lange. His role on the Stern show is cruical to the success of that show. Every once in a while, during the Stern show, Artie would always tell stories of the making of Dirty Work, before he came on to the Stern show. After years of hearing him talk about it, I decided that if I ever get a chance, I'll watch it. As luck turned out, I found the movie on Hulu.com. For the record, I'm glad I never bought the movie.

Let's start with the acting. Norm McDonald should never be the lead actor in a movie....ever! His dialogue is so dry, his words come out forced, almost making it look like he's reading from cue cards. Artie Lange is okay in the film, but in all honesty, he wasn't ready for prime time! Chevy Chase is sad in the movie. I remember loving to watch him in the Vacation movies, now he's resorted to playing bit parts. The only memorable moment in the movie for me is when Don Rickles plays the movie theater owner. His line to Artie, "Look at you, you Baby Gorilla," was classic! On a side note, Chris Farley looked pitiful in his final performance. Knowing that he died of drug overdose after this movie doesn't help!

As for the story, it was pretty vanilla. You can almost predict whats going to happen next during each scene. While the movie does have some laugh out moments, but it's not enough to save the movie. Plus, how many times do we have to see Norm McDonald thrown into a trash can before we get the fact that he can't defend himself. If that wasn't bad enough, we see them using the same tricks twice. In the beginning, Norm and Artie put popcorn kernels in a car engine and the popcorn ruined the car. Later, they do the same thing to a tractor. On another trick, they break into someone's house and leave fish everywhere. Later on, when they are vandelizing a building, they do the same thing. It's almost as if the writers ran out of ideas.

All in all, while the movie does offer a few laughs, it's not enough to make this movie a hit. As for Artie Lange, I wouldn't talk about this movie being one of your big highlights.