Cinema surveillance images are loading at the bottom of the page

The adventures of Joe Dirt

Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

He's the wrong person, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Joe Dirt (David Spade) is a janitor with a mullet hairdo, acid-washed jeans and a dream - to find the parents (Gary Busey and Roseanne) that he lost at the Grand Canyon when he was a belligerent, trailer park-raised 8-year-old (Erik Per Sullivan). Now, blasting van Halen in his jacked-up economy car, the irrepressibly optimistic Joe hits the road along in search of his folks.

As his wandering, misguided search takes him from one hilarious misadaenture to another, Joe finds his way to Los Angeles, where a shock jock (Dennis Miller) brings Joe on his radio show to insult him. But as Joe's life story unfolds, jeers turn to cheers and an entire captivated city tunes in to hear the adventures of Joe Dirt.

Persons of interest

David Spade .... Joe Dirt, Writer
Brittany Daniel .... Brandy
Dennis Miller .... Zander Kelly
Adam Beach .... Kicking Wing
Christopher Walken .... Clem
Jaime Pressly .... Jill
Kid Rock .... Robby
Erik Per Sullivan .... Little Joe Dirt
Megan Taylor Harvey .... Joe's Little Sister
Caroline Aaron .... Joe's Mother
Fred Ward .... Joe's Father
Hamilton Camp .... Meteor Bert
Tyler Mane .... Bondi
Fred Wolf .... Screenwriter
Dennie Gordon .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Joe Dirt official movie site
Studios and distributors:

Sony Pictures Releasing

Intelligence analyst

Secret Agent Acid Thunder

Theatrical report

"My name is Gump, Forrest Gump, but you can call me Joe Dirt 'cause my daddy called me Joe Dirt. And oh, yeah, my life is like Forrest Gump, 'cept since there was no wars I didn't get to leave the US of A. Anyway, I'd like to say that I sold my life story for a millions of dollars - and that's better than most American hicks sell their stories for - and David Spade, he plays me. And, I got this girl who's very, very, very beautiful, and she's played by Brittany Daniel, and u minutes, since my story was first done on ray-de-oh, uh, Dennis Miller is in it, too. There was this guy with weird crazy eyes named Christ-o-fer Walken, and he's in my moo-vee, too. And the title's called Joe Dirt."

Intelligence analyst

Field Agent Keith Dehle

Theatrical report

Joe Dirt can best be described as a "westie" version of Forrest Gump. It is the story of a long-haired, southern USA, country boy's search over several years for his parents who left him behind while on a tour of the Grand Canyon. Like Gump at the bus stop, Joe Dirt reveals his life story to Los Angeles when he is plucked from his duties as a cleaner at a radio station and plonked before a probing and confronting disc jockey who begins to interview Dirt simply to milk him for his "freak" value.

As you relive Joe's life through flashbacks from the moment he loses his family to the present, you are supposed to be getting a better understanding of his character and change your perception of him. Not an easy task after viewing the opening sequence of the long-haired hoon in a loud rust bucket of a street machine.

The first half of the film moves along at a painfully slow pace and appears to lack direction. You're left wondering what the point of it all is. The humour, what there is, tends to be crude and takes some adjusting to "appreciate". If you can endure the first half, though, it is worth sticking around to the end as the pace picks up in the second half and it's definitely funnier. More importantly, things finally start to fall into place and the film takes on more of a "feel good" nature.

With the exception of three or four scenes, the film is generally not very funny. At times the story can be quite dull and you will probably find yourself planning your weekend or deciding what to eat after the movie rather than following the events of Joe's life and trying to understand what message the film is ultimately trying to convey.

Don't expect to get much out of this movie and you may be surprised - expect anything more and you are bound to be disappointed.

Media intelligence (DVD)

Deleted scenes:

The meteorite
Friendly neighbours
Whatever Joe wants
Space stuff
Ride to the airport
8-track tape
Happy dog

Bloopers reel and Out-takes
Weblink
Talent profiles
Commentary: Dennie Gordon, David Spade
Trailers: Theatrical, bonus
Picture disc
Language and audio options: English (5.1)
Subtitles: English, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, Dutch, Bulgarian, German, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Arabic
Widescreen (1.85:1/16:9 enhanced)