The CS! AFI Top 100 Movies: 1980 - 1999

Dirty Work (1998)
Between the tragic passing of Norm Macdonald recently and the enthusiasm that some people I know showed towards it I felt that now was the time to check out Macdonald’s one attempt at movie stardom: Dirty Work. This was probably a mistake because in large part this movie is something of a testament to the fact that movie acting was not really Macdonald’s bag and frankly watching this makes me maybe one or two percent less sad the guy is dead. This movie, which was directed by Bob Saget of all people, was clearly made in a fairly loose fashion with a heavy emphasis on improvisation and at times seems to only be one or two rungs above “amateurish” in terms of basic filmmaking. Macdonald makes basically no attempt to really play a character beyond his usual “wiseass at the bar” persona and basically goes through the whole movie with the same smirk on his face at all times. Say what you will about people like Adam Sandler or Jim Carry but the characters they play in movies are distinguishable from who they are when they show up on talk shows, they are making an effort. And the comedy here is… dated. A fair number of jokes would be considered problematic today including some homophobic stuff and a seeming fixation on calling prostitutes “whores.” But that’s a secondary issue, the bigger problem here is just that MacDonald never really seems able to mix his stand-up persona with storytelling and the whole thing just feels like a really feeble and half-assed project and you can see why it wasn’t able to compete with the heavy hitters of comedy at the time.
*1/2 out of Five

Full disclosure, I might have liked it better if I wasn't watching it thinking "top 100 of the 80s and 90?  Are these people high" the whole time.

I'll sell it all for a fifth element vote.

Less than 1.5/5 for any Jackass movie is a travesty.

If you think I'm pretentious now you should have seen me then...

"Jackass? You'd have to be one to pay to watch that drivel."

-Drac at 15, probably

While waving his hair back in the wind.

Oh, I more than suspect.  I hated Bad Grandpa, which I got dragged to back when that was in theaters.

I haven’t seen Bad Grandpa but I guarantee it’s Casablanca compared to Dirty Grandpa. I watched the beginning of that just to see how bad it really was and it is a solid F movie. 1/10. Everyone involved should do community service.

Well that was anti-climactic.