via Tenor
"No no no no, I have a plan."
Most of Saturday Night Live's male castmembers since 1975 have had at least one chance to prove their box office bankability. A few of those men have become movie legends, followed by a good amount of men and a shamefully low number of women who have spent at least a few years on the A or B lists. The stardom pools are bigger, and co-ed, when TV is included. Norm MacDonald, I'm confident in saying, knew how to obtain the kind of fame that makes one's next movie into a summer tentpole and includes appearing at any kind of "Choice" awards. Based on his work as co-writer and star of Dirty Work, and to his credit, it appears that Norm was in no rush to take that path.
Co-written by Frank Sebastiano, Norm and Fred Wolf and directed by first-timer Bob Saget, Dirty Work is the story of Mitch (Norm) and Sam (Artie Lange). Taught in their youth by Pops (Jack Warden) to not "take no crap from nobody," Mitch and Sam reclaim that principle as adults for fun, profit and altruism. Needing to raise $50,000 so Pops can have a heart transplant performed by terrorized gambler Dr. Farthing (Chevy Chase, the very first of the SNL men to make a go in the movies), Mitch and Sam are paid to carry out revenge on the likes of Don Rickles (whose movie theater ends up showing Men In Black who like to have sex with each other), David Koechner (whose live commerical for his car dealership includes the reveal of multiple "dead" hookers in trunks) and Rebecca Romijn (a sideshow attraction who is horrified at the loss of her beard).
"There's two kinds of people in this world: those who get stomped on and those who do the stomping."
"Where'd you come up with that theory?"
"That famous guy said it. What's his name? Oh, yeah. Jesus."
Dirty Work was released a few months after MacDonald's controversial removal as SNL's Weekend Update anchor and subsequent departure from the show. At first I thought the story of Don Ohlmeyer refusing to let ads for Work air on NBC was just a story, but it's actually true. Dirty Work inspired dirty work from a man in power. Hey, it's just like the movie! Speaking of executive meddling, Work was apparently supposed to have been both R-rated and released in February. The movie might have done well amid lower stakes and on its own terms. MGM, in its infinite wisdom, made Dirty Work one of its two summer releases. I can't quite call Work or Disturbing Behavior a tentpole. Like I've alluded to, this movie just isn't something for the masses.
"By the way, you're right. He's definitely doing that dog."
Moments like Mitch and Sam overhearing an especially violent mass murder executed by their latest victims and taking place in the next room are more interesting than the obligatory day-saving and half-hearted love story. Mitch meets and tries to do right by Kathy (Traylor Howard), who loses her job thanks to the guys' shenanigans. Thanks to Travis Cole (Christopher McDonald) manipulating the guys, Kathy's grandma loses her apartment. I dunno, I didn't see much chemistry between Norm and Traylor. The marriage of envelope-pushing and sentiment is more successful with the Pops storyline. As it turns out, Mitch is also his son. Sam, who lamented no longer having something he wasn't sharing with Mitch, later leads a hilariously tacky trip down memory lane.
"Remember in the second grade when we used those rusty soda can tops to become blood brothers? Well, it was really a bunch of trouble for nothing because we were already brothers!"
"Yeah, that's right! Hey, you remember in fifth grade when I was under the monkey bars and I sneaked a peek at your sister's underwear? You remember that? No, no, I was sneaking a peek at my own sister's underwear!"
"Hahahaha, that's right! Oh yeah, and remember in the twelfth grade, you had sex with her? Ha-"
*both men realize what that retroactively means*
"Okay, enough reminiscing."
Recommended with reservations.
Thoughts:
-- "Hey, doc, what happened to your foot?" "What I don't understand is, when you owe a bookie a lot of money and he, say, blows off one of your toes, you still owe him the money. Doesn't seem fair to me. Especially when he's gonna kill me in four days anyway."
-- Box Office: Grossing just over $10 million on a $13 million budget, this opened at No. 9 and came in at No 127 for 1998.
-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "After a certain point ... (it) becomes what it's ambiguously spoofing," Nathan Rabin wrote in 2009. "Phrases like terminally stupid and brain dead leap readily to mind," Lawrence Van Gelder wrote for the New York Times at the time of Work's release. "What thoroughly, irrevocably kills Dirty Work is its production-value-free, direct-to-video-quality tinniness," David Kronke declared in the Los Angeles Times. Joe Leydon, Variety: "Far too often, actors begin scenes with obvious tentativeness, as though they're not entirely sure they heard someone yell 'Action!'"
-- Critic's Corner, Norm: "It's as if he's telling the audience that even trying with material like this would just be unhip," Kronke wrote. "Despite his occasional stiffness, however, MacDonald demonstrates an effective deadpan insouciance, along with a welcome willingness to make himself the butt of many jokes," Leydon wrote.
-- Memorable Music: The score is 21-14, still favoring non-original songs. Dirty Work has one entry, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," which plays as Mitch and Sam trash the apartment building. I'm not giving a point for "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," but I did smile at it accidentally being played during a fight.
-- Hey, It's ...!: Chris Farley makes five brief but memorable appearances as Jimmy, who had his nose bitten off by a Saigon whore (Uni Park). According to IMDB, while Dirty Work was Farley's last released project, it was completed before his final TV appearance, hosting SNL six weeks before his death.
-- Hey, It's Also ...!: Adam Sandler (as a hallucination of Satan), John Goodman (as the mayor), Gary Coleman (twice, both hallucinations), Ken Norton (taking on Gary in an imaginary boxing match) and Julia Sweeney, in a picture as Mitch's late mother.
-- "Mitch, this is Pops ... and your mother." "Yeah, I know." "You cheated on mom?" "No, she was there, too. Who do you think took the picture?"
-- Hey, It's the Late '90s!: A poster for Tomorrow Never Dies is at Hamilton's theater. Also, prior to Dirty Work, MacDonald often made "Note to self" jokes when anchoring Weekend Update.
-- Today in Gay Panic: MacDonald is one of the few men who can make me laugh at that. Dirty Work has, among other things, the running gag of Cole apparently molesting Spunky the dog, Mitch telling Jason to "go back to doing something latently homoerotic" with his fraternity brothers and Mitch's disgusted yet prim reaction after being raped in prison.
-- "You fellas have a lot of growing up to do, I'll tell you that. Ridiculous! Completely ridiculous! Can you believe these characters? Way out of line, way out of line. I have a good mind to go to the warden about this. You know, what hurts the most is the lack of respect, you know? That's what hurts the most. Except for the ... Except for the other thing. That hurts the most. But the lack of respect hurts the second most. ... Ridiculous!"
-- Next: Can't Hardly Wait. On deck: Six Days, Seven Nights.
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