SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Good concept, poorly executed.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Blistering performances.

What can I say. It was funny at time and not so funny at other times. This is going to sound crazy but Norm MacDonald's facial expressions helped save the movie for me. He'll just say something but sell it with a silly look on his face afterwards. The movie is about two friends who open up a revenge for hire business in an attempt to raise enough money for one of the friends.. or both of the friends father. The movie has two incredibly funny scenes that almost make the movie worth watching just to see them. The first is the hooker in the trunk scene and the second is the putting fish in the house scene. I couldn't stop laughing. I know they did the same kind of joke in an Austin Powers movie but I'm too lazy to google for would did it first because chances are both films got it from somewhere else. Is it worth watching? I'm going to say yes and no. No, if you don't want to waste your time and yes if you have time to kill and you're a fan of dumb comedies.

Mitch Weaver (Norm MacDonald) and Sam McKenna (Artie Lange) are life long friends since childhood. They have always been great at taking revenge in imaginative ways. When Mitch gets thrown out by his girlfriend, he's forced to stay with Sam and his father Pops (Jack Warden). When Pops has a heart attack, he tells Mitch that he's his dad. Now Pops needs a heart transplant and Dr. Farthing (Chevy Chase) is willing to bump him up to the top of the list for $50k in 2 weeks. With the manager of the movie theater Mr. Hamilton (Don Rickles) being a jerk, the guys take revenge with all the employees paying. So the guys come up with the idea of revenge-for-hire business.The comedy depends a lot on the various outlandish revenge schemes. Some of it works, but it's very much hit and miss. The comedy duo of MacDonald and Lange isn't very exciting. While I usually love both guys, they don't give off a positive energy. MacDonald's sarcastic brand of comedy is the funniest part of the movie. This movie is filled with comedy stars and SNL alumni. It almost works.

Whereas his contemporary, Adam Sandler, had made a career out of enjoying himself in stupid comedies like this, Norm MacDonald approaches his film debut - "Dirty Work" - with a dry sense of irony and self-awareness: he knows the film sucks. He knows the plot is nonsense. He knows the love interest is a throwaway mandatory subplot. He knows the dialogue is terrible, terrible stuff. And he knows he can't act. He doesn't care.And so in a way this is a very subversive genre film, because it takes the then-popular SNL-actor-adaptation formula of flicks such as "Happy Gilmore" and "Billy Madison" (which, at the time, before "Superstar" and "Night at the Roxbury" ended the fashion, was a guaranteed-profit machine) and just basically makes fun of it for 82 minutes. Yes, Sandler and other SNL actors make brief cameos but this is better than most of the typical SNL films. (Off the top of my head, I think only "Happy Gilmore" really works as well, and not for the same reasons.) Maybe I'm prejudiced in the film's favor because I love Norm MacDonald. I think he's one of the most hilarious men to ever grace the earth. But he's funnier with on-the-spot, unrehearsed stuff. (As evidenced by his appearance on Conan a few years ago, which Conan in retrospect claimed was the funniest interview he'd ever done.) He often appears on talk shows acting completely drunk, stoned, and out of his mind. At first it appears that he's just rambling, but it's a carefully practiced style of comedy and you either love it or hate it. I love it.His acerbic wit propels "Dirty Work." It's just fun watching him, even though once the film's over it's very clear why he never made it as a major film star: he doesn't have the same qualities as Sandler. He isn't content with making garbage and trying to pass it off as good comedy. He hates the formula and, in fact, commercials for "Dirty Work" were banned by NBC after Norm was deemed "not funny" by the vice president of NBC at the time (who fired Norm from the Weekend Updates).Don't misunderstand me. This movie's not that great. And Norm is out of place - visibly so. But this is what makes it work. The prison sex scene is treated so nonchalantly and with such self-mockery that you just *know* these guys were making fun of this movie the whole time. Artie Lange, Don Rickles, Jack Warden, and Chevy Chase in one of his few truly funny film roles. And it's directed by Bob Saget for goodness sake.Sarcastic, self-loathing, acerbic, witty, brutal, and consumed by hatred. Not your typical Saturday Night Live movie. And I'm glad it didn't turn a profit because I'd hate to have to see Norm MacDonald stuck pretending to enjoy doing this for a living. Watching him show up on the "Daily Show" stirring controversy is a lot more fun and more in-tune with what he's all about. He's misunderstood but the public have a pretty good record of popularizing talentless people.

By making no apologies for its silly, if not bizarre, humor, "Dirty Work" manages to be a comic gem in its own little way. Norm MacDonald plays Mitch Weaver, who along with buddy Sam McKenna (Artie Lange) become an unusual pair of entrepreneurs by starting a "revenge for hire" business. Soon business takes off as the guys sabotage homes, get even with mean bosses and turn a housing development into something of a ghetto. All this to (comedy cliché alert) raise money for an operation for Sam's ailing father.The brand of humor in "Dirty Work" is the sort that plays to our immaturity, much like the early Adam Sandler pictures such as Billy Madison and Happy Gimore. The film also has an appealing enough story that it moves along at a slick pace even when it's not uproarious. Judging by the box office results for "Dirty Work," it seems MacDonald's act is lost on many filmgoers. But if you're one of those who finds him hilarious, there's no doubt you'll have a great time with "Dirty Work."