This post is part of the Get Physical series, exploring movie releases on physical media (typically 4K and Blu-ray).
Release Details
Vinegar Syndrome standard edition 3-disc 4k UHD/2 x Blu-ray release
From the Back Cover
After losing his job, girlfriend, and apartment, lifelong prankster Mitch moves in with his childhood best friend Sam, and Sam’s cantankerous father, Pops. When Pops has a heart attack, his surgeon, Dr. Farthing, delivers grim news: Pops needs a new heart, which Farthing will gladly secure in exchange for $50,000 to pay off his gambling debts. Desperate for a lot of cash quickly, Sam and Mitch realize that their joint love of causing mischief could be the perfect means of raising funds, thus opening a revenge-for-hire business named “Dirty Work.”
Package Appeal
Solid. While I have the standard edition of Dirty Work (pictured above), Vinegar Syndrome also produced a limited edition slip box that included a 40-page booklet. It looked like this:
Unfortunately, that hairy-bodied, thick-nippled version was limited to 10,000 units and sold out. While the standard edition has no booklet or slip cover, it does have a reversible cover (which I always appreciate), so you can change it from the typical poster image cover (shown up top) to this much better cover:
The discs themselves also have original artwork on them (in similar style to the reversible cover). These touches give the package just enough dirty personality.
Best Extra
The Dirtier Cut: The long-lost, newly restored R-rated version of the movie. Chopped down from its original cut to get a PG-13 rating upon release (trying to give the movie more commercial appeal like other “SNL comedies” Billy Madison and Tommy Boy), this version is the way star/co-writer Norm Macdonald and director Bob Saget intended the film. Unlike some other extended cuts or director’s cuts, this is actually the better version of the film. It’s the essential way to watch it.
Why You Should Add This to Your Collection
Norm Macdonald always seemed to delight in baiting and confusing the audience. He rarely took the most efficient route to a laugh. Instead he zigged or zagged, dizzying and misdirecting you, before coming in for the knockout punch.
Take this scene in Dirty Work where Norm approaches a group of unhoused men to help him with a prank. It’s the turn away from the joke, then back into the joke, mixed with Norm’s delivery that kills. This is how Norm—and Dirty Work—get you.
Dirty Work stands out among 90s comedies in that it’s not particularly interested in being a movie. Rather, it’s a dismantling of the typical studio comedy (or even movie formula in general) from the inside out.
Sure, Norm has a love interest (played by Traylor Howard from the Ryan Reynolds sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place). There’s a plot to save a family member (the legendary Jack Warden as Pops). There’s a bad guy that needs to be foiled (Shooter McGavin himself, Christopher McDonald). But the movie doesn’t really care about any of those things. It just wants to get to the next joke.
Even the movie’s revenge-for-hire plot—which should be a great trampoline to set up different comic sequences—really isn’t milked for much (other than one outstanding gag that’s the basis for the fish-holding cover above). This just goes to show the movie is on its own comic wavelength, which is what makes it so great.
A lot of the movie is just rolling in different guest stars and letting them cook—from Don Rickles and Chevy Chase to Gary Coleman and Adam Sandler (doing some of his weirdest schtick ever). Chris Farley, who has an extended cameo in the movie as a barroom regular who had his nose bitten off by Saigon prostitute, may actually give his funniest film performance of all time. He’s throwing 1,000 miles per hour with every pitch.
The script (written by Frank Sebastiano and Norm Macdonald, with some polish work by Fred Wolf) is also filled with countless gems of dialogue like:
Sam: You thinking what I’m thinking?
Mitch: No, no, no, I have a plan.
Of course, a lot of it wouldn’t work without Norm’s one-of-kind deadpan delivery. With that mischievous twinkle in his eye, ever-present half-smile, and his deliberate, delayed cadence, he makes pretty much every line funny (including the amazing mic drop that ends the movie). He was gone too soon but at least we have this cinematic classic to remember his comic genius.
Quick Takes
Released in theaters on June 12, 1998, Dirty Work opened in ninth place at the domestic box office with $3.6M—coming in behind the fifth week of The Horse Whisperer. Though it only had a reported budget of $13M, the movie would cap out at $10M in its theatrical run and be considered a disappointment. But like a lot of movies of this era it would find an audience on video and cable, and gain a cult following over time.
After Dirty Work, Norm would get just one more shot as a lead in a feature film with 2000’s Screwed, where he co-starred with Dave Chappelle, Danny DeVito, and Sarah Silverman. That movie was also a box office disappointment, earning just $7M on a reported budget of $10M. After that, Norm largely stuck to Happy Madison cameos and voice acting in movies while concentrating more on TV and standup.
In his interview on the Note to Self: Doing Dirty Work documentary, actor and comedian David Koechner says of Norm: “Norm was unconventional. His strongest suit was not acting, let’s just say that. He would agree to that I think. But you are seduced by his tone, his elocution, and that very special delivery.”
Norm is also famous for being a great talk show guest. One of his greatest moments was this appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1997 (about a year before the release of Dirty Work), when he hung around the couch after his interview as Conan talked to actress Courtney Thorne Smith about her new movie with Carrot Top. Norm goes to town, delivering zinger after zinger. Watch to the end of the clip to see one of Norm’s greatest comic moments.
CHAIRMAN OF THE B-O-R-E-D.
Great movie. I think about that scene often when they were drinking in the bar and Norm calls out Chris Farley for having his nose bitten off.
Any time I need a laugh, Norm’s late night appearances always deliver too. His episode on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee was also great.
Thanks for sharing!