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Dirty Work (film)

Dirty Work is a 1998 comedy buddy film starring Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange, and directed by Bob Saget. In the film, long-time friends Mitch (Macdonald) and Sam (Lange) start a successful revenge-for-hire business, and try to earn money for heart surgery for Pops (Warden). All goes well until they must do a dirty job for an unscrupulous businessman. In order to be paid, and expose their deadbeat customer, the pair hatch an outrageous revenge scheme of their own.

The film was the first starring vehicle for Macdonald and Lange, and the first film directed by Saget, who left his long-running role as host of America's Funniest Home Videos to begin a directing career. The film received broadly negative reviews from critics, and received low box office returns. However, it has since become a cult favorite, due partially to Artie Lange's since-increased popularity on The Howard Stern Show where the film is sometimes mentioned in often unflattering terms.

Cast

Norm Macdonald as Mitch Weaver
Artie Lange as Sam McKenna, Mitch's friend
Jack Warden as Pops McKenna, Sam's father
Traylor Howard as Kathy, Mitch's love interest
Don Rickles as Mr. Hamilton, an insulting movie theater owner
Christopher McDonald as Travis Cole, corrupt real estate businessman
Chevy Chase as Dr. Farthing, the gambling-addicted doctor

Cameo appearances included Rebecca Romijn as Bearded Lady, John Goodman as Mayor Adrian Riggins (uncredited), Adam Sandler as Satan (uncredited), Gary Coleman as himself, David Koechner as an automobile dealership owner, and Chris Farley as Jimmy (uncredited). This was Farley's last-released film appearance. Former SNL writer Jim Downey and former SNL writer/performer Fred Wolf appeared as homeless men. Both writers have collaborated frequently with Macdonald and Sandler.

Plot

Growing up, friends Mitch Weaver (Macdonald) and Sam McKenna (Lange) "don't take crap from anyone", as Pops McKenna (Warden) taught them. To that end, they get a bully arrested for (planted) gun possession, and catch a kiddie-fondler in the act (with glue).

The film then cuts to their adult lives. After losing 14 jobs in 3 months and getting dumped by his girlfriend, Mitch moves in with Sam and Pops, who then has a heart attack. Even though his heart is failing, the gambling-addicted Dr. Farthing (Chase) will only raise Pops on the transplant list if he is paid $50,000. To raise money, Mitch and Sam get jobs in a movie theater with an abusive manager (Rickles), and exact their revenge by showing "Men In Black (Who Like To Have Sex With Each Other)" to a packed house. The other workers congratulate them and tell them they should open their own business.

Mitch and Sam open "Dirty Work", a revenge-for-hire business. They exact increasingly lucrative reprisals for satisfied customers until they interfere with unscrupulous local property developer Travis Cole (McDonald). Cole tricks them into destroying "his" apartment building, promising to pay them enough to save Pops. Afterwards, Cole reneges, revealing that he is not the owner. However, the grandmother of Mitch's new girlfriend Kathy (Howard) lives there. Unknown to Cole, Mitch's "note to self" tape recorder captures this confession.

Mitch and Sam plot their revenge on Cole, using the tape to set up an elaborate trap. Using skunks, an army of prostitutes, homeless men, a noseless friend, brownies with hallucinogenic additives, and Sam's father, they ruin the opening night of an opera sponsored prominently by Cole. With the media present, Mitch plays back Cole's confession over the theater's sound system. Cole sees that his public image is being tarnished and agrees to pay the $50,000. In the end, Cole is punched in the stomach, arrested and jailed, his dog is raped by a skunk, and Mitch gets the girl. Dr. Farthing overcomes his gambling habit but is beaten to death by bookies anyway.

Production and Release

Filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and at Wycliffe College there, the film was produced for an estimated $13 million. American domestic gross was just over $10 million. No ads for the film were shown on NBC until a week after the film's release.

During his first ever interview on The Howard Stern Show on September 18, 2008, co-star Chevy Chase discussed the film's production and release with Artie Lange, whom he did not remember from the shoot. According to Chase, he was impressed by the original script's raunchy, R-rated, "over the top" tone (particularly a filmed but ultimately cut gag involving MacDonald and Lange delivering donuts that had been photographed around their genitals) and went so far as to beg MacDonald to not allow any changes. However, the studios insisted on a PG-13 rating and rescheduled the film's release from February to Summer, where it fared poorly against blockbusters like Godzilla.

MGM released a DVD of the film in August 1999.

Reception

The film received mostly negative critical reviews; a few positive reviews mentioned serious flaws while still mildly recommending it. The film has a 20% critic rating at Rotten Tomatoes. On co-star Artie Lange's stand-up comedy DVD, It's The Whiskey Talkin', an audience member asks him to sign his copy of Dirty Work, he does so and then gives the fan ten dollars, saying "you don't see Ben Affleck doing that for Gigli!" Lange then mentions that the review in his home town paper, The Star Ledger, said that he "had all the charm of a date rapist," to which MacDonald replied (in a sincere attempt to cheer him up) "that's a lot better than saying you look like a regular rapist!"

Trivia

On the October 12, 2006 Howard Stern radio show, Bob Saget recounted stories from behind the scenes with Artie Lange, and Stern revealed that he turned down the role of Satan in the movie because he "just didn't get it."

The Dirty Work business phone number is "555-0187," a fictitious number used later on Saturday Night Live.

In the scene where Mr. Hamilton (Rickles) berates Mitch and Sam at length, Rickles ad-libbed personal insults at Lange ("baby gorilla", seen in the film) and Macdonald ("How you got this movie, I'll never know", seen in outtakes during the end credits). Macdonald's laughing at the insults thrown at Lange's character was also real and left in because he couldn't stop.

In Norm Macdonald's ABC sitcom Norm, Lange guest-starred (and later joined the cast) as Norm's half-brother. Jack Warden also guest-starred once as father of Ian Gomez' character, and fakes a grab at Norm's crotch (as he did in Dirty Work).

Contrary to popular belief, Artie Lange and Norm MacDonald had not met prior to the production of this film, however they have become close friends in the years since.