Review of Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser (2015) by Chad K — 27 Feb 2016

How bad does bad get? That's the question with Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser, a sequel 14 years in the making to a one-joke character from an actor now in his 50s. It's so bad that this movie is a Crackle original, a streaming service that I don't think people know exists. You can feel every degree of sad desperation while you watch. There are so many scenes that just seem to prattle on indefinitely, varying from one or two angles, as if they only had time to film one take and kept encouraging their actors to just keep throwing things out there in the misplaced hope that somehow somebody would strike gold. It does not happen once. David Spade returns and he's whisked away Wizard of Oz-style into the past where he watches his beloved girlfriend choose his rival (Mark McGrath) over him. It's a weird Back to the Future Part 2 alternative timeline and one where McGrath also plays his character's father in an inexplicable scene where he allows his family to unknowingly jerk him off. I hope that last sentence begins to reveal the true depths of comic despair that is Joe Dirt 2. It's not that it's powerfully unfunny, it's not that the plot is completely inconsequential, it's not that the jokes end up being weird pop-culture references dating back to the 90s (Buffalo Bill in 2015?), it's not that Spade looks like he's fulfilling some deal with the devil, it's not that the movie has no purpose and no reason to exist, it's that Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser is like a communal funeral. You watch it and you mourn; for those involved and for your lost time. If you can find a more pointless, depressing, past-its-prime sequel, then I think the seventh seal has been opened, spelling the doom of mankind. I figured Adam Sandler would be responsible somehow.

Nate's Grade: F.