Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser is a seriously pathetic comedy, desperate to have its viewers recall the "nostalgia" from the original film by recycling jokes from not only its screenplay but other David Spade films such as Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Combine this with a two minute long session of construction workers and a bimbo farting on Joe Dirt, pixelated glasses appearing over Dirt's eyes in one scene with the caption "THUG LIFE" as if it's an internet meme, cinematography you'd swear was out of a low-rent TV commercial, and a release on the seldom-mentioned, widely dismissed video service Crackle, and you have a sorry excuse for a sequel and a film.
David Spade reprises his titular role, the mulleted simpleton who somehow managed to marry the gorgeous Brandy (Brittany Daniel) and prove himself worthy to his townfolk. He returns here to watch his wife give birth to triplets and subsequently be sucked into a tornado that makes him travel through time, back to 1965. Here, Dirt gets run out of town and chased by a biker gang helmed by Patrick Warburton and realizes that his actions in the past will tarnish his life and his friends in the present.
You know a sequel is doomed when it immediately goes for the time-travel plot, but Joe Dirt 2 doesn't even seem to be trying when it comes to its writing or its execution. Most of the actors in this film don't appear to be taking anything about this project seriously, even Spade, who lumbers through his character in a more stereotypical, stumblebum fashion than he did in the first film. It also doesn't help that Joe Dirt isn't a very interesting character to begin with; in my review of the original film, I referred to him and his film as an "anti-character study," a film that profiles a character you probably don't care about and isn't worth profiling at all.
The other part of Joe Dirt 2 is you're, again, laughing at Joe Dirt's misery instead of with his misery. This creates an ugly environment for the film, which is less about finding a fun joke or setpiece to exploit, but instead, a situation where the character can be exploited. This kind of humor is most common in Adam Sandler films, so, considering both this film and its predecessor hail from Happy Madison Productions, this style of humor shouldn't be a surprise.
Yet, the real tragedy here is watching numerous jokes and situational humor completely fall flat, with the film reeking of a bad parody. This is an unbelievably tone deaf comedy, throwing every asinine idea it has into a pot, and frankly, not caring if you think it's funny or not. Joe Dirt is a character so hungry for attention that he'll go to great lengths to get it, in situations that aren't logical nor are they funny, and the screenwriters seem to do the exact same thing. It's like everyone behind this film made it as one big joke on the audience, laughing between takes and simply speechless at the fact people could've wanted another outing with a character as insufferable as Joe Dirt.
On a final note, in an effort to analyze and recap this film's pathetic path to existence, Sony claimed to express interest in a Joe Dirt sequel when they noticed that, during Comedy Central's dozens of showings of the original film, the film would become a trending topic on Twitter. This prompted Sony to get the ball rolling on a sequel, but not in the conventional manner. Joe Dirt 2 wasn't going to be the theatrically released comedy sequel to a fourteen-year-old, low-key hit; it was going to be the debut sequel to premiere on Crackle, the video-streaming service owned by Sony. If we're supposed to look at Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser as the kickstarter for a video-streaming service, then this is one of the saddest and most pathetic exclusives to any website I, personally, have yet to see.
Starring: David Spade, Brittany Daniel, Patrick Warburton, Dennis Miller, Adam Beach, Mark McGrath, Christopher Walken, and Colt Ford. Directed by: Fred Wolf.
