Dirty Work
Two unemployable friends turn petty vengeance into a chaotic business while racing to pay off a $50,000 debt.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Complexity
- Simple
- Violence
- Mild
- irreverent
- vulgar
- deadpan
- late night comedy
- cult movie night
What critics said
Critics broadly found the comedy scattershot, vulgar, and more groan-inducing than funny, while acknowledging occasional effective one-liners and a later cult following.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The revenge business, escalating stunts, and deliberately lowbrow gags foreground and parody stupid-comedy conventions.
Mitch and Sam turn their limited talents into a paid revenge service to raise money quickly.
Mitch and Sam cannot hold regular jobs but cooperate in increasingly reckless efforts to solve their financial crisis.
The plot incorporates a prostitute, drug dealing, gambling debt, homelessness, and raunchy revenge scenarios.
Films like Dirty Work, and why
The Cable Guy
shares irreverent lowbrow humor, buddy chemistry, and escalating revenge schemes
The Pest
shares raunchy workplace-adjacent comedy, destructive pranks, and antihero protagonists
Freddy Got Fingered
shares deadpan comic performances, vulgar absurdity, and cult-comedy sensibility
The Out-Laws
shares revenge-for-hire premises, crude comic escalation, and outsider protagonists
Movie Details
- Director
- Bob Saget
- Release Date
- 1998-06-12
- Runtime
- 82 min
- Rating
- 6.2 / 10 (319)
Cast
- Norm Macdonald
- Artie Lange
- Jack Warden
- Traylor Howard
- Christopher McDonald
- Chevy Chase
- Don Rickles
- Polly Shannon
- David Koechner
- Rebecca Romijn
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Dirty Work about?
- Two unemployable friends turn petty vengeance into a chaotic business while racing to pay off a $50,000 debt.
- What is Dirty Work like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Dirty Work as brisk, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as simple.
- Is Dirty Work violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Dirty Work as mild.
- What did critics think of Dirty Work?
- Critics broadly found the comedy scattershot, vulgar, and more groan-inducing than funny, while acknowledging occasional effective one-liners and a later cult following.
- Which films are like Dirty Work?
- Films with a similar feel include The Cable Guy, The Pest, Freddy Got Fingered, and The Out-Laws.
- How long is Dirty Work?
- Dirty Work runs 82 minutes.
- Where can I watch Dirty Work?
- In United States, Dirty Work streams on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads.
