BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) DICKIE ROBERTS: FORMER CHILD STAR
There are plenty of movies that David Spade has rocked. I remember him from Police Acamedy 4 and then his whole phase of showing up as the annoying dickish guy. This movie was probably his last starring vehicle that I can think of, which is a shame. This 2003 comedy was weird. It’s not perfect in any sense, but Spade’s performance as the washed up child actor is more endearing than the credit he’s given. This movie is the definition of “mid afternoon basic cable movie”. It’s nothing that’ll change your life, but it’s an hour and half of amusement. This is all thanks to Spade.
(THREE) LOST & FOUND
The first thing that came up when I googled this was about how it was a “huge financial failure”. Whatever. I enjoyed it. At this point David Spade made a reputation for himself for being a snarky asshole straight man or jerk. That was his range, the “jerk to asshole” range. So him doing a romantic comedy in the middle of this was pretty cool. It’s a well excused risk. The movie is charming enough, but there are a few key jokes in the movie that still make me laugh at loud.
(TWO) JOE DIRT
Steve Martin had “The Jerk” and David Spade had “Joe Dirt”. I’m sure as hell not putting “Joe Dirt” on the same level as “The Jerk” and I’m sure Spade wouldn’t either. That’s not saying it’s not pretty damn great. The Joe Dirt character is Spade’s biggest and best performance. Why they didn’t put out sequels is beyond me. Even Straight to DVD sequels would have made bank for those involved and made a lot of fans happy. There has been rumors of a Joe Dirt animated series now for what seems like forever and I hope it does happen. I think there’s a lot of untapped life left in this character. People loved the hell of it when it came out. My only worry is that I think “Larry The Cable Guy” stole so much from the character that its charm may be expired. Still worth a shot…
(ONE) TOMMY BOY
If you’re a fan of David Spade and haven’t seen “Tommy Boy” and it’s pretend sequel “Black Sheep” then you’re a liar and just dumb. “Tommy Boy” starred the comedy duo of Chris Farley and David Spade. Farley, an overweight jiggley bowl of hilarity was the perfect counterpart to Spade’s reserved snarky uptight straight man. Farley is one of my favorite comedic actors of all time and I would love to imagine some of the greatness he could have accomplished as time went on. The thing is, to me, he was rarely at his A+ funniest unless Spade was at his side. The same can be said for Spade. The chemistry between the two is so strong they shined that much brighter as a team. This movie is easily one of the funniest and best comedies of the past twenty five years and probably ever. Without putting that much thought into it, I’d had to assume if I made a list this movie would be in my Top 20 or so comedies of all time.
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