Joe Dirt's updated backstory mostly follows the events of the first film and is set within a framing device featuring returning character Zander Kelly (Dennis Miller) recounting another firsthand narrative that begins with Dirt on a park bench speaking to a woman on the opposite side waiting for a bus. Joe comments on the comfortableness of her shoes, but the woman retorts that she does not appreciate his "Forrest Gump" style of approaching strangers. After the woman leaves, another woman sits on the bench in the same spot. As she waits for her bus to arrive, Dirt begins a conversation with her that reveals that he is waiting for a concert to end because he is part of the janitorial crew for the concert venue. When the second woman states that her bus is not in sight, she permits Dirt to tell the story of how he lost his wife and children.
Dirt recants his hometown of Silvertown, his marriage to Brandy (Brittany Daniel), and the birth of their triplet daughters, Abilene, Cheyenne, and Dakota. A dedicated father, Dirt works various jobs before he is employed as a logger. Dirt's tree-cutting coworkers show no respect for him, teasing and farting directly on him during a lunch break until Brandy and their three daughters steps in. At that moment, Joe Dirt realizes that he is a "loser" and is not seen by his daughters as the superhuman figure they once believed him to be. Dirt is also fraught with thoughts about Jimmy (Mark McGrath), a rival who seeks to win Brandy's love. A violent wind storm suddenly develops in their area, and Dirt brings his family to safety only to be obligated to retrieve a Christmas gift from the family's trailer. Once inside the trailer, Dirt is caught up in the storm and swept away in a tornado.
Elsewhere, a biker gang altercation stops short when Dirt's trailer falls out of the sky and crushes the gang's leader. Dirt emerges from the trailer to learn that by killing the leader, he must don the leader's ruby-studded boots and assume the gang's leadership role. A brief exchange with Foggle (Patrick Warburton), the gang's front man, reveals that Dirt may not be in the present time and may in fact be in the year 1965. Dirt shrugs off these comments and tends bar for the gang to get acquainted with them until Dirt's attitude and lenience begets a rebellion amongst its members, who physically toss Dirt out of the bar. Dirt escapes the scene and evades the bikers, but Foggle plans to take back the leader's boots.
While on the run from the biker gang, Dirt hops aboard a train where he has a dream about Kickin' Wing (Adam Beach), who now operates as a drug dealer exclusively selling asprin and marijuana. After waking up, Dirt figures that he might actually be in 1965 and decides to purchase collectible comic books at face value, which he buries in a locked box under a tree that he plants. At a drive-in movie theater, Dirt runs into a young woman who resembles Brandy and a young man who resembles Jimmy. Dirt tries to explain his situation to the young woman, but Dirt soon realizes that this woman is Brandy's mother. After he leaves the drive-in, Dirt sits in with local band the Wildcats after he remarks to himself that the lead singer bears a resemblance to Ronnie Van Zant. The band is revealed to be a young Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Dirt gives suggestions on new band names and song ideas along with giving them the idea that they will be very successful. When one member comments that the band will be able to afford their own airplane, a somber Dirt wishes the group well and heads out.
In seeking help with his situation, Dirt speaks to two nightclub bouncers who ask questions about Dirt's health. After they knock him unconscious, Dirt wakes up with a poorly stitched scar on his torso from having his internal organs harvested. Living on what he believes to be a desert island for 12 years, Dirt has no contact with the outside world until 1977, when a pair of women approach the unshaven Dirt asking if he is Bigfoot. Dirt swiftly realizes that he has been living just on the other side of Miami the whole time, and upon demonstrating his futuristic knowledge of NASCAR outcomes, Dirt is recruited into a gambling operation by Clem (Christopher Walken), who is at this time a crime boss.
Though Dirt lavishes in the money he earns as Clem's golden goose, his heart still begs him to seek out Brandy. Dirt travels by plane to Washington state to get closer to Silvertown, but he is slowed down by a testicular injury. After arriving at the airport and traveling to Idaho, Dirt is ambushed by the bikers from 1965, but Clem appears to shoot the Foggle and save Dirt. Upon arriving in Silvertown, Dirt catches up to the event that led him to meet Brandy only a moment too late, as Brandy's dog was saved by Jimmy. Instead of recognizing him, Brandy thanks Dirt for showing up but ends up going inside her house for tea with Jimmy.
Dirt's own telling of events is truncated when the woman on the bench promptly boards her bus, but Zander continues the story. He iterates that Dirt discovers that his guardian angel wants to earn his wings by showing Dirt what his hometown would be like without him. Silvertown has become a dystopian place with boarded businesses and homeless people. Dirt's guardian angel is revealed to be Foggle, and the angel guides him to Jimmy's mansion to find Brandy, whose marriage to Jimmy has no love, passion, or commitment left. Though she hardly remembers him from years ago, Dirt and Brandy do connect by reciting a phrase in unison. After Brandy leaves, Dirt is left distressed in Jimmy's mansion until the guardian angel notifies him that he has learned his lesson. Dirt then awakes to find his wife and children at his side. He is joyous, and he shows newfound self-esteem regarding his status as a husband and father to his daughters. He takes a walk down the road to see a familiar tree, the same tree that he planted in 1965. Muttering to himself, "No way," he digs around the tree trunk to find the box of valuable comics. Brandy then tells him that money did not impress her because money cannot buy their happiness together.
In the years following the original, David Spade began getting offers from both UFC president Dana White and Kid Rock to help finance a sequel.[3] Ultimately it was Sony who picked up the project after noticing that the film would become a trending topic whenever it came on TV and felt that it would help them build their Crackle platform.[4] The first public hint of a sequel came on April 30, 2014, David Spade revealed in a Reddit answer that he had written a sequel to Joe Dirt for Crackle, saying: "We wrote a sequel, and we may wind up doing it on Crackle.com, because they want to be the first web address to do a sequel to a movie. Because Sony owns them, and it's a Sony movie. We're trying to find a way to make it for the budget, but we really want to do it. And keep it good."[5] On October 10, 2014, it was announced that Fred Wolf would direct the film, with filming set to start in November 2014.[6]Principal photography began on November 17, 2014.[7] On January 13, 2015, it was announced that Christopher Walken, Dennis Miller, Brittany Daniel and Adam Beach would reprise their roles from the first film, alongside newcomers Mark McGrath and Patrick Warburton.[8]
Release
The film premiered on Crackle on July 16, 2015.[9] In the first five days the film had been viewed one million times and had amassed over 2 million views by August 4, 2015, making it the most viewed original movie on Crackle.[10] Based on average ticket price, Sony claims the viewership numbers are equal to a theatrical box office take of $16 million.[10]Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 5, 2016.[11]
Reception
Much like its predecessor, Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser received negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 10% rating based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 2.5 out of 10.[12][13][14]
