Doing Right By Dirty Work

Man, Vinegar Syndrome is full of surprises these day, and I am here for it.  I remember in the early days of DVD that somebody would give the Norm MacDonald vehicle Dirty Work a special edition.  And I remember long ago giving up any hope of that.  But now Vinegar Syndrome has done it!  We're talking commentaries, interviews, a documentary... the whole bit.  And not just that, but they've restored footage cut for its PG-13 rating for a packed 3-disc, UHD/ BD set.  Oh yeah, they've restored it in 4k from the original negatives, too.  Yes, I'm talking about 1998's Dirty Work; this is not a prank.

I saw was a big enough Dirty Work fan that I saw this in theaters, unlike most of America.  It's a crazy, irreverent and cheerfully lowbrow comedy, and even though it's a small supporting role for him, one of Chevy Chase's best film work.  Really, everybody's great from Jack Warden (12 Angry Men, Bullets Over Broadway) to Chris Farley, and of course Artie Lange in a rare starring role.  And even back then I noticed there had to have been stuff cut out of it, because there's this running gag where Norm records all these "note to self"s throughout the film on a pocket tape recorder.  And there's a scene where he's thrown out of a building without the recorder in his hand, and in the next shot, he's standing up and putting it in his pocket.  So clearly there was a note joke there they cut out.  And so when the DVD and laserdisc came out, I was checking the back of both thinking, there had to at least be some deleted scenes.

A scene only in the "dirtier" cut top; a scene only in the PG-13 cut bottom.

So when Vinegar Syndrome announced they were restoring the R-rated cut that MacDonald and director Bob Saget (America's Funniest Home Videos) had always wanted to release, I was psyched.  It's actually only one minute and fifty-four seconds longer, but that's because they there's a lot of substitution.  Explicit words and phrases like "anal rape" had been replaced with "other thing," which this new "dirtier" cut was now putting back.  And a whole sequence, where Norm and Artie got revenge by putting doughnuts on their cocks had been replaced by an equally long bit where they're hired by a circus midget to get revenge on the bearded lady (Rebecca Romijn).  So, one was replaced by the other, meaning it's a huge difference, even though the running time is barely effected.

a scene only in the assembly cut.

You know what isn't there, though?  that "note to self" gag, which is cut the same way in both versions.  That tape recorder just magically appears in his hand after a cut, only for him to immediately tuck it away into his pocket.  I would've been bummed except, by the time I was watching the newly restored "dirtier version," I already knew VS had also included a rough "Assembly Cut" on another disc - and this one's thirty-nine minutes and fifty-one seconds longer!  And sure enough, that gag is in there, and so is a whole bunch more deleted footage.  Now, this is a rough cut that was never intended to be released, so the pacing is off, and it's more of interest as a collection of deleted scenes and a historical artifact than a properly viable version of the film (luckily, since it's sourced from tape and looks terrible).  But fans should be thrilled.  And if we're being perfectly honest, not even the "dirtier" cut is really any better than the theatrical cut.  It's just different, and definitely of interest, but not actually better.  It's not worse either; it's essentially a side-grade in that regard.  So it's great that VS restored and included the PG-13 cut as well.  We get it all here.

MGM released Dirty Work on DVD as a new release in 1999.  It was a barebones, but at least respectably anamorphic widescreen disc.  And that was all fans had to live on until Olive Films eventually upgraded the film to blu-ray in 2015.  It was still barebones, but it would've been unrealistic to expect any more at that point.  At least we had the film in HD.  And that's where everyone expected it to end, until Vinegar Syndrome announced their massive, 3-disc UHD special edition set this year featuring all three aforementioned cuts.

1) 1999 MGM DVD; 2) 2015 Olive BD; 3) 2025 VS BD;
4) 2025 VS (assembly cut) BD; 5) 2025 VS UHD.

All the blu-rays are displayed in the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but the DVD went the "no black bars" route of 1.77:1, which you can see crops some off the sides.  The assembly cut actually trims the sides similarly, but stays 1.85:1 by also trimming along the top and bottom.  That cut is in SD, though, and is really more of a bonus feature than a serious presentation of the film: ripped from tape, over-exposed and has a frame-rate issue where some frames are doubled.  In terms of earnest presentation of the film, it's a steady progression from release to release.  The DVD has a very slight red hue, which Olive corrects, while naturally sharpening up the image simply by boosting it to HD.  It doesn't have the compression issues of the DVD, but it still looks pretty soft up close.  Compare that to VS's fresh 4k scan of the OCN, and it's a massive improvement even when comparing the two 1080p blus.  Olive's disc doesn't even hint at the film grain that's comprising the picture, while VS brings it fully to light, almost as perfectly represented as the UHD.  One thing to note about VS's transfer though, is that the contrast is deep with bold blacks, and really striking saturation.  In the extras, the filmmakers talk about how the primary colors are meant to be strong, to hint at the cartoon-like nature of the film; but even so, I'd say VS have made a strong choice here.  It's possibly a little too much, but it is a striking look, and the picture quality is such an upgrade in every other respect, you can't be too mad at it.

MGM's DVD presents the film in its original 5.1 mix, with an alternate French dub (also 5.1), plus English and French subtitles.  Olive drops the French stuff, and more disappointingly the English subs, but bumps the English 5.1 to DTS-HD.  And now Vinegar Syndrome brings back the English subs and gives us both the 5.1 and a stereo mix in DTS-HD for both versions.  The Assembly cut, though, just has lossy 2.0 with no subs.

MGM and Olive both had the theatrical trailer, but that was it.  Vinegar Syndrome, on the other hand, is packed with a ton of great stuff.  The one caveat?  Redundancy is off the charts.  First, we have two audio commentaries, one with writer Frank Sebastiano and a second with Sebastiano and co-writer Fred Wolf.  Both have some great info, but the phrase you'll hear most often on the second commentary is, "as I said on the other commentary," followed by him repeating an anecdote or whatever nearly verbatim.  There are unique bits in each one, so dedicated fans will want to listen to both.  But for more casual fans, I'd recommend just picking one.  Either one.

"As I said in my interview" comes up a couple times, too.  There's a great hour-long documentary, which features both the above writers and a ton of cast and crew.  Admittedly, none of the big stars, but an impressive list of small players, like the guy who played the crossing card in the flashback or the woman who played "the Saigon whore who bit my nose off!"  They all have fun things to say, though yes, some of them will repeat the same observations about the stars, and yes, both the writers from the commentaries are here, too, repeating some content from those.  Then there's a series of interviews, ten in total, all but one culled from the documentary.  You could call them "documentary extended scenes," honestly, because they all use the same clips from the documentary, telling the same stories, but each one is expands on what they had to say in their solo interview.

The documentary is pretty great, and each interview taken in isolation is a treat, but just watching this disc straight through becomes a bit of a grind, listening to the same things again and again.  Especially when they all use the same small handful of clips from the film over and over again, too.  You might've found the line "here's your two dollars" funny the first time, but we'll see if you're still laughing the ninth or tenth time in a two hour stretch.  Anyway, I said "all but one," because there is one unique interview where actor and fellow SNL alumni Jim Downey shares some of his humorous text messages with Norm McDonald.  That's unique to that one interview, so go ahead and watch that.  Besides that, there's an alternate extended ending (they were right to cut it, but it's interesting to see) and the trailer.  This release comes with reversible artwork, and if you bought the limited edition, a slipbox and 40-page booklet.

So don't let my criticisms (did I mention that the artwork on the discs themselves is heinous and makes it very hard to determine which disc is which?) discourage you from picking this up and diving in; just be selective as you go.  Because they did a fantastic job pulling all of this together.  It's clearly a labor of love, and it's what fans have spent decades wishing for.  It's truly an ultimate edition, and as I've said before, I always prefer a release err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion.  They've certainly done that.