Dirty Work

Mitch has just lost yet another job and been dumped by his girlfriend when his best friend Sam learns that Sam's father, Pops, needs a heart transplant. The surgeon who can arrange the operation wants fifty thousand dollars up front, and neither man has any prospect of earning it honestly. What the two childhood friends do have is a long history of settling scores, so they turn that talent into a business: a revenge-for-hire operation that takes on other people's grudges for a fee. Their work brings them into conflict with Travis Cole, a wealthy real-estate developer who refuses to pay them after they complete a job for him.

Bob Saget directed the film, his first feature behind the camera, from a screenplay by Norm Macdonald, Frank Sebastiano and Fred Wolf. Macdonald stars as Mitch alongside Artie Lange as Sam, with Jack Warden as Pops, Traylor Howard as Kathy, Christopher McDonald as Cole and Chevy Chase as Dr. Farthing. It runs eighty-two minutes and was produced by Robert Simonds for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and associated companies.

Made for about thirteen million dollars, the comedy took in roughly ten million worldwide, falling short of its budget during its theatrical run. On IMDb it holds a 6.4 rating from around thirty-three thousand votes, and on TMDB a 6.2 from a much smaller sample of a few hundred. Critics were far harsher than audiences, giving it 3.6 out of 10 across fifty-eight reviews.