Bob Saget's Dirty Work (1998) certainly isn't for everyone, but I'd imagine any who's chuckled at star Norm Macdonald's brand of smirking, dry humor will enjoy themselves. Macdonald plays Mitch Weaver, a lovable smart-ass who can't hold a job and seems content palling around with best-friend-for-life Sam McKenna (Artie Lange); they've been in the revenge business since childhood, regularly dishing out payback to anyone who's wronged them. Sam's dad Pops (Jack Warden) is an ex-boxer who gave them the advice...but he's knocking on death's door and needs a heart transplant to the tune of $50,000. Naturally, his son(s) don't have anywhere close to that kind of money, so they turn their hobby into a paycheck: for the right price, they'll make sure their clients get revenge on just about anyone.

Like Mitch and Sam, Dirty Work seems more comfortable with odd jobs and one-liners than doing anything important. For the first half of its scant 81-minute lifespan (including the credits!). this lowbrow comedy bounces around without much of a story, but gradually develops into an intense rivalry between "Dirty Work, Inc." and one Travis Cole (Christopher McDonald), a smarmy real estate developer who aims to build an opera house by any means necessary. Once their paths cross, it's their scheming vs. his checkbook, which might be the only way to pay for Pops' new heart and earn some brownie points with Mitch's love interest Kathy (Traylor Howard). Also: a skunk humps a dog at one point, and there's no shortage of cameos from the likes of Chevy Chase, Chris Farley (in his last film appearance), John Goodman, Don Rickles, Rebecca Romijn, Gary Coleman, David "Todd Packer" Koechner, and Adam Sandler.

Obviously, you've got to have a certain mindset to even approach a movie like Dirty Work, let alone watch it more than once (which I have). It's most definitely a product of its time: this material fits right in with most of the Farrelly Bros.' output, the one-liners are non-stop (for better or worse), and Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" is on the soundtrack, because 1998. Bob Saget does a capable job in his directorial debut...and though the initial shock of "Danny from Full House is actually a potty-mouth" has worn off during the last 17 years, the brief descents into crudeness are only ill-timed on a few occasions; apparently it was intended to be R-rated before the studio stepped in, which may have been for the best. Don't get me wrong: Dirty Work has no shortage of problems (excessive narration, a plot full of cliches, and a story that struggles to crack the 75-minute mark, to name a few), but it still earns plenty of chuckles and even a few belly laughs almost 20 years later. That's gotta count for something, right?

Dirty Work's last appearance on home video was MGM's 1999 DVD (released only three months after the VHS edition, to put things in perspective), which might just make Olive Films' new Blu-ray a welcome surprise for die-hard fans. Unfortunately, the A/V improvements are noticeable but almost irrelevant (Artie Lange in 1080p! Third Eye Blind in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio!), and the lack of new extras makes this disc's $30 retail price sting even more.

Presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, Dirty Work looks decent enough in high definition; this is a modest improvement over MGM's 1999 DVD and miles better than any TV broadcast or fading VHS tape. Since most of this production was shot either outdoors or under natural light, it's no surprise that image detail and colors look uniformly good. A few stray scratches, scuffs and dirt can be spotted along the way, but there's no evidence of excessive noise reduction or flagrant edge enhancement. This appears to be a single-layered disc...but it barely cracks the 80-minute mark (even counting the extras), so there's little danger of compression artifacts and other such eyesores. Overall, fans will appreciate Olive's efforts on loan from MGM, as this looks a notch better than expected.

On paper, this new DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio presentation is technically an upgrade from the DVD's lossy Dolby 5.1 mix...but Dirty Work makes very little use of the surrounds and, aside from a few punchy music cues and light action scenes, there's very little going on here. Dialogue and effects are clean and well-defined without fighting for attention, while a few moments also feature strong front channel separation. So while your speakers or subwoofer won't get much of a workout overall, this lossless track is still more than acceptable for a comedy from this era. Unfortunately, no optional English subtitles or captions have been included, which isn't surprising for an Olive disc.

Dirty Work is dumb fun done mostly right: plenty of jokes stick, it's chock full of familiar faces...and even at worst, the parts that don't work are usually over soon enough. So while it falls victim to excessive voice-over narration, a plot full of cliches, and a story that struggles to crack the 75-minute mark, it's still a good time if you're in the right mood. Either way, Olive Films' Blu-ray doesn't offer much in the way of support here: the A/V presentation is only a modest step up from MGM's 1999 DVD, and the lack of bonus features makes this an expensive and trivial upgrade. Die-hard fans may want to indulge, but most everyone else will probably be happy with the DVD. Rent It.