Black Sheep (1996)

Undescribable Perfection

People are voting emotionally.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I first watched this comedy starring Chris Farley (as Mike Donnelly) a couple years ago. By that time, I had seen "Tommy Boy" and "Beverly Hills Ninja" (two other comedies starring Chris Farley), and after watching all three of these movies, I think I liked them all to some degree. However, after watching them all again recently, I think "Tommy Boy" is the only one that's really decent. "Black Sheep", the second of the three, is slightly better than BHN, but that doesn't mean it's very good.Mike Donnelly is the younger brother of Al, who is running for Washington State Governor. Unfortunately, although Mike means well, he is very clumsy, and often unintentionally gets into trouble. This lowers the chances of Al winning the election, and it doesn't help that his opponent, Gov. Tracy, is exploiting Mike's uncouth tendencies by having pictures taken of him that make him look like a criminal! Al assigns Steve Dodds, one of his campaign aides, to make sure Mike doesn't cause any trouble during the election. Mike and Steve go to stay in a cabin in a rural area, and keeping Mike out of trouble turns out to be a difficult job for Steve. In addition to that, the two find that staying in this cabin isn't always easy.As you can tell by the plot, Chris Farley plays a well-meaning but clumsy, uncouth loony, as usual. You can also expect a lot of slapstick from this movie. However, as much as I usually love slapstick, I can tell when it's done well and when it's not. Sadly, "Black Sheep" is a case of slapstick done poorly. The gags are usually very simple and often lame. For example, with Mike sleeping on the top bunk in the cabin and Steve sleeping on the bottom as the roof blows off during a storm, despite how long Mike lies there, putting a lot of weight on the mattress, it's so obvious that he will eventually fall on Steve, and when it happens, it's not funny. Now, some parts did make me smile or snicker slightly, such as Mike freaking out over the dogs chasing his truck, Steve whacking Mike repeatedly with a broom to try and kill a bat, and Al seeing his brother on TV at the rock-the-vote concert, making a fool of himself, but all this is not enough.Like "Tommy Boy", Chris Farley and David Spade co-starred in this film, and it isn't surprising that many fans of the 1995 comedy have been disappointed by this 1996 follow-up. Personally, I don't think "Tommy Boy" is a masterpiece, but it's reasonable. "Black Sheep", however, while not quite as unfunny as "Beverly Hills Ninja", the Chris Farley movie that followed, is mediocre overall. It has been nearly ten years since Chris Farley's tragic death, but he made many people laugh during his career, and continues to do so today. The best thing to remember him for is probably the classic "Saturday Night Live" sketches he was in, but clearly, "Black Sheep" is not something to remember him for.

If you're going to be crude, and-or outrageous, you better be funny.I know the guy's dead but I'm sorry: I don't what the attraction ever was for actor Chris Farley. He and the movies he was in, generally speaking, were trash, I mean absolute garbage. He was a huge, slobby guy and not funny. You can be a big slob and still be a real likable actor, like John Candy. But, this guy was no John Candy. David Spade, his comedic partner in this film, isn't exactly the Bob Hope of comedians for this age, either.This is a typically crude PG-13 comedy of today that does have it's funny moments but overall is low class. In this film, believe me, most of the skits were not funny and they are the usual sex jokes. Hollywood is obsessed with sex in its comedy movies. Hey, I can laugh at dumb humor with the best of 'em, and I'll laugh at good sex joke, too, but I couldn't find that many good sketches in here. That's the film really is, one sketch after another featuring Farley and/or Spade. This guys did better in "Tommy Boy," but not much better. It's these kind of films that give today's comedy films a bad name.

Black Sheep is a pretty funny Comedy, at times often laugh out loud hilarious, and Farley and Spade just have great chemistry together!, plus, the scene where Farley and Spade act as police officers and get stoned from the Nitrous Oxide is absolutely a scream!. I really don't know how Tim Matheson played it straight around Farley, cause that guy is just hilarious, and the ending is a big hoot as well, and will have you in stitches, plus while it may be a rerun of other films I still found it to be funny as hell. Gary Busey is a riot in his role as a crazy former Sgt. and it's a damn shame Farley died when he did cause he was so funny and I was looking forward to seeing more great funny films of his, plus slapstick and buffoon humor is right up my alley so of course I enjoyed this!. Overall This is a pretty funny comedy, that had me in stitches quite a bit of the time and I say this is a must see for all Farley and slapstick fans!. ***1/2 out of 5The Acting is fun!. Chris Farley is funny as hell, he always cracks me up with his funny outbursts, this guy goes non stop, as I love his type of humor, it's just a shame he's not around anymore R.I.P Chris. David Spade is great here he had excellent chemistry with Farley and was also hilarious, I thought he did a great job. Tim Matheson is great as the brother Al and Governor candidate and the most incredible thing is he played everything straight!. Christine Ebersole is decent as the villain as the Govenor who is a crook I rather liked her. Gary Busey is a riot as the Vietnam veteran, he plays crazy so well and just cracked me up I love this guy!. Bruce McGill is good in his short role.

Chris Farley was a movie genius. Fresh from SNL he made lots of funny movies, my favorite of his being "Almost Heroes". He had collaborated with David Spade before on "Tommy Boy". They both made a pretty good team in the movies. They were both pretty hilarious and it was a shame that Farley had died sometime later. So was this better than "Tommy Boy" you ask? NO! This was OK, but did not even come close to what "Tommy Boy" accomplished. So here is the plot: Al Donnely (Tim Matheson) is running for Govener of Washington and to ensure a clean election he hires his aide Steve Dodds (Spade) to keep an eye on his kindhearted but clumsy brother Mike Donnely (Farley). So the race to beat their competitor Govener Tracy (Christine Ebersole) begins so that Al can become the next Govener of Washington. The acting is sub par and mostly only Farley makes it up to snuff with the material he is handed. Spade on the other hand is probably thinking, I could be making "Joe Dirt" right about now, but is still pretty good in the role he is given, but still could be better. Their is a scene where Farley is smoking weed and that is what ultimately led to his death in 1997. All in all a good and interesting movie for a couple of viewings.2 1/2 out of 4 stars