Black Sheep

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.

Chris Farely made great comedies, sure they werent they didnt have brilliant plots, but they made you laugh. He seems to be getting overshadowed and forgotten. This along with all his other movies are not stop laughs, i would recomend this or any other movie to anyone regardless of their taste in movies. Non Stop wall to wall laughter from Chris Farely.

this movie was the best it was a great "follow-up" to Tommy Boy even though both movies had nothing to do w/ each other, had not the same story line or resemblance, not the same characters,etc. Black Sheep was great, but had kinda cheesy acting by David Spade especially when he was on that huge rock and he was trying to get a signal....that was great and hilarious, but like when he fell he made a sound thats not...right sorta i don't know. The movie was great and i know all of u have to agree that the cabin scene was the most memorable! It was great when the hail started and then the roof collapsed and then the top bunk fell and i can go on and on and really movies like these makes Chris Farley very missed by his true Black Shhep, SNL, Tommy Boy, etc. films!!!

I really didn't think TOMMY BOY was all that funny. I didn't. But I sure did like BLACK SHEEP. The film is a good film if you want a laugh. But you need to have the right sense of humor. Gene Siskel obviously did not have the correct type of humor, as he is reported to have walked out on this film. Well, that was one of his biggest mistakes, because there are far worse movies out there!

Chris Farley was funny as hell, I don't think anyone should object to that. David Spade still is pretty funny (although he lost a lot of points with me when he did JOE DIRT).

I thought this film was actually pretty good. The other members of the cast were good: Tim Matheson, Gary Busey, Grant Heslov, and Bruce McGill. All of them were funny as hell. Maybe with the exception of Gary Busey's character, who I must admit was pretty stupid. The film had a good story though, and it was sweet-natured along iwth being majorly crude and funny. I recommend ALMOST HEROES and TOMMY BOY *if* you liked this movie. BLACK SHEEP gets 4/5.

There are many words to describe "Black Sheep", and most of them begin with "un" - as in unsophisticated, uninspired, unoriginal. Still, it has some scattershot laughs. Gary Busey, for example, is brilliantly cast as a paranoid Vietnam veteran and comes through with the funniest performance by far. Chris Farley has barely one or two mildly funny moments in the entire film, but he does achieve some touching ones, and his honest efforts to amuse his audience in any way he can at least earn your respect. (**)