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.

Black Sheep is a comedy starring the late Chris Farley and David Spade. Farely and Spade make their return back on their follow up to Tommy Boy. As much as I do enjoy both films, I would say I enjoy this one a little more. The movie truly screams 90s all over. It centers around Mike Donnelly (Chris Farely) and his brother Al's (Tim Matheson) campaign aid Steve Dodds (David Spade) as AL is trying to win the nomination for Govenor. Mike means well as he tries to help his brother, but through various unfortunate events it seems to hurt more than help. Eventually they are able to start getting on the right track and get the help of none other than Drake Sabitch (Garey Busey)

So grab your signs, make your way to the polls and vote for AL Donnelly!

After the enormous success of TOMMY BOY, it was expected that Chris Farley and David Spade would star in another movie together. What wasn't expected was that the two movies would be so similar. In TOMMY BOY, Richard Hayden (David Spade) must look after the sweet, but clumsy Tommy Callahan (Chris Farley) so he doesn't mess up the family business. In BLACK SHEEP, Steve Dodds (David Spade) is hired by Mike Donnelly's (Chris Farley) brother to look after the sweet, but clumsy Mike so he doesn't mess up an upcoming campaign. While the plots of the two movies aren't exactly identical, they are similar enough to give the feeling that BLACK SHEEP was somewhat rushed into theaters in order to capitalize on the popularity of the duo.

Opening on February 2, 1996, just eleven months after the March 1995 release of TOMMY BOY, BLACK SHEEP received dismal reviews (Gene Siskel said that this was the first film he walked out on in 26 years of reviewing movies). However, the dismal reviews weren't enough to keep audiences away from the theaters and the movie made a decent $32 million, which isn't necessarily a hit, but good nonetheless.

As a major fan of both Chris Farley and David Spade, I find this movie to be one of the funniest comedies from the 1990s. I used to like it even more than I liked TOMMY BOY although I now see that TOMMY BOY is certainly the better movie. Both TOMMY BOY and BLACK SHEEP have some of the most memorable moments in comedy history, though TOMMY BOY has a lot more of them.

Watch TOMMY BOY and BLACK SHEEP back to back and prepare to laugh like you have never laughed before. Chris Farley and David Spade are, in my opinion, the funniest duo ever to appear onscreen. It's a shame they didn't get to make a more movies together before Farley's death.

My rating: ***1/2

Hmm, I remember watching this movie a while back...and I must say it is STILL one of the few movies I ever just refused to finish...I looked at the clock and there was half an hour left and I was not gonna make it...think I stopped it when they were near some trailer...I can remember ONE good scene in it..where Farley says "Kill Whitey!!"..that was funny..but was this movie up to Tommy Boy standards?? Oh god no...not even CLOSE...and you thought Tommy Boy had little plot?? Look at THIS movie, it doesn't even have one, I refuse to believe it does...I was just shaking my head the whole time, because I had actually heard this movie was FUNNY...imagine my surprise...the whole fiasco in the cabin?? Not amusing...more or less stupid...I'll go with the more option there...anyways if anybody out there hasn't seen this yet...save yourself an hour and a half and don't bother.

Anyone who wouldn't sit down and watch this again for kicks with someone else is simply pressed for time. I'll admit it is pretty cheesy, but Chris Farley is one of the greatest. You get to see his act develop in this film because I'm pretty sure this was an early one in his career. The stage act was hilarious and so was the security guard bit. The plot of the movie isn't fantastic but since its a comedy its easy to give that a pass. The ending is at the very least unpredictable. I wont spoil anything, but the end is an action packed head scratcher. I'm done with this review and if you're reading this far into my review you've probably already wasted a whole 3 minutes of your life. So, might as well waste another 1 hour and 27 on this "jumpy" comedy.