User Reviews

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. (**)

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.

You need to take this film at face value. It is not trying to be clever. It is simply out and out slap stick routine stretched out through decently scripted film.

This films simple premise is to make you laugh. It certainly made me laugh. The over the top jokes, scenarios and pain really brought this to life as a silly belly laughfest.

Nice light hearted comedy offering a laugh to all ages. I think a no brainer comedy is a good thing to lift spirits and raise a smile.

I cant imagine anyone not finding this film funny in one way or another. If you like the comedy style of Jim Carey and movement of Lee Evans or Rowan Atkinson then I recommend you give this a go.

Enjoy

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

No, this isn't the best movie or even comedy ever made. And, yes, they set up a similar relationship between the same actors as in another movie, "Tommy Boy".

If you're one of the geeks who submitted one of the completely anal "Goofs" comments for ANY IMDB movie (or if you don't think some of the "Goofs" comments are anal) then I'm sure you won't like this movie -- don't even bother watching it. :-) I get a good laugh just from reading those comments for any movie I'm watching.

The bottom line is I laughed, my wife laughed, and my kids laughed throughout this movie. Why did my wife laugh? Because this movie is "fun". If you need more than that find another movie, but that doesn't mean this movie can't find a sizable audience that doesn't include you.

Starring Chris Farley and David Spade, "Black Sheep" is yet another SNL-like comedy produced by creator Lorne Michaels. The movie starts with Mike Donnelly, portrayed by Chris Farley, whose brother is running for governor of Washington, but it turns out that his crazy shenanigans is ruining the campaign. So his brother sends out his personal assistant, portrayed by David Spade, to help keep Mike under control before the big campaign. "Black Sheep" is not a sequel to "Tommy Boy", even though they are both produced by Lorne Michaels, and they both have a special SNL quality to it, and the duo of Chris Farley and David Spade are back, only they are in different roles this time. This movie does have the same formula, but even if it's funny and enjoying, this is not as good as it's previous competition. It was glad to see Farley and Spade back on screen together after they previously worked with each other on "Tommy Boy". They are still wacky and funny like always, and it was really nice to see these two maniacs on screen. But neither one of them brings a unique or really good performance. But I would rather like to see these guys bullying each other, and bond with one quick one-liner after another, like in "Tommy Boy". But they don't accomplish that this time. I did laugh out loud at times, but it was just until later in the movie where almost everything becomes less funny. But let's not forget that Gary Busey, with two horrible-looking buck front teeth, makes an appearance in this movie, and it's just flat-out-weird. "Black Sheep" may be considered as one of the 90s worst movies to others. But I knew what I wanted to see, and I enjoyed another SNL Farley-Spade duo motion picture. "Black Sheep", in my review, "completely untraditional, but somewhat hilarious".

I thoroughly enjoyed this flick. Farley is a talent comedian, and is just lovable in this tale. David Spade is also pretty good as his foil. With Christine Ebersole as the villain, you have a good film with very talented comedians playing the leads. It's a shame that Chris Farley died so young, for he and Spade could have rolled out a series of light comedies like this one. Farley, Spade, and Ebersole are representatives of what Saturday Night Live was like when it was good. This film is unjustly maligned, and deserves more praise then it gets. Just plain funny. It's much better than Tommy Boy, and Farley's good boy antics are nonstop. You'll really enjoy it.

While many critics did not like the comedy duo of Chris Farley and David Spade I thought those guys were funny and while 1995's "Tommy Boy" was panned miserably by critics I thought that film was hilarious. Since that film did well at the box office director Penelope Spheeris who made the hilarious "Wayne's World", lost her directing skills a little bit with "The Beverly Hillbillies", and improved once again with a 90's version of "The Little Rascals" thought it would be a good idea to re-team the comedy duo for another film that would be released almost a year after "Tommy Boy". Boy did she make a HUGE mistake. This film makes "The Beverly Hillbillies" look like "Citizen Kane"! The story of how I got to watch "Black Sheep" was after I saw "Tommy Boy" and loved it I took a trip to Blockbuster and picked this up. I thought it would be hilarious the storyline seemed funny but there was not one part in this film I laughed at. If you don't know even Gene Siskel before he died said this was the only film he ever walked out on in a theater since "Million Dollar Duck" in 1971 which forced Roger Ebert to say "boy Gene I envy you". So do I Mr. Siskel and I typically listen to audiences not critics. But I should have listened to you in this case. I even turned this off immediately and turned it back to Blockbuster because it sucked so much. An embarrassing waste of talent. If you need something to watch with Farley try his next film after this called "Beverly Hills Ninja" it is hilarious. If you under any circumstances see "Black Sheep" I will never recommend a good film to you again.

Reviews of this film were less than favourable but since I enjoyed the Farley/Spade partnership so much in Tommy Boy I thought I would check this one out as well.

Farley does alot of falling over and generally self abuse in this one, for instance when he tumbles down a mountain side and then gets up and says "What was that all about?".

The bit where the bunk bed collapses on top of Spade during the hail storm and the "Power to the People" speech at the rock concert are hilarious.

Most viewed this film as inane and childish - one reviewer I distinctly remember said that he would rather have Des O'Connor sing him the phone book than watch this again - but I found myself laughing many times.

I call this the better Chris Farley movie made. I never cared much for any of Chris Farley's movies, but with a lot of thanks to David Spade's and Gary Busey's rolls in Black Sheep, the movie was truly one of their best movies made.

I will admit that the whole movie has a lot of unbelievable moments especially in the beginning and ending scenes of the movie, but I will say that the Gary Busey/Drake Sabitch character had a very important roll in this movie, alongside David Spade, made Black Sheep rather entertaining, which seemed to make Black Sheep the best Chris Farley movie I've ever seen.

`Black Sheep'

In this basic rehash of `Tommy Boy,' an equally unimpressive comedy, David Spade plays an election aide who must watch over a candidate's brother, Chris Farley, a chubby, loudmouthed, obnoxious, loose cannon. If Farley gets in the spotlight for anything bad, like he usually does, the candidate's hopes for election are slim. So, Spade has the thankless task of hiding out with the fat man in a cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere. But, of course, since this is a comedy, Farley gets away, and Spade, who cannot tell him why he's hiding him without hurting his feelings, drags along after Farley trying to convince him to come back...or something like that…

Despite being directed by `Wayne's World' director Penelope Spheeris, this film's very basic and juvenile comedy is nothing good. At all. The jokes (if you can call them that) almost all fall flat, and I rarely laughed.

David Spade's character is a bland, dull, lifeless and immobile creature who we could not care for one way or another, no matter how bad things get.

Chris Farley is just plain annoying, as always, with his off-the-wall antics and loudmouthed `jokes' that are more outbursts than anything else. I sometimes wonder if fellow `SNL' comedian Mike Myers was playing for more than just a disgusting character when he created Fat Basta^&… for `Austin Powers'?

`Black Sheep' is the kind of movie that no one is talking about the next day. It is utterly forgettable and very, very, VERY basic. It's not an awful comedy, mind you, because I have seen much worse; however, there is really nothing to recommend about `Black Sheep.'

People said Chris Farley was the next John Candy, but John Candy will never be matched. John Candy's comedic talent lay in true comedy. He could make us laugh while making us cry. Candy was a good – great – comedian. He had all the traits of a one-in-a-million kind of actor.

Farley, on the other hand, gained his laughs by making stupid outbursts, like `I bought a kite from a bald guy!' that are so odd that people laugh at not because they are funny, but because they are odd.

People should be glad that Farley died, because he would have worn out with America, just like David Spade did; unfortunately, even good `Saturday Night Live' comedians like Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon (Hans and Franz) etc. are all dying out. It's too bad that comedians who are usually remembered for being great are people like Farley – annoying, loudmouthed slobs who hadn't an ounce of real comic talent in them.

I think that people should realize, in the future, that just because a comedian is fat he is NOT John Candy.

2/5 stars – basic comedy –

John Ulmer

Black Sheep is one of the most hilarious movies I have seen... I am a big Farley, Spade fan and this is just as funny as Tommy Boy... no one does it better then Farley when it comes to physical humor, and the dry humor that David Spade delivers is knee slapping funny... I definitely recommend this movie!

I just laughed and laughed and laughed so hard all my way thru the movie. This is ten times funner than Tommy Boy, but some say the opposite. But maybe they don´t love(d) Chris Farley as much as I do. Black Sheep is Chris Farleys funniest movie. Beverly Hills Ninja is right behind.

Black Sheep: 9

What went wrong with this movie? I can think of a couple of things.

1) Farley and Spade were a match made in comedy heaven. But that doesn't mean they had to act like Farley and Spade very second of this movie.

2) There's no effort whatsoever in building their characters. They take for granted the moviegoing viewer automatically knows Farley is loud and Spade is sarcastic.

3) The jokes seem to be aimed at the 10 year old crowd.

4) The whole movie seems to be riding in "Tommy Boy"'s wake.

Take everything that was right with "Tommy Boy" (the family values, sweetness, the raunchy comedy, etc.), multiply it by 10, and you end up with a movie that tries too hard to be what it is not.

Namely, funny.

What are you waiting for? Go rent "Tommy Boy" and forget about this one.

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.

In his famous TV show, (At The Movies), film critic Gene Siskel said that this was the first film he walked out on in 26 years of reviewing movies. Well, maybe he was having intestinal problem at the moment!

When an important critic says that, it doesn't mean necessarily that he's right. Originally, you are the one who can make Siskel's reviews, or else's, look right or not. Because any film critic is speaking his own mind, not yours. Sometimes it's the same thing. And sometimes it isn't. This time, obviously for me, it isn't!

This is not a bad movie. The word "intolerable" got no relation with it whatsoever. It's a light and sweet slapstick. Nothing is too goofy or too zany. No one showed ridiculous performance. It reminded me with the work of Laurel & Hardy, yet in colors, and with somehow thrilling plot. Chris Farley is doing his routine, and the chemistry between him and David Spade is working.

The actual problem was that this movie came after (Tommy Boy - 1995) which was a better movie. So the disappointment had to be powerful. And yes, you have to ask yourself; why after a comic detailed breakthrough such as (Tommy..), the new dual goes and make something which's clearly not better, or as good?! I believe the studio didn't know how to deal with the newly born star. So, they handled him any script just to exploit his success. But that wasn't for the sake of his career, us, and them; since the movie didn't hit the mark as its precedent.

The easy plan to invest Farley this time was by the reoccurrence of (Tommy..)'s factors. And sorrowfully Farley accepted it. Therefore some gags from the original (Tommy Boy) were recycled, however on a poor level with not much to support it either. For instance: the idea of idiot Farley and rational Spade, the problem of their sleep, even Spade got nothing new to show this round; he was repeating the whole thing yet weakly. And for some, it was hard to believe that the tongue-in-cheek was the movie's main, or only, goods!

Though, (Black Sheep) isn't really a Black Sheep. It is relaxingly uncomplicated, and has its moments. Just imagine that it was made before (Tommy..) and they had to release it later, and everything will be fine. I loved its innocent cartoonish sense, running gags, the character of the old lunatic veteran (Oh God! So Gary Busey CAN do comedy!! WAW the more you live, the more you see!), and the whole wacky time of it, where I didn't feel a single second of cheesiness, or repulsiveness, or bore.

Dear late Gene Siskel.. I admire many of your opinions. But, you were totally unfair towards this one. 1996 got some of the real agonizing comedies. (Kingpin) and (The Cable Guy) are little examples. Sometimes the critic, even the ordinary viewer, stands many movies good or bad, one after another, to have no patience for more. So walking out on a movie could mean that one critic was being tortured by one movie. Or that one critic just, for a reason out of the movie, couldn't have a good time.

'Black Sheep' is a decent comedy from the 1990's, that offers laughter here and there. But, the main reason why I really enjoyed this film was - The Great Chris Farley. In the lead role, the late legend delivers a lovable performance, that only goes onto to say, what a talent he was!

'Black Sheep' Synopsis: A gubernatorial candidate hires a wormy special assistant whose only job is to make sure the candidate's well-meaning but incompetent brother doesn't ruin the election.

Fred Wolf's Screenplay is funny in parts. However, the writing could've been tighter & more cohesive. Penelope Spheeris Directs this Light-Hearted Comedy, ably. Cinematography, Editing & Art Design, are ordinary.

Performance-Wise: It's Farley all the way. He delivers, as mentioned, a lovable performance. Also, he suits the role perfectly. David Spade contributes nicely in some sequences. Tim Matheson is perfect. Christine Ebersole is fair. Gary Busey & Grant Heslov are as usual.

On the whole, 'Black Sheep' is a decent comedy, with Farley ruling the show.

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.

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 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!

When We Look Back At The Great Chris Farley's TV/Movie Carrer, We See Great Movies (Tommy Boy) And Great SNL Sketchs ("CAUSE I LIVE IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER !!!!!!!!!"), But Every Great Star Has, At Least, One Bad And Regetable Movie, This Is It. "Black Sheep". The 2nd Collabration Wihth Farley And David Spade. Fresh From "Tommy Boy". They Try Their Best. But Fail Ultimatly. Mainly Cause Spade's Too Soft, And, I Don't Know About You, But Hearing Farley Scream And Yell Like A Psychopath The First 600 Times Gets On Your Nerves (Right Up There With "How ROOde !").

As A Republican, I Was Glad The Gubernational Canidates (One Is The "Brother" Of Farley's Character) Were Never Refered By Their Parties, If The Evil One Was A Rep. I Would Be Offended, If She Was A Dem. My Friends Would Be Offended.

The Plot Is That Mike Tries To Help His Bro, Al Win The Governorship Of Washington (State), But Screws Up Everytime, And Spade Is Assigned To Babysit Him, But Fails Of Course, And Then They Discover That The Incubent Gov (Who Is Unrealistly Evil) Is Trying To Take Advantige Of The Dope's Pratfalls As Political Gain.

Sounds Like A Good Story, But The Graphic Drug Humor, Humorous, But Disturbing Violence, The Sicking Sex Jokes, And Farley's Screaming, Kill The Movie.

Nice Effort, But It Sucked.

Out Of A Scale Of 1 - 10, 2-Very Bad

Black Sheep is one of the two films in which Chris Farley stars alongside the constant sarcasm of David Spade (the other being Tommy Boy, which is almost as funny), and the results are childish but endlessly amusing. Farley plays Mike Donnelly, the younger and nuttier brother of Al Donnelly, who is campaigning to be governor of Washington. Mike's seemingly constant screw-ups, which cause serious havoc during his brother's campaign, provide for the majority of the comedy in the film. There can be no mistake that this is entirely slapstick comedy, but it succeeds very well because Farley can pull it off so well. The hopelessly geeky Spade balances out Farley's hyper-activity with his collected but nerdy performance, leaving us with an odd couple that could be called a slightly less mature version of that of the late Walter Matthou and the later Jack Lemmon (a moment of silence for Matthou, Lemmon, and Farley, would be in order about now…).

It is strange that such an immature film could deal so extensively with a relatively serious subject as politics and still manage to keep the slapstick successful, especially since there are moments of real emotion in the film. Gary Busey appears in a small but very effective and amusing role as Sgt. Drake Savage, a military-minded guy who ultimately seems to have a heart of gold. The interactions between him and Spade are some of the funniest moments in the film, along with the constant humor that seems to always be emanating from Farley. The cabin scene with Mike and Steve (Spade) is especially amusing ("I got dibs on top bunk!").

I am not going to attempt to say that Black Sheep is a truly intellectual film, nor is there anything particularly amazing about the script or direction, but the comedy is excellent, there can be no mistake about that. I mean, Tommy Boy and other movies, like Major Payne, are no cerebral workouts either, but the comedy is there. That's the reason to watch these movies, and to their credit, you can tell that just by looking at the cover. You probably won't learn anything or see the portrayal of many serious issues in a movie like Black Sheep, but you will laugh heartily and you will remember it for that.

Chris farley can do better. Ex: Tommy Boy, Beverly Hills Ninga. It was funny at some parts but I didn't like the plot to much. Rent Tommy Boy instead.

Fred Wolf wrote this because he was contractually obligated to. I turned it off because I has so no such obligations.