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Black Sheep (1996)

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76 comments in total

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Not as good as TOMMY BOY, but still one of the better comedies from the 1990s!, 6 July 2004
Author: jellyneckr

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

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Lame, to put it mildly, but bearable., 1 August 2003

Author: gridoon

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. (**)

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Actually pretty funny Farley comedy, that I really enjoyed Farley and Spade make a great team!, 23 June 2007

Author: (callanvass@hotmail.com) from victoria b.c canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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 5

The 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.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
chris farley and david spade!!!, 7 August 2002

Author: skatemachine from vermont

this movie is awesome! i actually thought that this was funnier than tommy boy, dont get me wrong i love tommy boy, but black sheep is the ultimate. this movie has everything you could ask for. whoever dosent like this movie dosent have a heart, because first of all chris farley is dead, second of all he was one of the most funniest people alive... i could go on and on about how perfect this movie is but i think i will stop here.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely hilarious!, 17 January 2002

Author: J. Phillips (smashattack) from Colorado

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Spoilers may appear. I must say I have no idea how this movie has an average of four on IMDb.com. This movie will completely tear you up over and over with side-splitting antics and great jokes.

I read a review on another site that said, in comparison to Tommy Boy, Black Sheep has no plot and is nowhere near as funny. Wrong! The plot may be just as shallow, but the comic antics in this movie shoot way above Tommy Boy. For instance, Chris Farley and David Spade enter the cabin and find that it is infested with one single bat. They go crazy and wreck everything in the cabin, and Chris Farley's character assumes "It's Ozzy Osbourne!"

Okay, maybe you have to watch it to get it.

The plot isn't as bad as people make it out to be, but the storyline does tend to get a little foggy in places. However, the extensive appearance of crude humor and excellent acting make this movie a classic comedy.

If you like hilarious movies, then this is definitely one to see.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Tommy Boy... Part II... and you will just keep laughing!, 31 January 2001

Author: Tomm Bauer from New Jersey, United States

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!

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Quite possibly the late Chris Farley's funniest movie., 25 July 2001

Author: Michael DeZubiria (miked32@hotmail.com) from Luoyang, China

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.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
GREAT COMEDY SLAPSTICK!, 18 April 2001

Author: GrantCAGE from LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

GREAT comedy!!!!! I loved Tommy Boy with Chris Farley and David Spade in, and this is fantastic too! Great storyline too! Basically Al Donally is running for Governer and he wants to keep his accident-prone brother Mike (Farley) out of the way! So Al's new top adviser Steve Dodds (Spade) tries to keep Mike under wraps until after the election! Needless to say everything goes pear-shaped and you don't have to be a genius to work out the ending. But this is funny, light-hearted stuff and I laughed out loud loads of times throughout the movie! Great story, Great stars, Great film!

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A job well done., 1 February 2003
Author: Jack the Ripper1888 from Chicagooooooo

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.

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6 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
pretty funny, 2 July 2003

Author: colinwhitefan

I found Black Sheep really funny, I watch it over and over and still laugh so I guess it is still good. Farley and Spade made a great team on these films, but I liked Gary Busey's character the old vet. Black Sheep has some very funny moments and lines, too bad Farley is gone, I miss his movies.

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