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Al Donnelly (Tim Matheson) is running for governor—and his little brother, Mike (Chris Farley), is his greatest supporter. Mike is such a huge supporter, in fact, that his loud and overwhelming enthusiasm tends to do more harm than good. Actually, he’s starting to freak out the voters. So Al decides that it’s probably best to appoint someone to keep an eye on him until Election Day is over.
Hoping to earn himself a staff position in the new governor’s administration, campaign aide Steve Dodds (David Spade) volunteers for the job. Really…how hard can it be? But once he meets Mike, he realizes that he’s got his work cut out for him. Misguided Mike is completely out of control—and Al’s opponent, Governor Tracy (Christine Ebersole), intends to use his antics to win the election. If Steve can’t keep Mike under control, he can kiss his political career good-bye.
From heavy artillery to high-speed chases, Black Sheep is filled with non-stop comic insanity. No matter where Mike and Steve go, they’re always met with some kind of random (and ridiculously unlikely) catastrophe. Most of those catastrophes have little or nothing to do with the story, but they’re pretty funny anyway—or at least they are if you happen to love physical comedy.
Farley holds none of his typical over-the-top antics back—and, as a result, the movie is basically 87 minutes of Farley going completely crazy, in the most exaggerated of ways. He spends most of the movie freaking out, running into things, getting attacked by small animals, slamming his hands (or his clothing) into doors, and even falling down a mountain or two. And despite the fact that I usually tend to get sick of the same old bumbling-idiot movies after the first half hour or so, Farley’s goofy, boyish charm makes Black Sheep entertaining anyway. In fact, the longer it continues, the funnier it gets.
Meanwhile, Spade hangs out in the background, injecting his dry, sarcastic on-liners into Farley’s no-holds-barred craziness. His laid-back style is the perfect foil for Farley’s high-energy schtick—which is why, in the mid-‘90s (and until Farley’s untimely death in 1997), the pair had earned the reputation as the next big comedy team.
And, finally, to top it all off, Gary Busey adds to the insanity with his crazed (and, once again, totally random) performance as the angry veteran who steals Steve’s car.
With its overabundance of over-the-top humor, Black Sheep definitely isn’t for everyone—and it isn’t quite as good as 1995’s Tommy Boy. But if you’re in the mood to watch a clueless fat guy falling down, forget about Kevin James; nobody does it better than Chris Farley.
Blu-ray Review:
This is where I usually talk about the release’s special features. You know…the commentaries and the photo galleries and the making-of features, which talk about how much everybody in the movie loved working with everybody else. But, you see, there’s nothing for me to talk about here. Nada. The Black Sheep Blu-ray release doesn’t even have a “Features” option on the menu. If it did, maybe they could have thrown in a gag reel. That would have been fun, don’t you think? I would think that Chris Farley would make a great gag reel. But, alas, there’s no gag reel—because there are no features.
