Black Sheep

Black Sheep (1996)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: Penelope Spheeris

Starring: Chris Farley, David Spade, Tim Matheson, Christine Ebersole, Gary Busey

From: Paramount

You know, this isn't that bad. It's no Tommy Boy, but it's still watchable. I try to explain why below: 

A few nights ago I used Netflix Instant to watch this. The only other time I watched it was shortly after Farley died, so it's been a very long time. I remember it being not as good as Tommy Boy and only a few bits stuck out. The biggest one was Farley yelling, “Kill Whitey!” I had no memory of it being after Mudhoney performed at an MTV Rock the Vote event.

The plot is simple: the writers realized that a politician dealing with a buffoon brother (as Roger Clinton was in everyone's mind as the headache half-brother of Bill Clinton) can be pretty funny, so the story is that Tim Matheson is running for Governor of Washington state and he's trying to dethrone current Governor Christine Ebersole. Matheson's brother is Farley, and he is embarrassing so he has David Spade try to control him, to little effect. Gary Busey is also present, as a militia man sort of people who lives off the grid. His character is seen as sort of a hero; in late 2016, such a character probably wouldn't be a hero..

The movie is quite silly and also on the stupid side. Yet I can say that this is average. I still laughed enough to where I could get past how the story wasn't so strong, and when they tried to introduce an actual plot with actual intrigue, it's not always great. There's some good physical comedy also. While apparently the director hated Spade and Farley had to be convinced by Spade to make the film, it's not so bad that it deserved the savage attacks the critics gave it at the time, treating it like the cinematic scrapple for 1996. It's not as funny or memorable as Tommy Boy but it's still watchable.