Farley good for a few chuckles

 BLACK SHEEP (1996)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I expected the worst, most spectacularly unfunny comedy of all time when watching "Black Sheep," a movie I studiously avoided for the longest time. No particular reason for my avoiding it - I liked "Tommy Boy" and the energetic pratfalls and slapstick of Chris Farley (let's face it, he was always funnier on "Saturday Night Live"). I also liked Farley's pairing with straight man David Spade in "Tommy Boy" and, though both are not quite on par with Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, they are likable enough without grating one's nerves. "Black Sheep" misses more often than hits yet when it hits the rather tame bullseye of laughs amidst visual sight gags, I chuckled. 

A governor candidate running for the state of Washington, Al Donnelly (Tim Matheson, playing it far straighter than David Spade) has a clumsy though good natured brother, Mike (Chris Farley), who works at a rec center and does everything he can to help his brother campaign. That includes driving a political advertising truck that nearly demolishes a movie theatre's marquee where Al is on the stump. No matter where Al goes, Mike is there pushing for his brother to win the job. Most of these scenes such as an inadvertent campaign phone call are terrifically timed and Farley shows some measure of restraint. When he gets his thumbs stuck in the car trunk or his tie stuck in car window as it drives off, it is mildly funny but not nearly as boisterous as his smaller, more intimate comedy scenes. Trying to shake a bat on his head is good for a chuckle but the scene itself, set in a log cabin where he's stuck with David Spade who plays a campaign aide, runs on too long. Many scenes do. Farley's tumbling down a hill, though nowhere near a van or a river, goes on way past the tolerable meter - it has too many beats and in comedy, you don't want that. Restraint and brevity are a comedy's best friends.

I was amused throughout "Black Sheep" and laughed three or four times but I'd just as soon see "Tommy Boy" again before deciding to see this one again. Still, for less than an hour and a half of mining humor from every situation, Chris Farley excels enough to make one wish he had more time on this earth to make better movies.