I only try to review things I feel
passionately about. I chose not to
review Split because it was good but didn't blow me away. What I'm reviewing today is not something I
felt incredibly strong about, but I am reviewing for other reasons. I realized that few people my age have
probably heard of this film so I thought it would be interesting to make
someone aware of its existence. So,
today I'm talking about the movie Black Sheep.
Basically, the film stars Chris
Farley and David Spade. Farley is the
doofus brother of a prominent Washington State politician who is running for
Governor. However, Farley keeps making
ridiculous mistakes that the media eats up which keeps on embarrassing his
brother. As a result, David Spade is
sent by the campaign to keep Farley out of the limelight. The rest of the film follows Farley and Spade
as they try to win votes.
Farley is easily the biggest (no pun
intended) part of the film. He is the
main character of the film and it is his character's story. In many parts, he does a lot of yelling and
is really over the top. In some cases it
works, but in others it can be kind of annoying. Most of that though is the fault of the
writing as the jokes don't always hit.
However, Farley does still turn in a
good performance. His character might
have been unlikeable if he had been more aware of how bad his mistakes
are. However, Farley portrays the
character as very innocent and good natured which makes him more sympathetic
and forgivable. Farley's acting makes
the character more enjoyable and believable.
Without a doubt, he did elevate the film.
Spade played a decent straight
man. He's easily the most believable in
the film as clearly he is only hanging out with Farley as he hopes this will
get him a job in the governor's administration.
For the most part, a lot of crap happens to him and he responds to it
well. He contrasts Farley well as being
more cynical and grounded in reality.
The two do make a good pair which makes it all the sadder they are no
longer able to make films.
The last highlight of the film is
Gary Busey. He plays a crazy former
soldier who keeps interjecting himself in Spade's life. He is delightfully over the top in every
scene he is in as he plays a wacky side character very well. Every scene he is in is pretty funny as he
chews the scenery around him. I'm not
going to say he's the best part, but he is the only thing that is consistently
funny.
The most important element, however,
is the comedy. It's mostly hit or
miss. A lot of the jokes are predictable
which makes it hard to laugh. The film
really shines though at some of the crazier moments like Farley and Spade going
to the Governor's inauguration.
Overall, sometimes I was laughing hard and other times I thought the
scene wasn't as funny as the film intended.
In conclusion, I can't recommend
this film. I did enjoy it okay, but it
didn't make me feel like it was necessary.
The performances made some of it better, but some jokes just didn't work. The film's kind of like a watered down Tommy
Boy so I would suggest watching that instead.
However, if you do watch it, you won't regret it,
Before I go, I'll say the film did
resonate with me more than expected for personal reasons. I tend to find Happy Gilmore as funny as I do
in part because I come from a family of golfers and therefore relate to the
sport quite well. I have been on several
campaigns so I do relate to the situation the characters find themselves in
throughout the story. There are times
when, like Farley, I've been overly enthusiastic about being on a campaign
despite that not making a difference, and there are times, like Spade, I'm
doing crap I don't want to do or spending time with people I don't want to be
with because it has to be done and I hope it will pay off. Overall, it does connect to me through
campaigns, even if it's not too in depth about politics. So I will admit that was nice.
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