DVDFile

It's been fourteen years since Chris Farley made his leading-man debut in Tommy Boy, and in that time, dumbass comedies like it have decidedly gone out of fashion. Just like Wayne's World ushered in a new era of SNL comedies in the early 90's, the influence 1998's There's Something About Mary resulted in a wave of gross-out fests just now starting to wane in popularity.

But where Wayne's World put a humorous focus on idiots doing idiotic things in public, now it's all about regular guys doing embarrassing and/or disgusting things for a laugh (American Pie, Road Trip, and many other new examples aim for the lowest common denominator.) Not that it's particularly a bad style, but revisiting Chris Farley and David Spade's Black Sheep, it's obvious that mainstream comedy has a new, more crass sensibility: Idiots will always be interested in making asses of themselves, the essential sweetness of Black Sheep is just passe now.

Of course, Black Sheep may have a small cult following now, but it got clobbered by the critics. People hated Tommy Boy, and even fans of that film (I consider it one of the best comedies of all time) had to admit that while it has more than its fair share of solid laughs, is low brow as it gets. Yet Tommy Boy is still a marvelous, almost mythic comedy experience, and this reviewer still considers it a classic, a dumb and endearing comedy of errors with hilarious set pieces and amazingly funny banter.

Farley was able, in his all-too-short career, to make two stinkers after Black Sheep (Beverly Hills Ninja and Almost Heroes), and he never got a chance to become a Saturday Night Live hall-of-famer on par with a Belushi or Aykroyd (nor complete what was supposed to be his last movie, the lost Valhalla.) But with a ragingly hilarious cameo in Adam Sandler's Billy Madison and the one-two punch of Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, for those who appreciate his unique gift, that's enough.

Admittedly, it's easy to understand those who can't look past the dumb-frat-guy hijinks, so trying to defend Black Sheep is a tough duty – if you don't like this kind of movie, you may never – but with this release, it offers a chance for dumb comedy connoisseurs to check out what, for my money, is one of the lost comedies of the 90's. If you remember it being dumb, idiotic and decidedly hilarious, here's your chance to revel in this underappreciated gem. And, hey, at least it's better than Dude, Where's My Car!

Comments (0)

Leave a comment

Title
Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Email
	Add Comment