Black Sheep

Black Sheep is a 1996 comedy about a political campaign in Washington State. Al Donnelly is a polished, well-spoken candidate for governor whose biggest liability is his younger brother Mike, an enthusiastic but accident-prone man whose attempts to drum up support tend to end in embarrassment. To keep Mike away from cameras and reporters, the campaign assigns Steve Dodds, a sardonic staffer, to look after him and keep him out of town through the final stretch of the race. The arrangement does not go as planned.

Penelope Spheeris directed the film, the seventh of the nine features listed in her filmography, following The Little Rascals and arriving after her early documentaries and Wayne's World. Fred Wolf wrote the screenplay, and Lorne Michaels produced it for Paramount. Chris Farley plays Mike and David Spade plays Steve, with Tim Matheson as Al, Gary Busey as Drake Sabitch, Chris Owen as Hal and Bruce McGill as Neuschwander. The production is credited with 23 cast members and 98 crew.

Made for a budget of about 32 million dollars, the film took in roughly the same amount worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.2 from more than 43,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.1 from 474 votes. A critics' rating of 3.8 from 32 reviews places it well below the audience scores. It runs 86 minutes.