`Black Sheep' Joins A Flock Of Oh-So-Dumb Movies

----------------------------------------------------------------- Movie review

X 1/2 "Black Sheep," with Chris Farley, David Spade, Tim Matheson, Christine Ebersole, Gary Busey. Directed by Penelope Spheeris, from a script by Fred Wolf. Alderwood, Bella Bottega 7, Crossroads, Everett Mall 4-10, Factoria, Gateway, Issaquah 9, Kent, Kirkland Parkplace, Lewis & Clark, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Puyallup, Uptown. "PG-13" - Parental guidance advised because of tasteless jokes, rough language. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Washington state joins the dumb-and-dumber movie sweepstakes with this lame comedy about a politician's boorish brother, who nearly ruins his older sibling's campaign to become the new governor.

Surely there's a funny movie to be made about an embarrassing relative who, as Washington's current governor (Christine Ebersole) points out, is a lethal combination of Billy Carter, Roger Clinton and Ronald Reagan's family.

But maybe Chris Farley isn't the actor to play him, and maybe the sly David Spade shouldn't be cast as the slacker campaign worker assigned to keep Farley out of sight. They seem to think they're making a sequel to last year's "Tommy Boy," in which Farley played a klutzy rich kid making a mess of his return home from college, and Spade was his doubtful pal.

As the gubernatorial candidate who keeps losing in the polls every time his brother does something gauche or destructive, Tim Matheson can't bring himself to demonstrate much anger or frustration. Ebersole tries valiantly to make the governor look corrupt and devious, but that doesn't work either.

The Northwest rock group Mudhoney gets dragged in for a scene that goes nowhere quickly. Their "Seattle" concert episode was filmed last summer in Los Angeles, as was most of the film.

The director, Penelope Spheeris ("Wayne's World," "The Little Rascals"), goes out of her way to develop the rather sweet, slapsticky relationship between Farley and Spade, but it doesn't have much to do with this particular storyline. They are, after all, supposed to be strangers when the movie begins.

Screenwriter Fred Wolf, who was one of the writers on "Tommy Boy," seems completely out of his depth here. His script consistently avoids politics while finding ways for Farley and Spade to do something infantile.

They match wits with backwoods kids who use a fire extinguisher on Spade. They run into a bullying Vietnam vet (Gary Busey) who's fond of creating booby traps and blowing things up. They chase a bat through a cabin, share a bunk bed (guess who's on top), shriek at snakes and play with an unstable refrigerator.

Production values could not be cheaper for a major-studio film. An extended woodsy scene with a collapsing cabin, supposedly set in the Wenatchee National Forest, so obviously makes use of tiny models that you expect the artifice to become part of the joke.

It never does. Like so much of "Black Sheep," it's a missed opportunity.