Black Sheep (2007)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The Worst Film Ever

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

You'd think that with a title like "Black Sheep" there'd be at least one genuinely "black" coloured sheep in the whole herd who was the biggest, meanest, and, yes, "blackest" bugger of them all. Yeah. And when it came to the merciless slaughtering of humans, this vicious beast would be the one who couldn't be stopped so easily - No - Not like to others.And besides all of that - I don't care one bit if the creature is literally gnashing its teeth and foaming at the mouth like a lunatic - Dull, innocuous barnyard animals (such as sheep) make for the lamest, most unconvincing movie-monsters imaginable.Set in the beautiful New Zealand countryside - Black Sheep's story deals directly with what happens when genetically altered sheep develop a rabid thirst for human blood and go on a murderous rampage, attacking one and all with a vicious frenzy.Yes. Black Sheep was horrific and gruesome. But its intended humour didn't even come anywhere near to matching that monstrous level of ferocity at all. (If only it did) I found that all of the bloody carnage (and the story, in general) (what there was of one), quickly became quite tiresome, and, yes, predictable.

New Zealand was the country that made Peter Jackson's BRAINDEAD back in 1992. That film still stands strong as the goriest movie ever made, a near-perfect mix of gross-out humour, Kiwi insanity and copious bloodshed. When I saw that BLACK SHEEP, a similarly-themed film about genetically engineered sheep with an appetite for human flesh, was another Kiwi horror comedy, I was hoping it might reach near the standard of Jackson's work. Instead I found a film that simply ripped off that earlier, better movie – along with lots of other stuff like SHAUN OF THE DEAD. This is derivative film-making at its worst, totally lacking in any kind of inspiration and always striving to aim for the lowest common denominator.As the film begins with an unexplained incident – a kid kills and skins a sheep, wearing its bloody fleece to scare his little brother – you know that not much intelligence has gone into the script. Despite some typically pleasant New Zealand backdrops, the small scale antics that play out are utterly familiar and therefore pretty dull. Nobody in the unknown cast makes any kind of impression, and I was just waiting for a touch of originality or inspiration to come along and make me entertained. It never happened.The sheep bite people, transmitting a kind of virus that turns humans into rubbery sheep monsters. There's a last-reel attack by a flock of sheep full of cheesy gore effects with severed limbs and guts-aplenty, once again heavily indebted to BRAINDEAD. There's even a mutant lamb not too dissimilar from the Sumerian rat monster in the Jackson movie. The final solution to tackle the menace is about as lowbrow and unfunny as you can get, and never once did the film manage to raise itself from the doldrums. A below-par script, uninteresting performances (Danielle Mason is pretty but bland), laboured effects – from Weta workshop, the team who worked on LORD OF THE RINGS no less – and an overruling predictability make this one to miss.

Black Sheep, written and directed by Jonathan King is a wonderfully kooky horror comedy filmed out of New Zealand. Premise is simple, genetic tampering by unstable farmer man-child type has produced psychotic zombie sheep who like to chow down on human flesh. If you are "lucky" to still be alive after being bitten, you turn into a human/sheep hybrid - who likes to chow down on human flesh! All inhabitants of this island are doomed unless three spunky young heroes in waiting can overcome monumental odds and save the day!With effects done by Weta being no bad thing, Black Sheep is a whole bunch of popcorn munching fun. Many of the jokes aren't really surprising but they hit the mark because the comedy is drawn nice and broad. It helps as well that much of it carries a sense of mischievous depravity about it, while the snarky asides to scientists and tree hugging environmentalists shows King to have a semblance of world awareness about him. The cinematography (Richard Bluck) is gorgeous, capturing the magnificent landscapes as a backdrop to the ovine carnage, and Victoria Kelly's musical score is jovial supreme.Nothing earth shattering here, so those horror/comedy fans who venture in for the first time expecting otherwise will be disappointed. However, at under 90 minutes in length King's movie never once sags in pace or gasp for new comedic air. It's a short sharp shocker of a rib tickler and well worthy of a look if in the requisite mood. 7/10

When I see this title, it reminds me of "Mask" and "The Mask". I used to get really confused on which movie was Cher and which one was Jim Carrey. It isn't too smart to do this. I think of "Black Sheep" from 1996 with Chris Farley, as that is the movie I was searching. This one is taken one step further and doesn't even add a "The" at the beginning of it. It simply takes the name. I wanna rate it 1/10 just because this is already the title of another great movie and to me, you shouldn't use the same name for 2 different movies. However, I will give it at least 5/10 since: I haven't seen this one. I can't for sure say anything either way about the actual quality, or the story line, or the acting, or anything else, for that matter. My number one issue, is basically that, if you are using the same name as another movie, and it isn't a re make or a sequel, or prequel, etc, then it can ruin the viewers overall perspective of it. I know it does for me.