Streaming Recommendation: THE SHEEP DETECTIVES

A few months ago, an alien rock creature touched my heart in PROJECT HAIL MARY.

Last month, it was a talking Octopus in REMARKBLY BRIGHT CREATURES.

Now it is the sheep that are THE SHEEP DETECTIVES.

Starring Hugh Jackman as a kind. loving shepard that likes to read British Agatha Christie-like murder mysteries to his flock, THE SHEEP DETECTIVES gives us a traditional Agatha Christie-like British murder mystery in a quaint small town filled with oddball locals, but instead of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot chasing down the mystery, it is the SHEEP that hunt down the murderer.

And it works very well.

Hugh Jackman (THE GREATEST SHOWMAN) stars as George Hardy, the kindly shepard with a few secrets - one of which gets him killed. Hong Chau, Conleth Hill, Nicholas Braun, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and even good ol’ Emma Thompson are all suspects in the case, if only someone could track down the clues.

It is the sheep that do just that with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (SEINFELD) voicing Lily, the best solver of the murder mystery books (she figures out each books ending before the ending is read to them). She is aided by an aging, bombastic sheep, Sir Ritchfield (Patrick Stewart of STAR TREK/X-MEN fame) a couple of head-butting rams, Ronnie and Reggie (voiced by TED LASSO’s Bret Goldstein), a loner, Sebastian (BREAKING BAD’s Bryan Cranston) and an assortment of others that are voiced by the likes of Regina Hall (ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER), Bella Ramsey (GAME OF THRONES) and Chris O’Dowd (BRIDESMAIDS). All hit their mark and this flock of sheep are darn good company to solve a mystery with.

Credit, of course, must go to Director Kyle Balda (MINIONS) directing his first live-action film and he is a good fit for a large portion of this movie involves the CGI talking sheep (none of whom the humans can understand). He moves the plot along sprightly, helping this film by loading it with corny, sheep-jokes as well as hitting some strong emotional moments, but not lingering too long on them.

A fun, sprightly 1 Hour and 49 Minute adventure that will warm your heart and satisfy you inner Private Eye as the solving of the crime is a nice side-effect, but not really the reason to watch this film.

It is the heart and humanity that these sheep show.

Letter Grade: A-

8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)