"The Sheep Detectives" A Solid Film with an Odd Premise

 

    Ok fine. I'll be the first to admit it. I had absolutely no faith in this movie being good. Like at all. When I first saw this trailer in theaters I thought it was ridiculous. Why would such a famous actor like Hugh Jackman attach his name and star in such a ridiculous premise. A whodunnit but the main characters are actually sheep? Like really? I think it was the CGI animals that threw me off. So often are movies with CGI animals slapped on it so bad these days. I was simply too wary. Yet, now I come out a changed man, I see the vision. My sister even cried during this film, I don't think I was moved that well, but for a relatively short and compact film for everyone, it's unsuspectingly good. Let's talk about it.

    The humour was, actually good? Like surprisingly decent? It's so easy for those made for everyone films to simply start doing the same old-tired gags of like fart jokes or butt jokes. I am thankful to report that there is none of that. No jokes were made about the buttocks of sheep. There are no real gut-busters here, but the humour landed pretty well. Whether it was the twin rams, the bit about the sheep being able to simply collectively forget everything (???), or any of the other jokes about orf and the like. This film managed to be funny without making you feel stupid if that makes sense? Like I actually chuckled at some of the rams hitting cars stuff. 

    If I had to describe my main issue with this film. It's almost too short if that makes sense? Like for a whodunnit you want the premise to be nice and snappy, easy to explain so you can spend the majority of it really just doing character showcases, trying to both make the case and appeal to viewers. Except in this film, which runs just under two hours, I feel like they wait too long for that to happen. I don't mind a blundering cop, but he needed to be like 30% less incompetent just to move along the plot faster. That way it can really feel like a whodunnit with all these moving parts and people you're really convinced about.

    Instead, what you get is a list of suspects, but none of them are really ever fleshed out. It's kind of hard to do since you have two casts, one of sheep and one of people. But if you want people super invested into the mystery then you need to do a good job of making the cast somewhat believable. But they simply don't have enough screentime to do that. I'm not saying they need to make an extended version of this film, but all I'm saying is I'm not opposed to an extended cut of this film.

    Whodunnits just need more buildup for the ending to be as satisfying as it should be. This ending was a nice twist, but I was never particularly too convinced any specific person did it, suspecting it might have been a group effort. I mean you just hardly get any screentime with the butcher, the other Shepard, the other lady, the priest or the cop or the daughter. I know it's a kids movie and so the mystery is a little dumbed down, but you need to make sure everyone has a case. I mean the cop never even went through the alibi's of all the suspects, he just kind of has it down on his board by the time it's the climax.

Final Score: 70/100

    Even still, it's a solid film. I don't have much to complain about, and I would gladly play this to children for an easy crowd pleaser that's bound to get a laugh from most people in attendance. I wouldn't say it's poor quality in any regard. It doesn't drag on, the setting is a nice change of pace, I didn't really hate any of the character dynamics, I just kind of wish they peeled that onion a little bit more. I suppose I'm a bit spoiled from the Knives Out franchise. I mean I can't really name any other modern whodunnits anyways. Regardless, I have to give it props for blowing away my expectations by quite a decent bit. Who would have thought the talking sheep detective movie was going to actually be any good?