4 May 2026 – Cinema Club went to see ‘The Sheep Detectives’ today. The synopsis on the cinema website was as follows:
“In this witty, new breed of mystery, George (Hugh Jackman) is a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can’t possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realise they must become the detectives. As they follow the clues and investigate human suspects, they prove that even sheep can be brilliant crime-solvers.”
There was a big cast of very recognisable names, but most of them were the voices of sheep, and included, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Chris O’Dowd and Brian Cranston to name some of them……The main humans were played by Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson, Molly Gordon, Nicholas Braun, Hong Chau, Tosin Cole and Conleth Hill. The director was Kyle Balda, and the screenplay was written by Craig Mazin and Leonnie Swann. The film was released by Amazon Studios.
Given its notable cast and amusing trailer, I was expecting something that was a whole lot better and a whole lot funnier, but that didn’t happen. Instead, we had a number of past-it stereotypes on offer, such as the bumbling PC, the twins separated in early childhood and the ‘Whodunnit’ plot that was obvious pretty much from the get-go, and a view of rural life that was positively insulting. The only good thing I can think of saying is that it was interesting to see how well CGI has developed over the years, and I will acknowledge that there were a few (but far too few) amusing moments, and the chicken crossing the road was genuinely funny (if you go see the film, you will understand).
I couldn’t find any review (as yet) from Mark Kermode. Perhaps he knew to stay away from it, but more likely, he just hasn’t got there yet, perhaps because the film is not officially released until 8 May.
Needless to say, I didn’t think much of it. Two others of the group thought it was so-so, and one member thought it was really great. We are indeed a mixed bunch.
I gave this film a score of 4, and I thought that was pretty generous, mainly earned for the chicken crossing the road. ‘IMDB’ (to date) has not scored it, and ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ has decided so far to give it a score of 9.6 (96%). The lack of score from ‘IMDB’ and the very high score from ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ may be indicative of the film not yet having reached its release date (although maybe the ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ critics just thought it was great, like one member of our group). If you are reading this (assuming any such reader exists) beyond 4 May, it may well be worth re-checking their websites to see their current situation.
Fraser