Tag Archives: hugh-jackman

The Sheep Detectives

Posted on by

This has to be a leading candidate for surprise of the year. I had seen the trailers for The Sheep Detectives and it made it look like a cute family film that had a definite chance to be really dumb. However, The Sheep Detectives is one of my favorite movies of the year. I know that sound bizarre, but it is 100% true.

According to IMDB, “Every night a shepherd reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep can understand. When he is found dead, the sheep realize at once that it was a murder and think they know everything about how to go about solving it.“

Hugh Jackman played the shepherd named George and kicked off this murder mystery with a lot of heart. Jackman was so charming and outstanding that you feel for this character even though you knew coming in that he was going to be the victim of this murder mystery.

The voice cast of the sheep was sensational including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brett Goldstein, Patrick Stewart, Chris O’Dowd, Bryan Cranston, Rhys Darby, Regina Hall, and Bella Ramsey.

The story was way more emotional than I ever expected it to be. There were moments of the film where I had tears in my eyes and even a few that rolled down my cheek. It was not only emotional, but it was very funny, clever, charming and had a murder mystery that was actually well designed.

I was not expecting this movie to be as deep as it was. I expected a silly family movie with some dumb talking animals. Instead, this film took the tropes of a murder mystery and broke them down, turning the genre on its ear. All that with talking sheep characters.

I should specify that the sheep are not talking to humans like a Disney film. To the humans, they sound like sheep, but they speak to each other.

The film also has a storyline weaved into the story about prejudice/bigotry within the sheep community. Again, it was a story beat that I just did not expect, and it was not just a throwaway beat. It became a major part of the overall plot.

Brett Goldstein was hilarious doing the voices of Ronnie and Reggie, two rams always looking to butt heads.

This was based on a book Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann.

There is no way this movie should be as fabulous as it turned out to be. I am currently placing it right around the same place as Project Hail Mary and that just does not make sense. However, if you see this movie, you will understand why. I had such a great viewing experience with this movie that I came out of it feeling so great.

5 stars (…no really)

Edit: I forgot to mention about the live action actor here. They all do a remarkable job in this film including a small but vital performance by the awesome Emma Thompson. Nicholas Braun, Molly Gordon, Nicholas Galtizine, Conleth Hill, Hong Chau, Tosin Cole, and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith all bring a great energy to the film and help create the fabulous story.

Deadpool & Wolverine

Posted on by

No Spoilers

I will not spoil anything in the movie. I will say that the trailers were not bad with what they showed, except that last one. That one reveal in the final trailer released just about a week ago really did spoil a major event that would have been better had it not been shown in the trailer. I will continue to keep that reveal a secret in case you did not see that last trailer.

This may come as a surprise to everyone, but I loved this movie. What were the odds?

Okay, so I did go into this movie with the expectations that I was going to love this, but those kind of high expectations can be a problem at times. Have I let my expectations get so out of control that no possible movie could reach them? I am here saying that this movie exceeded my expectations and I think that this is a movie that I will like even more on a second viewing.

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are absolutely wonderful together in this movie. Their chemistry was off the charts and every second they were together, whether they were bickering, fighting or working together, was music.

Any worries that this movie would be toned down because this is now a part of Disney should be dismissed immediately. If the trailers did not show enough, there was a ton of violence, with a lot of blood splattering everywhere. There were swear words and sexual references, just like any Deadpool movie prior. The action is awesome throughout the entire run.

The cameos are amazing. I would venture to say that these are more than just cameos. The cameos are more like roles in the film. Every cameo has a specific reason for being and they fit in with the story. There are some jaw dropping cameos here. If you can go in without them being spoiled, these are worth it. This is not like the Illuminati cameos from Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.

There was more heart to the movie than you would expect. There are some very emotional beats in the story, especially dealing with the character of Deadpool and the character of Wolverine. These two damaged individual’s lives informed the story.

Emma Corrin is the villain of the film, playing Cassandra Nova. I thought she was really great as this lesser known character. Some of the effects of her powers were extremely creepy visually.

This is a hilarious movie. I was laughing all the way through. I will say that there may be some who do not find it as funny because there were a ton of inside/backstage jokes. There are some things that, if you do not know about certain backstage situations, you may not understand the references and it may not be as funny. I know about the backstage stories so I found them all really funny. Deadpool was breaking the 4th wall throughout the film. I loved that, but I am used to that in the Deadpool comics, so I could understand someone claiming that it was too much.

There is a post credit scene so wait all the way through the credits.

The Deadpool and Wolverine film totally honored the 20th Century Fox Marvel movies, ripped on the companies of Fox and Disney, and brought two of the most beloved heroes and the best castings together for a massive good time. There are so many other things I could comment upon, but I can’t if I want to avoid spoiling the film.

As of now, this is my favorite movie of 2024. I know… big surprise, right?

5 stars