Yes, ‘The Sheep Detectives’ Rules
Plus, ‘Werwulf’ looks absolutely foul.
Hey film friends,
Two more weeks of 24/7 soccer world and then I’ll be back to using most of my mental capacity to do what I do best: see movies I somehow missed during the first 38 years of my life. But in the meantime, I watched what’s arguably been a top-three film for me of 2026 and even tried watching the 2004 classic Collateral in bits and bops over the past week—during the day, with the blinds open. Let’s just say, I think I saw more of my own reflection than I did Tom Cruise inquiring with the homie over whether that was or wasn’t his briefcase. Two more weeks.
Cheers,
MB
This Week We’re Covering:
🐺 King Freak Lord returns
🍿 Yes, The Sheep Detectives is delightful
🎬 A selection of other Hugh Jackman classics
👀 One more sheep film, and so much more
💰 Weekend Take: July 3-5
HMU if you’ve seen Young Washington, which sounds like a CBS prequel to a long-running sitcom. Otherwise, I think a lottttt of people are going to enjoy The Invite once it goes wide.
🗞️ And Now, the News
Shrek Origins: Donkey is a’go. OK, that’s not the real title, but with four existing Shrek movies, two Puss in Boots spinoffs, and two more Shrek sequels in production, this franchise truly knows no bounds. All I’ve gotta say is, there better be some f*cking waffles in this origin story.
Praise be to… someone(?): Neon is releasing Artificial! Luca Guadagnino’s movie about the rise of Open AI and Sam Altman has found a new home after Amazon decided that… it might hit just a little too close to home for them. Of course, this film now has all the marketing juice it should need, but with Luca’s recent track record, well, let’s just hope it’s more Challengers and less After the Hunt. Pretty please?
Gosh, I f*cking love this weird man: According to Werfulf director Robert Eggers, none of the characters in his new film have names—except for the dog. The trailer for Eggers’ follow-up to Nosferatu is below, and I will say… this film will surely not be for everyone. It’s a dark-ages set tale of a man possessed, and that man is Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Also, Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe are back doing very Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe things. Merry Christmas, freaks.
This is just terrific news: Kneecap director Rich Peppiatt is making an Irish period piece about a time when more women were locked up in Irish prisons than men. Peppiatt wrote and directed one of my favorite movies of 2024 and the fact that he’s getting a real budget to make a much larger movie with the likes of Colin Farrell, Steve Coogan, and the queen of mischief herself, Alison Oliver, well, I just think that’s great.
And now, Trailer City USA:
The Weight: Ethan Hawke is a prison inmate in the burgeoning Wild West who is offered a reduced sentence if he transports some gold from point A to point B by a conniving warden played by Russell Crowe. They just really don’t make movies like this anymore.
Werwulf: Like I said, this sh*t is gonna be dark, gross, and extra violent. If you’d like some Middle-English carnage to accompany your Christmas roast beast, then have it.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother: Described simply as, “A devoutly religious hit man struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood,” and said devoutly religious hit man is played by Mahershala Ali. IN!
🍿 A Way-Too-Short Review - The Sheep Detectives
As of today, we’ve 66% of the way through the World Cup. To say it has been a long nearly four week would be… a lie. It’s been an excruciatingly long nearly four weeks, but without a doubt, the best thing I have watched during that time is The Sheep Detectives. Never in my life have I been more in need of counter-programming and my god, did these crazy f*cking bovids deliver.
If you are somehow unfamiliar with this recent phenomenon (say what you will, this movie about talking sheep with Cousin Greg from Succession as a British cop made $126 million at the box office), the title really tells you everything you need to know. Some sheep must solve the mystery of their murdered shepherd, played excellently by Hugh Jackman and whose last name has never been more apt, while all of the idiot humans squabble amongst themselves. Said sheep do this by using tactics they learned in mystery novels that Jackman read to them each night. That’s truly it and I could’ve watched 10 hours of this. Well, almost it. There’s also one of the great explanations and takedowns of human theology that’s ever been committed to film. You know, because that’s what sheep detecting is all about.
Besides Jackman and Nicholas Braun, who is constantly stumbling over himself, but also kind of charming, the cast is absolutely stacked with the likes of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Brett Goldstein, Patrick Stewart, and Chris O’Dowd all doing the lord’s work as voices of different sheep. Emma Thompson, Molly Gordon, and Nicholas Galatzine all pop up as dumb human beings, and you know what? They’re all delightful in their own cheeky-to-dumbfounding ways.
This isn’t complicated, just spend a night watching this very pleasant film. You will laugh way more than you think (who knew crossing roads could be so funny?) and you might even tear up (I would run through a wall for George the winter lamb). That’s all I got, but hopefully there are more cases for the sheep to solve on the horizon.
The TL;DR
Rating: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
What is The Sheep Detectives? Excellent, what else do you need to know?
Should you make time for this movie? Absolutely. It’s literally already on your TV. You got Prime? Then go watch these god-forsaken talking sheep!
Will it win any Oscars? It’s a good question. Unfortunately it doesn’t qualify as an animated feature, but Braun is doing a lot in human form, so maybe he’ll get a look? Maybe not.
What will you remember most from this film? Holy crap, all the weird comedy of sheep simply being in places you wouldn’t expect them to be. How Hugh Jackman might be capable of uniting all of humanity in world peace. Or, lil George the winter lamb. Yep, it’s him.
🎬 Five Other Times Hugh Jackman Showed He Can Do Anything
X-Men
Fun fact: did you know Hugh Jackman wasn’t the original choice for Wolverine? No, that would be (checks notes) Dougray Scott, who is another human being on this planet. Oh, and he’s actually married to Claire Forlani, so… things seemed to have worked out OK. Anyway, the homie Dougray had to bail because Mission: Impossible 2 went over-schedule and the rest is history. Jackman has since appeared in six other X-Men films, along with a trilogy of Wolverine movies (we’ll get there, relax), and whatever you wish to classify Deadpool & Wolverine as. But it’s his first time out as the character that made him a global star when you think, “Man, this could’ve gone so poorly, but instead, it’s actually pretty awesome.” Ya know, minus the black leather jumpsuits.
Swordfish
To those of you who just rolled your eyes, shh. Swordfish was a very big deal when it came out in 2001. You had John Travolta on comeback #17, Don Cheadle just as he was ascending with the Ocean’s movies and Hotel Rwanda, and heck, freakin’ Sam Shepard is in this nutty film that’s kind of about computer hacking. Also, Halle Berry letting it all hang out, both figuratively and literally (powerful stuff). Wow, Wolverine and Storm, together again! I hope they’re still friends. Somehow this was during an era where Jackman could serve as a semi-normal audience avatar and frankly, he did a solid job. Next!
The Prestige
Christopher Nolan has many great films, but if there’s one that’s maybe the most undervalued (and subsequently occasionally overblown), it’s The Prestige—which, as a reminder, is not the same as The Illusionist. Both good, but The Prestige, in all its weird Christian Bail² / David Bowie as Nikola Tesla wackadoodleness, is an all-timer. And a big part of that is Jackman, who sort of has to play the normal guy who doesn’t understand the twist, while also somewhat making a deal with the devil. Good look for neckerchiefs in this one, tough look for fingers.
Logan
Seventeen years after he first put on the claws, Jackman gave his iconic Wolverine character the proper sendoff he deserved. Well, until Disney backed a dump truck full of sweet cash onto this lawn for the Deadpool three-quel. Anyway, in the moment, Logan was actually a crushingly beautiful story of grief, regret, and aging wrapped inside of a Marvel movie. Jackman is so leathery and run-ragged, but is still able to bring whatever humanity is left in this indestructible butchering machine to the forefront. I gotta say, though, the kills in this movie are big, big sick.
Everything Else of His That I Simply Haven’t Seen
So, here’s the thing: Jackman has an entire side of his career that I’m completely not privy to. We’re talking about arguably the song-and-dance man of the 21st century with huge hits in Les Mis and The Greatest Showman, and heck, Song Sung Blue was in awards contention last year, a movie where he sang freakin’ Neil Diamond songs. What can’t this giant hunk of Aussie beef do? WOW, I completely forgot about Australia!
Honorary Mention: Australia
OK, on second thought, this movie is the epitome of mid-to-late era Baz Luhrmann and is pretty meh, BUT it is one of the few times Jackman got to use his normal accent. So, that’s something right? I heard this was better when they turned it into a six-episode miniseries.
👀 What the F*ck Is This Movie?
Rams
To give you an idea of how under-seen this was—a film starring one of our great actors in Sam Neill—I described the premise to my girlfriend, who responded by saying, “This sounds like a dream you had.” Well, DREAM NO MORE because this sh*t is real! Hit it, whatever AI platform spat this out:
Two estranged brothers must set aside their differences when a rare and lethal illness threatens their respective flocks of sheep in Western Australia.
Like I said, Rams exists (and here’s a trailer to prove it). But it does make me wonder why we keep making sheep movies? Is it because they’re cute and recognizable? Or because they’re easy to herd? Or maybe it’s just because we have more in common with them then we realize. Who’s to say, but regardless, sheeple unite! Also, UPDATE: this is a remake of an earlier Icelandic film that ALSO has a trailer. Dang, we’ve got early Paul McCartney solo era fans all over this planet of ours!
Seen anything good lately (other than Rams)? Which sheep detective were you most charmed by? And in the morning, who will bring me waffles? Let me know by responding to this email.