Speaker 1: I have not seen the movie yet, so normally I
see the movie and then I come up with something
short and pithy or clever or however I'm feeling inspired,
and then I lead into the name of the movie,
and then I say the intro. But again, I have
not seen the movie yet, but I'm traveling. But I
wanted to make sure that I had an introduction for
this episode. So enjoy the episode. We'll see what I
thought about the movie in a couple of seconds. This
is The Sheep Detectives. I'm Ronald Young Junior, and I'm
leaving the theater.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: This is Ronald and I am leaving the theater after
seeing The Sheep Detectives. The Sheep Detectives written by Craig Mason,
directed by Kyle Balda, starring Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Brown, Nicholas
gallat Zine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chow, Emma Thompson, Julia, Louis Dryfiss,
Brian Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, and Regina Hall per usual. For
complete listing of the cast and crew, you could go
to the linked in our show notes. I would strongly
encourage you to do that for this film because there
is a large voice cast as well as in person cast,
and I did not include everyone, so you can go
look at that at the link in our show notes.
Speaker 2: I am not here alone.
Speaker 3: I am here with Michael Paris Davis.
Speaker 1: Michael Paris Davis. All right, The Sheep Detectives. This is
a film about a shepherd played by Hugh Jackman, who
is made. If you've seen the trailer, you know that.
Then the sheep have to set about the journey of
solving the mystery. He is a good shepherd, He is
kind to a sheep. He reads them a lot of
murder mystery novels, so they are apt to solve the crime. Specifically,
one sheep, Lily, who I believe is played by Julia
Louis Dreyfus, who is setting about finding out why this
poor shepherd was murdered and unfolds in a town I
believe it's called Denbury, Denberry something like that.
Speaker 3: The town is called Denbrook.
Speaker 1: Denbrook, Yes, Denbrook. It is set in the town of Denbrook.
That is where we find all the players who find
out about the murder. All right, enough of that, Michael
Paris Davis, what did you think of this film?
Speaker 3: Honestly, going into it, I thought it was going to
be incredibly cheesy, but for a detective film, it was
actually a great film. I had a great time. I laughed,
I cried, and I got really mad.
Speaker 2: I agree. I think that in terms of.
Speaker 1: What to expect from this film, I think you're expecting
a stupid film about sheep solving a crime.
Speaker 2: But what it gives you is a top tier I'm.
Speaker 1: Talking Knives Out, I'm talking Poiro whatever that those movies
are now called. They have three different ones that came
out that are all starring that Kenneth Branna and them.
Those ones, y'all know what I'm talking about. A Murder
on the Nile and the Orient, Murder on the Orience Press,
all of those. It is giving the best version of
those mystery films. You just have to if you saw
this and said not for me, but you are a
person that watches British detective films and reads British detective books,
this is firmly in that category and it does it
very very well.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I fully agree. This is I didn't want to like
it because it was It's an Amazon Studios film, and I.
Speaker 1: Was like, shout out to Daryl Murphy, you know who
you are.
Speaker 2: That's our project.
Speaker 1: Hill Mary correspondent who definitely went on about a four
minute rant about that movie being an Amazon original.
Speaker 2: Michael Paris Davis tagging in.
Speaker 3: For Daryl Murphy, this one won't be as long. I
didn't want to like it, and I thought that the
sheep Ai was going animation was going to be bad
believable from beginning to end. Characters I immediately was on
board with. And there was not a second that went
by in the film that they didn't grip me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it grabbed you. It grabs you from the beginning.
Speaker 1: It makes you take it seriously from the beginning because
they start off by making it. Especially everyone who's a millennial,
you have seen a movie made in the nineties with
a very sweet score in which they are endearing you
to whoever the animals are in the film, whether it
be Homeward Bound or pick another Beethoven, pick another movie
with animals in it. There's that little bright piano and
strings happening that's making you love what's happening. They start
off right there, and then they kind of lean into
the actual mystery elements of it that make it more
of an.
Speaker 2: Actual It draws you in. It hooks you.
Speaker 1: That's the hook. So it draws you in with the
something very sweet, and then it hooked you. Now I
will say to the CGI, wow, it was very good
when the sheep were by themselves or with other sheep.
Every time a human touched the sheep or interact with
the sheep, I remember being like, oh, those aren't real sheep.
That's not and it wasn't Uncanny Valley, but it was
just you could you could see it.
Speaker 3: You could see that he scooped up air and not
a real baby sheep.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I was talking about.
Speaker 3: You're so right with the millennial thing because I was
immediately hooked into it being an animal film. But then
it comes from underneath and is like, actually, this is
a very well structured detective movie. And they from beginning
to end, I didn't know what was going to happen.
You even in the theater were like, this is going
to happen here, this is the next step. But me
the perfect audience member because I suspend my disbelief like
nobody's nobody's business. I that's true, had no idea what
was going to happen. They had me by the throat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1: This film does a very good job of making you
forget suspects just enough for you to The movie leads
you just a little bit like a sheep. But then
by the time they get to oh, and this is
who the suspect is, I did.
Speaker 2: Not see that coming. I did not suspect that person
at all.
Speaker 3: You were one hundred percent shocked at the end.
Speaker 2: And yeah, because I.
Speaker 1: Said out loud, oh, so the film got you.
Speaker 2: Too, it did.
Speaker 1: I mean. I think to me, a good mystery is
one that it allows you to think certain things, but
doesn't quite allow you to think other things.
Speaker 2: And I think, particularly when you get to the color.
Speaker 1: Schemes towards later in the film, which we won't spoil,
I had no idea where that was going at all,
and by the time they got there, it did feel obvious,
and I felt a little dumb.
Speaker 2: But also I would have.
Speaker 1: Never I felt dumb in the sense of oh, I
wouldn't have even thought of that. Maybe I'm just not
as smart as I think I am.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for reminding me not to spoil it,
because I was about to just start talking write about
who the killer was. Yeah, I felt that right at
the beginning though you know that the piece of evidence
is important, but you don't. We can't. We couldn't figure
it out. We absolutely there was pieces of evidence that
we couldn't see as an audience member, so we were
unable to figure it out at the pace of the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 1: It was good sleight of hand, good story to tell, and
I thought it was well paced in a way where
again you're led a little bit, so there's gonna be
some stuff that you could come to a conclusion on,
and the movie doesn't mind you coming to a conclusion
on some of that. But even if you went from
the beginning and said that person is the one who
did it. And it's funny because the movie is smart.
It lays out these clues it talks about in the beginning,
one of the stories that he's reading to the sheep,
Lily turns around and says, no, it's not the maid
because this other thing happened and that's why, and sure
enough she's vindicated there. But that's exactly what happens in
the movie later where they said, well, we want you
to think it's this person, but it's absolutely not this person, which.
Speaker 3: Makes it seem like it's a children's movie at the beginning,
but then we got got to and we follow the
narrative and we fall in love with the characters too,
like even our main detective of the movie. Like at
the beginning, I was like, Wow, these are silly character constructs,
and then along the way totally built up. I'm one
hundred percent loyal to the characters.
Speaker 1: I think part of that is that the voice acting
cast is amazing. You're working with Julia Louis Dryfish, You're
working with Brian Kranston, voices that we trusted. I did
not identify in the film until after I read them later,
But I remember being like, all of these folks are very,
very believable, and I realized why at one point, I'm like, oh,
that's Regina Hall. That'sh I figured out in the middle
of the movie and I knew she was in it,
but I'd forgotten and I heard her voice. So I
think credibility and voice acting, especially in a film like this,
is extremely important.
Speaker 2: Now, all of that being said here, at.
Speaker 1: Leaving the theater, we rate movies out of five stars,
all right, so one being terrible. I never this is garbage.
Five being basically perfect for you, three meaning I would
see it again. Of course you got your twos and fours,
four being a great movie. A lot of Oscar bait
films live there, and so I'm curious for you, where
does this movie land one to five stars?
Speaker 2: What rating do you give this film? And why?
Speaker 3: Oh? No, okay, so he means that it's rewatchable. I
don't know that I would rewatch this film. Wow, I
enjoyed it, but it takes a lot for me to
rewatch a movie. So on your official scale, I'm going
to say two point nine to five, just under rewatchable.
Speaker 2: Do you rewatch movies every once in a while, so
you don't rewatch movies? No, So three is not a good.
Speaker 1: Scale for you if you're not a rewatcher, So there
has to be something else, all right. To say that
three is the average number, you're saying that this movie
is below average for you.
Speaker 3: No, it was above average. Okay.
Speaker 1: So in that case, now that you understand the scale
a little bit more, did you give me what, let's say,
three being an average film?
Speaker 2: Like, oh I liked that, okay, versus four?
Speaker 3: I loved that three point eight?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Actually knowing you, I feel like that one fits. I'm
going to give this film a four point one five. Yes,
this is a great movie. I'd say. The only drawback
that keeps this from me in a four p two
five or four point five zero is there was no
reason for me to be in a theater watching this film. Amazon,
you have put this movie in the theater. Yes, it
has a theater window. Great, people are gonna go see it.
Maybe you'll make some money. That's fine, But I there's
no need for me to be in the theater watching
this film. I just felt like there were several times
in which this type of movie, this type of mystery
movie that doesn't have big set pieces or anything like that,
there's no reason for me to drive to a theater,
get out of my car, go inside, unless you're in
Arizona and you just want to get out of the heat,
which we are, and that's fine. But that being said,
like that's the only reason why you'd really need to
be out of the heat watching this movie inside and
air conditioning. But if you have air conditioning in your house,
you could just be watching this on the couch. And
I think if I was watching this in the couch,
it'd probably be like a four point five, four point six,
four point seven.
Speaker 3: Really, who who is the target audience for this movie?
Speaker 2: I have no idea because it doesn't feel like a
children's movie.
Speaker 3: It doesn't. It feels like it was for us, It feels.
Speaker 2: Like it was for MILLENNI.
Speaker 1: It slips in I would say in the sophisticated circle
that Pixar normally operates in making a film that is
so good that parents want to watch it and dumb
enough that kids will miss the parts about it that
make it super emotional and resonant for parents, like a Coco,
you know. But I'd say it's slightly elevated in that
because there's not just there's just not a ton of
kid elements there except for the fact that the sheep are.
Speaker 3: Talking yeah okay. That you can bring your kid to
this movie, you.
Speaker 1: Absolutely can, Like this is a family film. You can
bring a whole family to the movie. But if you're
a family that like I remember, I was thinking, my
mother would love this film, My sister would love this film.
Speaker 2: My dad would be engaged enough.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he would love it, but he'd
be engaged enough to finish it and be like, man,
those sheep were crazy, So there's plenty of like.
Speaker 2: It marks a lot of quadrants. Curtis would like this film.
Speaker 1: Curtis my action movie loving friend that always surprises me
with a pick out of left feel Well.
Speaker 2: It would be like, oh I liked this. I'm like,
I didn't expect that from you. Curtis. I think he
would like this film. If he was like, oh, all
we got to see one movie.
Speaker 1: I got to bring my child Evelyn and my wife
Jen to this film, he would like this.
Speaker 2: Marcus would not. Marcus would be like stupid she was talking.
He wouldn't like this.
Speaker 1: So I feel like there's ways in which it hits
all four quadrants and also misses on all fours.
Speaker 3: I was about to ask you to list all of
your friends and whether or not they would like this movie.
Speaker 2: I could.
Speaker 1: I can go through each one of them, Maryland, Yes, Caroline,
and John. Caroline would be like it was cute, but
a little stupid. John would be like, what are we
talking about here? Just start going now the list. Nor
would be like okay, and then Nora's husband John would
be like, I mean, he'd make a lot of dad
jokes about lamb and sheep. So I'm not even go
through all my friends, because I'm getting trouble for people
I didn't mention. Tyra would not watch this. Jama would
not watch this. He would be like, why am I
at the movies? I could be doing something more important. Yeay,
I could go down through a list of people I don't,
but the point is for the most general people who
like movies, and specifically millennials who British detective film, this
is a film for you.
Speaker 3: I was about to say ten out of ten, but
it's three point eight out of five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, just multiply three point eight
times two and you get the number that is actually
out of ten. So with that, Leaving the Theater is
a production of Owitz Big Round Studios. I mixed this episode,
and per usual, I'm out here working hard. I'm currently
in Arizona and I'm still working. I did actual work
this week that was not related to Owits Big Round Studios.
Speaker 2: Some of my other production work that I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I'm actively working on a pilot that I'm set to
release on Patreon as.
Speaker 2: Soon as I get it finished.
Speaker 1: It is a video and audio project, but it's coming
out soon and hasn't even been announced on Patreon yet,
which means by the time you decide to start helping
Owiz Big Round Studios by becoming a patron. You could
see that video audio pilot on Patreon. I am working hard.
I'm out here doing hard work. This is a labor
of love, but it is still labor. If that means
something to you, go to patrio on dot com slash
ODS Big Ron, or go to.
Speaker 2: The link in our show notes.
Speaker 1: Show art from Heather Wilder, theme music by the mysterious
Breakmaster Cellinder. For more information about the Sheep detectives, check
out my show notes. You can follow me on Instagram,
bluse guy, TikTok, threads or letterboxed at odits Big Ron.
Speaker 2: That's at O H I T S b I g
R O N.
Speaker 1: You found out more about this show and other ODS
Big Ron Studio shows by following us on Instagram at
ODS Big Ron Studios. Leaving the theater will be back soon.
Thanks for listening and thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 3: Absolutely anytime I could sent it to this what.
Speaker 1: I'm Ronald Young Junior and I'm not as smart as
I think I am.