Hugh Jackman, an Oscar-winning actor, has reached a new career milestone with his latest film, which has achieved the highest rating among his films on Rotten Tomatoes. This accomplishment is no small feat, considering Jackman’s impressive filmography that includes popular movies like X-Men, Les Misérables, and The Greatest Showman.
The Sheep Detectives, a family-friendly mystery film, has now become Jackman’s top-rated film on the review aggregator site. When critics’ opinions were released earlier this week, the film immediately climbed to the top with a 96% score based on 26 reviews. As of Friday, the score slightly dropped to 94%, but it still holds a joint top position with his 2019 crime drama Bad Education.
Logan, Jackman’s acclaimed return in 2017 to the role that made him a Hollywood superstar, is just behind at 93%. Other films near the top include X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), 2019 animation Missing Link, and X2, the first X-Men sequel.
In The Sheep Detectives, Jackman plays shepherd George Hardy, who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, complete with voices. Little does he know that the sheep understand and are inspired by these stories. Following a mysterious incident that disrupts their lives, the sheep decide to become detectives, following clues and investigating human suspects.
Hugh Jackman’s Top 5 films on Rotten Tomatoes
According to critics…
- The Sheep Detectives (94%)
- Bad Education (94%)
- Logan (93%)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (90%)
- Missing Link (88%)
According to audiences…
- Song Sung Blue (97%)
- Deadpool & Wolverine (94%)
- The Prestige (92%)
- Logan (91%)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (91%)
The film also stars Emma Thompson, Succession actor Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, and Hong Chau in human roles, alongside the voices of Bryan Cranston, Sir Patrick Stewart, Chris O’Dowd, Bella Ramsey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein.
Collider described The Sheep Detectives as “one of the year’s most delightful surprises,” while Time Out admitted it was “irrepressibly jolly.” The film has been compared to Midsomer Murders, The Thursday Murder Club, and Watership Down, and praised for capturing “that sense of whimsy and fun the Babe movies did.”
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“Seriously, a movie about crime-solving animals has more to say about heady topics like bearing witness and the transmission of values than many a prestige indie drama,” added The Playlist’s critic. Mashable then promised it was “a feel-good movie that’s sure to delight all ages.”
“The great feelgood trick pulled off by this film is that the murder, involving a character we’ve been encouraged to like and invest in emotionally – much more so than in traditional detective stories – doesn’t get swamped with sadness and shock,” observed The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw. “The film scoots smartly past the death and brings us briskly on to the entertaining business of sheep-oriented crime detection.”
Fans will get the chance to see for themselves soon enough when The Sheep Detectives hits cinemas. The Sheep Detectives is released in UK cinemas on Friday, May 8. There are special advance screenings in select cinemas this Bank Holiday weekend.
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