Why Critics Love Hugh Jackman’s New Movie More Than Logan & X-Men

Many critics are praising Amazon MGM Studios‘ latest murder mystery comedy starring Hugh Jackman as early reviews for the star-studded movie beginning to arrive online. This comes ahead of the theatrical release of The Sheep Detectives, out next week on May 8.

What are the critics saying about Hugh Jackman’s The Sheep Detectives movie?

So far, Jackman’s The Sheep Detectives movie has garnered an impressive Tomatometer rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 30 reviews. It has now become the Academy Award nominee’s highest-rated movie to date, surpassing iconic movies such as 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past (90%), 2017’s Logan (93%), and 2019’s Bad Education (94%). The new whodunit film has also successfully kept Jackman on his recent streak of starring in movies with Certified Fresh scores, which began with 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine (77%).

Most critics were pleasantly surprised by how fun and whimsical the movie is. Some reviews have even compared it to the Babe movies’ family-friendly charm and to the Knives Out franchise’s wit and depth. Fresh Fiction‘s Courtney Howard, who gave it a score of 4.5 out of 5, called the film an “absolute winner” that will surely “touch audiences’ heads and hearts.”

Critics were also impressed with how the themes of death, grief, and trauma were cleverly incorporated into the murder mystery’s heartfelt story. Jim Vejvoda of IGN Movies praised the film as “the cutest, sweetest movie ever made about accepting death and confronting grief and trauma that’s probably ever been made.” Meanwhile, Chris Tilly of Dexerto described it as “a movie with a surprising amount of depth, and one that will doubtless trigger some tears between the many laughs.”

The Sheep Detectives is directed by Kyle Balda, with Craig Mazin writing the screenplay based on Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel Three Bags Full. Besides Jackman, the movie also stars Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, Emma Thompson, Tosin Cole, Mandeep Dhillon, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, and Conleth Hill. It also features the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, and Rhys Darby, who will be playing the sheep characters.