The SHEEP DETECTIVES-Sheep Sleuths Solve their Shepherd's Demise Stars Hugh Jackman

The big mystery of "The Sheep Detectives" is from whom the demographic of this anthropomorphic flick intended?  From the promos I thought the show for tots.  I thought it would be perfect fun for my precocious granddaughter.  She will be turning three, soon.  Don't believe me - she'll tell you while holding up three fingers to drive home her point.  Just don't believe the hype for the film as fun for everyone.  "The Sheep Detectives" put my preternaturally advanced granddaughter to sleep.  Nevertheless, I was more than entertained and charmed for both of us.  Hugh Jackman was pitch perfect as George, the benevolent shepherd.  George took great care of his sheep and everynight reads to his brood mysteries to which he believed they were all attune.  George was correct and he clearly connects with his sheep which he kept at bay from butchering ways that befell the neighboring herds.  Unfortunately for George he was dead wrong thinking was safe amongst his flock within the small, farming town.  I shuddered at his murder.  But as a vegetarian I greatly admire the not too subtle messaging not to eat meat as animals are highly intelligent and caring beings.  There is much more to adore in this quaint and quirky who done mystery. George's beloved sheep, particularly a duo led by Lily and Sebastian, are determined to learn who did this dastardly deed and contrive to assist the town's bumbling officer, Tim (Nicholas Braun).  Tim isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.  However, with the animals' assistance with the Tim's persistence, the clues point them in the right direction.  Along the way, there are life lessons to be gleaned about cooperating, compunction, compassion and even mortality that I would agree are beyond most five years olds wherewithal, let alone three.  But, do see this movie with or without young children in tow.  No, you don't have to be a Sherlock to to deduce "The Sheep Detective" is simply delightful.  And, as delightful as some may know their grandchildren to be - children under six are not the intended demographic .  

PROJECT HAIL MARY-Pulls off Miracle-Made Me Cry Over a Rock Pile

Ryan Gosling's stellar performance in this sci-fi, apocalyptic space adventure is what made this film get off the ground.  If it weren't for Gosling's unassuming charm and acting chops this would have been a flop.  Andy Weir's novel "Project Hail Mary" was made into this blockbuster hit. Weir's previous novel, THE MARTIAN, was also made into a box office hit with Matt Damon.   In similar plots, Damon and Gosling are both alone for the majority of the movie.  Each must rely on their own intellect and wherewithal to survive stranded in outer space.  Gosling portrays Ryland Grace, a reluctant recruit marooned and the sole survivor on the spacecraft sent into the galaxy to safe all humanity from doom.  Both plots sound simple, and not unlike "Robinson Crusoe" who must survive on an isolated island.  Of course, there's a difference between surviving and thriving.  Whereas Crusoe was grateful when another man, Friday, finally arrived.  Ryland's extraterrestrial companion can be described as a resembling a pile of rocks.  This rock pile  possesses an incredible intelligence and benevolence which is astounding and ingratiating.  We first meet Ryland as an engaging science teacher to middle school students.  Ryland is waylaid outside class to be recruited into the space program.  A report he published years earlier while working as a molecular engineer predicted the doomsday scenario for which the world's greatest scientific minds now concur.  Ryland was unceremoniously fired at the time for his radical paper which is now drawing together the best international scientific minds.  It's drawing Ryland into an uncoveted spot on a one way spacecraft ride he refuses.  Drastic times call for drastic measures.  Ryland is dragged, drugged and put into a coma along with three other crew members for the selfless quest to solved the sun from dying out in less than two years.  Ryland awakens in his space capsule from an induced coma to discover he is the sole survivor on board.  The funeral Ryland gives his mates is fervent and and thoughtful.  The first half of the film feels tedious and drawn.  But, all is forgiven when Ryland connects with an alien spacecraft and its highly advanced inhabitant.  Was it the writing, the acting of Gosling or of "Rocky" that provides this hard to swallow plot with deserved pathos? I don't know.  I do know that I fell hard for the deep friendship that formed between the two.  With ET, you had an adorable extraterrestrial and cute kids.  In PROJECT HAIL MARY the long shot of landing a heartwarming, symbiotic relationship was between a rock and a hard place, yet it scored!

MARTY, LIFE IS SHORT-Long on Love, Laughs Martin Short's Doc. Is Just What the Dr. Ordered

I've been a huge fan of the immensely talented Martin Short since I first saw glimpsed Ed Grimley on SNL with chest-high pants and hair-slick. His irrepressible smile and glimmer in his eyes give him an elfin, impish quality that is impossible to resist.  Are some people just born with talent and the gift of lighting up a room?  Yes, of course, but you don't need to look any further than Marty's own backyard.  He grew up in a family love fest, the youngest of five; with "an angel of a mother" who was a concert violinist.  There's no dysfunction or resentment.  You'll only find a household built on love and enjoyment with one another.  His was and is a family that played together and has stayed together.  As Martin put it, "We lived to make each other laugh."  There is loss as his oldest, beloved brother died when Marty was 14 and his mother when he was 19.  Tragically, Marty's daughter died by suicide this past February at age 42.  While this doesn't factor into the doc. the loss of his wife, Nancy with whom he had been married for 30 years and shared three adopted children.  The film is as much, if not more, of a tribute to their endearing love story which only made me fall in love with the two of them.  They met and become a couple at the onset of both their careers in entertainment in the early 70s.  In 1977, Martin joined Second City in Canada which led to being asked to join SNL.  More notably, this led to life long friendships with a host of friends whose comedic careers were also starting out such as Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin. This hilarious and touching documentary reveals his early childhood through his rise to fame and fortune and the many steadfast friends along with his expanding, tightly-knit family plenty of with warmth and humor.  Interspersed with interviews from his A list celebrity friends such as Spielberg, Hanks, Martin and the recently deceased O'Hara that are testaments to Short's humor and humanity.  The clips from past movies, shows and interviews are laugh out loud funny.  In short, Short's philosophy of life resounds with joy, resilience and gratitude.  Comedian John Mulaney who co-starred with Short on a the Fox sitcom flop, "Mulaney" shared what he garnered from Short, "98% of it is failure.  This is what the job is," teaching Mulaney the wisdom to learn from "what doesn't work, until something works."  The home videos of holiday parties are filled with families of major stars mingling and entertaining each other were enviable.  In fact, I have only one gripe to pick with Ed Grimley and this bio-doc that mocks the silly pretense he and his dear friend Larry Kasdan making the doc. don't know each other.  It's I want to be friends with Martin Short, too.  It's hard being green.  

WIDOW'S BAY Quaint New England Town It Ain't-It's Spooky My Kind of Way w. Matthew Rhys

Looking for something set in a cozy, communal island town where everybody knows one another's name,  along with something wicked this way coming through the dense fog.  Local Mayor Tom (Emmy winner Matthew Rhys) is set on bringing fame to their small island to stir up tourism and keep the flailing island fiscally afloat.  Tom's a widower raising a high school student on his own who stays out late getting high  "cause there's nothing to do on the island."  He's begrudgingly assisted in this venture by his motley staff of eccentric locals including his doddering, octogenarian secretary.  As Tom tells the travel writer he's hoping to impress, the townsfolk "have a lot of color."  Filmed on the bay and on the isolated town of Widow's Bay, you can almost smell the fishy dampness and feel the chill in the air.  Soon you'll be feeling a chill down your spine in this smartly written, well cast series that blends the Mayor's blustering frustrations with his pothead son, Evan (Kingston Southwick, "Presumed Innocent") and the sordid locals who maintain the evil curse on the island has arisen, again.  The various A-List of veteran character actors who sprinkle in comic relief and fortitude to their jobs include Dale Dickey, Kate O'Flynn and Kevin Carrol.  Tom's biggest foe is the elder local Wyck (Stephen Root, TV Series "Barry").  Wyck is granted 5 minutes to explain to Tom why he maintains evil is imminent on island.  Tom is scornful until his  own harrowing encounters with a local fisherman found in coma as forewarned by Wyck.  Tom becomes faced with the dilemma whether he must warn the community to barricade themselves as precaution, or continue the now forgone charade of WIDOW'S BAY as an innocuous, welcoming tourist town.  The scene in the town's best restaurant where Tom had hope to impress turns eerie and intense as Tom struggles to maintain his composure in front of the reporter.  The writer just confided he "Loves WIDOW'S BAY.  It could be bigger than Martha's Vineyard."  WIDOW'S BAY is much more than a suspense, horror, idiosyncratic psychological thriller.  It is all that and more.  I can't wait to watch what's in store.  Don't miss it!