leebutler Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Review

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) – Player 2

Released: 1st April
Seen: 20th July

In 2023, Mario and Luigi made their grand transition from the world of video games to the world of animated films. The Super Mario Bros. Movie came out to massive fanfare, becoming the second-highest-grossing film worldwide of 2023 (just behind Barbie) and it basically proved that you could take this 40-year-old game series and make a film out of it that wasn’t an instant joke. The delightful bright coloured world of the Mushroom Kingdom was so enjoyable and inviting that it really shouldn’t have shocked anyone that it would go on to make over a billion dollars and, once it made that billion, it shouldn’t have been a shock that a sequel would be announced. Now we have The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and while it might not be as delightful as the film that came before it, it’s still a lot of fun.

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leebutler Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Review, Romance

The Odyssey (2026) – Let’s Do The Odyssey

Released: 9th April
Seen: 20th July

In the 8th century BC, Homer wrote the epic poem The Odyssey. The poem spanned over 12,000 lines and told the story of a warrior trying to make his way back home, a story that would go on to be one of the most adapted tales in history. It’s been told as a straight-up epic, an opera, a crime comedy by the Coen brothers, a futuristic animated cartoon, if you can think of a way for someone to retell the story of The Odyssey, it’s probably been done. Probably the obvious way to tell the story is as the grandiose epic, after all an epic poem deserves an epic adaptation and this one has already had a few of those before… but until now, it hasn’t been thrown into the hands of a cinematic icon like Christopher Nolan who seems to revel in proving to the world that he’s one of the greatest filmmakers of all damn time.

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leebutler Action, Comedy, Review, Thriller

Over Your Dead Body (2026) – Lethally Funny

Released: 10th June
Seen: 12th July

The dark comedy is one of the harder genres to nail because there’s a very fine line between “A dark joke” and “being a tasteless fuck” and it’s a line that’s incredibly easy to cross. Not only that but if you don’t actually push far enough with a joke it can just feel kind of dull, like in the movie How To Make A Killing which showed that you can have a dark comedic premise but fail at the actual comedy element. The idea of a couple trying to murder each other is a premise that can absolutely lead to some great dark comedy if done well, but can also lead to something kind of boring if it’s not committed to properly… fortunately, Over My Dead Body commits just enough to get the job done.

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leebutler Comedy, Horror, Review, Sci-Fi

Cold Storage (2026) – Chill

Released: 12th March
Seen: 12th July

In 1985, Return of the Living Dead was released. Created by John Russo, the co-creator of Night Of The Living Dead, the film was a comedic follow-up to the deeply disturbing original that became a cult hit on its own and was the origin of the idea that Zombies specifically hunger for brains above all else. It spawned a bunch of sequels of varying quality but is still an important element of horror’s history… and Cold Storage is the knockoff brand version of that franchise, and hey considering it’s been 20 years since we got a Return of the Living Dead movie then someone might as well come up with an alternative for us to enjoy.

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leebutler Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Review

Evil Dead Burn (2026) – Heated

Released: 10th July
Seen: 10th July

In 1979, Sam Raimi ran off into the forest with a bunch of his friends (including the chin-tastic Bruce Campbell) to make a feature length version of his short film Within The Woods. It was an insane idea made on a microbudget with effects that Sam made up on the fly, people got injured on set and for some reason they decided to strap a camera to a plank of wood and have two guys run through the swamp carrying it to get the shot. It was the kind of filmmaking that would make insurance agents weep and it ended up creating the 1981 film The Evil Dead.

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leebutler Comedy, Horror, Review, Thriller

Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) – FOUND YOU!

Released: 9th April
Seen: 5th July

In 2019, the filmmaking team known as Radio Silence graduated from making short films that were part of anthology features into making a feature-length film all of their own. That film was Ready Or Not which presented us with a young woman named Grace (Samara Weaving) who married into a rich family and had to take part in a little family ritual where they play a game on the night a new family member joins them. Unfortunately, she picks hide and seek and thus is required to hide while the family hunts her. It was a glorious romp of a film, very silly and campy at times but with enough tension, good characters and enough gore to satisfy any horror fan. It ended with a spectacular shower of blood flying everywhere as Grace won her little game and made her new family explode. It was a glorious film that probably didn’t need a sequel, but damn I’m glad it has one.

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leebutler Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Review, Sci-Fi

Project Hail Mary (2026) – Rocks

Released: 19th March
Seen: 1st July

One of the most beloved stories that cinema keeps going back to is “Man interacts with aliens”. It’s a time-tested story that allows for so many variations, from the whimsical wonder of ET to the nightmarish horror of The Thing, cinema has run the gamut of ways to show a human having to deal with a creature from another planet, figure out how to communicate with said creature and either save or destroy it. It’s been done so many times that we’re almost out of new alien designs that we can use before repeating ourselves. So one would think that another film about a human going to space and spending the entire time interacting with an alien would feel at least a little rote, a little repetitive… somehow, Project Hail Mary manages to feel fresh while also being charming as all hell.

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