Still: A Michael J Fox Movie (2023) – Short and Sweet

Released: 12th May
Seen: 21st May

When it comes to stars of the 80s and 90s, it’s almost undeniable that one of the biggest names in the industry was Michael J Fox. He caught the world’s attention playing Alex P Keaton in the sitcom Family Ties (which would get him 3 consecutive Emmy awards, a rare feat in itself) and then cemented his place in film history with the iconic Back to the Future trilogy. Throughout the 80s and 90s you could not escape Michael J Fox, he was one of the biggest names around and was often the thing that was used to sell a movie to an audience. You weren’t going to go see Doc Hollywood because you were interested in films about surgeons, you were going because it was a Michael J Fox film and he was a big damn deal to pretty much everyone. Even his return to television in the late 90s was a big deal, with Spin City being a huge hit and netting him his fourth Emmy. The key point is that Michael was the original short king, someone who was considered unstoppable… and then his hand started to shake.

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Plane (2023) – Minimal Turbulance

Released: 13th January
Seen: 21st May

January tends to be known as a dump month for releases. Basically, a film that is released this month tends to be something that the studios don’t have faith in and throw out quickly and quietly with minimal expectations. There are obviously exceptions to this idea, truly spectacular movies can come out pretty much any time but a January release is usually the spot where films go to die. It takes something kind of special to break this rule and actually make a splash… or you can be mediocre enough in the exact right ways to make back a minuscule budget and be something more than just a quick write-off.

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Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey (2023) – Oh Bother

Released: 17th May
Seen: 20th May

On Jan 1st, 2022 the character of Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain. To be very specific, because this stuff is more needlessly complicated than it should be, the first book by A.A. Milne that was published in 1926 is now available for anyone to use however they like. The characters, plots, dialogue and everything in those pages can now be used in any way you like. Of course, you must be careful to avoid using the elements that Disney used for their adaptations (AKA, Winnie the Pooh can’t wear a red shirt because that’s a Disney thing) and you can’t use elements from any of the subsequent books (Aka Tigger won’t be public domain until 2024 because he doesn’t appear until the 1926 book “The House At Pooh Corner”) but if you stick with those rules you can do anything you want with the bear of very little brain.

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Fast X (2023) – Slow Down!

Released: 17th May
Seen: 20th May

Fast X Info

The Fast and the Furious franchise has developed something of a reputation over the years. At first, that reputation was that these were the films to see cool car tricks and hot women in skimpy outfits, maybe with a little bit of a heist thrown in for dramatic tension. Now the Fast and Furious movies are where you go to see physics be violently pegged by a souped-up automobile powered by the laws of “Fuck you, this looks cool”. It’s somewhat of a dramatic shift over the years but it’s honestly been for the best, the franchise was kind of dull and boring in the beginning and now it’s almost impossible not to salivate in anticipation for what insanely stupid thing is going to be done next behind the wheel of a car.

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Glorious (2022) Is Quite Alright!

Originally posted on Soda & Telepaths September 3rd 2022

Glorious Plot

Wes (Ryan Kwanten) is having a bad day, to say the least. He’s just broken up with his girlfriend, Brenda (Sylvia Grace Crim) and in his frustration, he’s gone on a long drive and gotten unreasonably drunk at a rest stop that’s out in the middle of nowhere. After spending a few hours at the rest stop getting wasted, Wes needs to use the bathroom in the rest stop and so he gets into the only unoccupied stall.

After a while he begins talking to the mysterious person in the locked stall beside him, only to discover that the stall doesn’t have a person in it but a cosmic demigod known as Ghatanothoa (J.K. Simmons) who has brought Wes to this rest stop in order to ask for a favour, and to torment him with occasional visions of his past. 

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Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022) – We’re all Mad here

Originally posted on Soda & Telepaths May 17th 2022

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness Plot

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness picks up not too long after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) trying to return to some kind of normalcy which means he has to do something he’d been dreading… attend the wedding of Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). Of course, because no hero from the MCU is capable of having anything remotely resembling a day off, the wedding is interrupted when a giant cycloptic octopus appears in town, chasing a young girl named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez). 

Once Strange, with an assist from the Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong), has dealt with the octopus he learns that America has the power to hope through dimensions, a power so great that in order to try and help America he must get some assistance from Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). Sadly for Doctor Strange, the moment he tries to bring Wanda into the situation is the moment when things turn from bad to absolutely nightmarish.

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Holy Hell! Mad God is Unabashedly Fkd Up – And We Love It!

Originally posted on Soda & Telepaths June 22nd 2022

Mad God tells the dark and unsettling tale of a world that is on the brink of destruction, or maybe even well over that brink considering how cold and desolate it is. It’s a land filled with horrifying creatures everywhere you look and one man, known simply as The Assassin, must trek through it.

With nothing more than a disintegrating map and a suitcase bomb that will hopefully destroy the entire planet, The Assassin must make his way through the dark apocalyptic land in order to reach his destination where he can release the bomb and bring an end to the mad world that he inhabits.

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Living With Chucky (2023) – It’s A Living

Released: 24th April
Seen: 6th May

The Child’s Play series is one of the most fascinating horror franchises out there. Over 35 years there have been seven films, a TV series and a reboot to tell the story of a red-headed doll possessed by a serial killer (or in the reboot’s case, AI gone wrong) and for that entire time Chucky has somehow maintained a strange but cohesive story that runs throughout the franchise. It’s that rarest of series that carries the central cast and a large part of the crew for sequel after sequel. 

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Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 (2023) – Out Of This World

Released: 3rd May
Seen: 3rd May

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3

When it comes to the many franchises that make up the MCU, it’s arguable that one of the most surprising of them all is the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Based on one of the most obscure Marvel comics out there, the first Guardians movie took the MCU into space and, effectively, introduced the character Thanos to the franchise as an actual character in the narrative instead of as an end credits gag. The second Guardians movie somehow managed to be even better, funnier and more emotional with grander stakes that showed just what these characters were capable of. 

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