leebutler Review

Dear Evan Hansen (2021) – Return To Sender

Released: 9th December
Seen: 18th December

Dear Evan Hansen Info

Dear “Dear Evan Hansen”,

Today was going to be an amazing day, and here’s why. Because today all you had to do was just be a decent movie. Not even a great movie, I think we both know you were never going to be great but good would’ve done us both a whole lot of good after the kind of year we’ve both had. I know you’ve had quite the bad year yourself what with all the people throwing mud your way since your little trailer came out and expecting you to be the next Cats. Well, I have good news Dear Evan Hansen, you’re not the next Cats… cos I’d go and see Cats again.

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leebutler Review

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) – Home Free

Released: 16th December
Seen: 16th December

Spider-Man: No Way Home Info

As usual, Marvel films are hard to review because saying anything about the plot is enough to have pitchforks and torches raised by an angry mob wanting to set fire to the spoiler who spoiled the movie for them so we’re going to mix up my normal order. I’ll do two paragraph of this review as my general overall thoughts about the movie, then I’ll pop the trailer in and that’s when I will start talking about plot stuff. 

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leebutler Review

Pig (2021) – Some Pig

Released:16th September
Seen: 14th December

Pig Info

When one thinks of a Nicolas Cage performance, they tend to think of something big and crazy where Cage is going at 150% the entire time. You think of things like him screaming “Arrgh, not the bees”, you think of his wide crazy eyes, you think of someone who is unafraid to be completely committed to the most insane things he’s asked to do in any given film. Sometimes this leads to maddeningly strange performances like The Wicker Man, sometimes this leads to people using his skills perfectly for films like Mandy or Willy’s Wonderland that almost worked around Cage’s eccentricities as a performer.

Pig is a glorious reminder of the raw talent that the man has, there’s a reason he’s an Oscar winner and Pig probably should be the reason he gets a second but you know the Academy will never do anything that interesting.

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leebutler Review

Encanto (2021) – Enchanting

Released: 25th November
Seen: 11th December

Encanto Info

Disney animated movies lately feel pointless to review. What’s there to say? “So, the company known for making really good animated films made a really good animated film… again”. Great, there’s the entire review of Encanto in a sentence that’s above my usual cut so now you know the obvious thing that you assumed the second you saw the poster hanging about. Congrats, you beat me to the punchline… still gonna review it anyway because what else am I gonna do with my free time? Hobbies? HA!

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leebutler Review

Dune (2021) – Spicy

Released: 1st December
Seen: 7th December

The 1965 novel Dune is one of those works of fiction that has permeated pop culture in ways that few other books have. Even if you haven’t read it, you probably know of the sandworms that turn the desert planet into a constant sea of danger, you might know about the drug Spice and that it’s been a notorious pain in the ass to try and adapt.

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leebutler Review

Single All The Way (2021) – Merry and Gay

Released: 2nd December
Seen: 6th December

Last year the Christmas film Happiest Season came out to rave reviews, as it should. It was a simple, sweet, charming Christmas film that also broke boundaries by being a wide release Christmas film that featured a gay couple. Strangely, Christmas films focusing on members of the LGBT community either have to be little underground affairs that don’t get big releases by major companies… well, Netflix clearly wanted to try and correct that by making their own gay Christmas film, Single All The Way. I guess it’s nice to know that we’re getting to the point where gay Christmas films can just be as cliched as the straight ones.

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leebutler Review

The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Special (2020) – Terminally Delightful

Released: 1st December 2020
Seen: 6th December

Review copy provided

You know, around this time of year we all have a traditional Christmas special we might like to dig out. There are things like the classic Charlie Brown Christmas Special, maybe you’re a fan of some Rankin Bass classics or you like to go a little off the beaten track and pull out the Pee Wee Herman Christmas Special. These are all absolute classic choices that work great for every kind of child… but what about after you’ve grown up? What special works for the modern day jaded adult who only makes it through the Christmas season through a temporary dip into alcoholism and passive aggression? Well, that’s why we have drag queens to help provide us with the adult holiday special we didn’t know we needed.

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leebutler Review

Four Good Days (2021) – Four OK Days

Released: 30th October
Seen: 4th December

Four Good Days Info

Glenn Close is hitting the point where eventually she’s going to get an Oscar as a “We’re sorry we forgot to give you this back in 1988” gift. She almost got it a few years ago for her role in The Wife, last year she was nominated for Hillbilly Elegy – though thankfully that wasn’t the movie that her work was honoured for – and now with Four Good Days we have another film that probably would be getting her a nomination but probably won’t since it hasn’t got that much press… oh well, maybe when that Sunset Boulevard movie gets out of development hell they’ll give it to her, cos sadly Four Good Days is just too average in general to get much notice.

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leebutler Uncategorized

The Power Of The Dog (2021) – Powerful

Released: 1st December
Seen: 4th December

It’s kind of strange to realise that Jane Campion hasn’t directed a feature film in over a decade. She’s one of those names that is on the shortlist of absolutely legendary directors even with only eight feature films to her name. She’s just one of those people who you expect a certain level of excellence from and with her first feature film in over a decade, The Power of the Dog, she reminds us why she is one of the great filmmakers of our time.

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leebutler Review

Old (2021) – Aged Badly Already

Released: 22nd July
Seen: 2nd December

Old Info

The career of M. Night Shyamalan is certainly an interesting one, to say the least. He started with absolute bonafide smash hit The Sixth Sense and then onto critical acclaim with Unbreakable and Signs. He was heralded as a visionary, someone who would have a career worthy of envy… and then he had a decade straight of critical bombs. He’s never really made an actual financial bomb (except maybe Lady in the Water) but his name went from being a sign of potential to a red flag that you’re about to be greatly disappointed. Even when he had a mild comeback with The Visit and Split, people thought he would return to his form… and now after Glass and the film we’re talking about today, Old, I have to wonder if M. Night Shyamalan was ever actually the visionary that people claimed him to be or if he’s just a bad writer/director who got lucky with his early films.

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