leebutler Review

Cruella (2021) – Dark Twisted Disney Fun

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on June 8, 2021

Cruella De Vil, one of the most wicked villains of the entire Disney catalog, started her life as a young woman named Estella. Estella was a troubled child, getting into fights at her boarding school and in general making life hard for herself and her mother. Indeed, this side of her personality was so cruel that she would come to name that mood “Cruella”.

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leebutler Review

Turning Red (2022) – It’s Pan-tastic

Released: 11th March
Seen: 13th March

turning red info

Writing about a Pixar film feels a little bit like writing about a Marvel film at this point, the odds are good that it’s going to be somewhere around the great range and the compliments that you can throw its way all feel very similar because they’ve managed to hone in on a formula that works so well that it’s hard to pick holes in it. Turning Red is one of those films that really shows Pixar at its best in terms of how it tells these stories and while a lot of it would fit into what a regular high-quality Pixar film normally shows, there are a few elements to this that elevate it into something genuinely special… plus, it has a lot of adorable giant red pandas which means it’s the best movie to come out in a long time because how can you deny the cuteness of giant red pandas? 

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leebutler Review

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S01E01 Review and Recap

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on March 24th, 2021

About The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a Disney+ series set in the Marvel Cinematic universe, six months after the events of Avengers: Endgame. This six-episode miniseries aired the first episode on March 19th, meaning we have new Friday night appointment television now that WandaVision’s finished

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leebutler Review

No Time to Die (2021) – Timeless

Released: 11th November 2021
Seen: 24th February 2022

Since his first appearance in film in 1962, James Bond has been a staple of cinema. Over 25 outings he has been the first image we think of when we think of spies, with his gadgets and his Bond Girls and his dry martini that’s shaken but not stirred. He’s an icon who has been so powerful that he has somehow survived through a half-dozen different actors playing him over his long film career. The most recent actor to drive the legendary Aston Martin, Daniel Craig, decided that the latest film No Time To Die would be his final time playing the legend with the license to kill and god damn is he going down swinging.

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leebutler Review

Monster Hunter (2020) – A Failure of Godzilla-Sized Proportions

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on January 5th, 2020

Some video games are simple enough that you would think that they shouldn’t be that hard to adapt into a movie. Monster Hunter might have a lot of lore, but when the core mechanic seems to be “Kill a big monster then use parts of that monster to help you kill an even bigger monster” then that basically demands you make a fun Kaiju movie with lots of discount-Godzillas being poked with large pointy things. This shouldn’t be too hard to make at least mindlessly watchable… unless you hand it to the guy who drove the Resident Evil franchise into the ground, then you might have an early contender for the worst film 2021 has to offer. (Edit note: It wasn’t just a contender, it won one of those spots)

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