leebutler Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Review, Sci-Fi

Mortal Kombat II (2026) – Round 2, FIGHT!

Released: 8th May
Seen: 28th July

In 2021, a new adaptation of the video game Mortal Kombat came out. While its release was mildly hampered due to the pandemic (it was delayed and then released simultaneously in cinemas and on HBO Max because of that plague we all lived through and seem to want to pretend didn’t happen), the film did well enough and got moderately good reviews. I enjoyed it well enough but found it to be a little bit of a lore dump overstuffed with exposition that no one actually gives a fuck about because, while the lore of Mortal Kombat is surely fascinating, it’s not the thing that anyone really remembers about that franchise. The big thing was that we didn’t get to enjoy the tournament-style fights that the game franchise was known for and that felt like a big mistake… Well, Mortal Kombat II clearly heard everyone saying how much they wanted the tournament and decided to give us exactly that, and it’s a better movie because of it.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Review, Sci-Fi

Masters Of The Universe (2026) – IT HAS THE POWER!!

Released: 10th July
Seen: 26th July

The history of He-Man begins in 1982 with the release of the first toy line which was a massive hit. The toys came out with a mini comic attached that gave some backstory that would then explode with the release of the He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe cartoon series which was basically just a glorified toy advertisement but a toy advertisement that was insanely popular and would become a touchstone of 80s kids entertainment. It was the kind of series that was so undeniably huge that it had to be turned into a film at some point, which it was in 1987. That film was something of an infamous bomb, though like a lot of weird 80s movies that were attached to nostalgic properties it became a bit of a cult hit. After that movie it seemed like the Masters of the Universe were relegated to being occasionally rebooted in animated form but wouldn’t get another crack at being a movie until 2026 when Masters of the Universe came out and also bombed… which sucks because it’s actually amazing.

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leebutler Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Review

The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) – Whimsical

Released: 23rd March
Seen: 23rd July

Enid Blyton might be one of the most prolific authors in history, if we are to believe she wrote everything accredited to her (there’s controversy on that, but that’s for someone else to address). Between 1922 and her death in 1968, she is the credited author of 762 books which include such beloved series as the Magic Wishing Chair, Noddy and The Magic Faraway Tree. The Magic Faraway Tree is particularly memorable to people of my age (my guess is specifically those who lived in Australia and Britain) thanks to a short-lived TV series The Magic of the Faraway Tree, based on the books with one of the most strangely memorable theme tunes from the era. It’s one of those stories that feels like it was always destined to be a charming feel-good children’s film if they ever got around to making one… well, they got around to it and lo and behold, it does exactly what you would want such a film to do.

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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 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 Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy

Toy Story 5 (2026) – Technically Brilliant

Released: 18th June
Seen: 19th June

The Toy Story franchise feels like a miracle at this point, it’s certainly a franchise that goes past any reasonable explanation in terms of quality. The first film was basically a test to see if you could even make a full-length feature film using CGI characters and make it interesting, it went on to be the second-highest-grossing film of 1995 (I know, I feel old too just realising it’s been 31 years) and effectively killed the hand-drawn animation genre. Toy Story 2 was almost deleted by accident and intended to go straight to DVD, it ended up as the third highest-grossing film of 1999 and is widely considered as good as, or better than the original. Toy Story 3 came out nearly a decade later in 2010, had a six-year production period and seemingly closed the story out. It would go on to make a billion dollars, be the highest-grossing film of that year and finally win this franchise the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Then in 2019 came Toy Story 4, a film that many people doubted because the story was finished pretty perfectly in part three but it proved us wrong, creating another nearly perfect movie that again made a billion dollars and won this franchise its second Best Animated Feature Oscar. It’s kind of wild just realizing that this franchise has somehow produced four absolute classics of the genre and keeps finding new ways to delight young audiences with its story about a bunch of toys that come to life whenever you aren’t looking… Well, looks like we’re gonna have to make that five absolute classics because the bastards did it again.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy

How To Train Your Dragon (2025) – Reproduction

Released: 12th June
Seen: 16th December

In 1998, Gus Van Sant remade Psycho. He had just come off the monster hit that was Good Will Hunting and used the reputation he had built to get Universal to foot the bill. The remake is infamous, a largely shot-for-shot remake that puts the film in colour and uses modern actors while replicating the original visual style as much as possible. The idea was to basically make fun of remakes, to show how it’s truly impossible to copy a film exactly as it originally was and have the same impact. That film definitely proved Gus Van Sant’s point because his remake of Psycho was a box office bomb and a critical punching bag. One would hope that maybe Gus’ experiment would’ve stopped others from trying to do the same thing again but no, we’ve lately been inundated with remakes of classic Disney films and now How To Train Your Dragon gets the same treatment and while it might be better than Psycho (1998), that doesn’t mean it deserves to exist.

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leebutler Drama, Fantasy, Review, Sci-Fi

The Life Of Chuck (2025) – Oh Life

Released: 14th August
Seen: 11th December

When you think of a Stephen King story, you inevitably think of some weird horror story with a terrifying concept and a probably less than satisfying final act. You might also think of his sci-fi work, his grandiose epic The Dark Tower or The Stand. What might be thought of less are his dramatic works, despite them being adapted into truly grand movies. Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, movies that can genuinely surprise people when they learn it’s a Stephen King adaptation (I’ve literally seen this happen, I’ve shocked people by saying “The Green Mile is based on Stephen King). He doesn’t really get to flex his dramatic writing muscles as much because everyone generally wants a Stephen King book to be scary, but back in 2020 he released a novella called The Life of Chuck. The novella caught the eye of Mike Flanagan, who is one of the modern horror heroes, and he adapted it into a film of the same name which is certainly heartwarming but… well, let’s begin the review before I go into that.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Music, Musical

Kpop Demon Hunters (2025) – Perfection

Released: 20th June
Seen: 10th December

We are officially at the point where the K-pop genre has hit critical mass, probably been there for a while thanks to supergroups like Blackpink or BTS showing how dominant they can be on the pop charts. This is part of an era that, according to my research, is known as the Korean Wave and hopefully when we talk about the absolutely insane rise of K-pop and the Korean wave in general in the future, we need to take the time to mention Kpop Demon Hunters, which feels like the kind of movie that can only exist now that K-pop has become such a massive element of pop culture that it has the incredible mass appeal that this work of art has.

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