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

Coyote VS ACME (2026) – Miraculous

Released: 17th September
Seen: 17th September

If everything had gone according to the plans of the cinematic terrorist known as David Zaslav, this piece of art would’ve been thrown into a fire, and he would’ve been able to write off about 30 million in taxes for the Warner Brothers company. That was the plan; that was what the finish line for this film was going to be. It must be pointed out that films die all the time; they get stuck in development hell, or some disaster happens so that the people who started the film can’t complete it, or they finish the film but the company that made it goes bankrupt so the film can’t legally be released. A film being made but not being released is not an uncommon event; what is uncommon is a company making a film, getting great test screenings, and then deciding not to release it for a tax write-off that wouldn’t even cover two months of the CEO’s total salary package. What’s even less common is a film that went through this process to then get bought up by a competitor who actually releases the film into cinemas. That alone should make everyone want to support Coyote VS ACME purely as a middle finger to the absolutely brainless moron who thinks his minuscule tax break is somehow more important than a work of art that people gave up time in their precious lives to create. It also helps that Coyote VS ACME is, and boy does it feel good to say this, one of the best goddamn films of the year.

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leebutler Drama, Horror, Review, Sci-Fi

Saccharine (2026) – Sweetish

Released: 4th June
Seen: 23rd August

There is a term that is slowly becoming a little more well-known thanks to the invention of Ozempic and similar GLP-1 weight loss drugs known as Food Noise. The idea of food noise is just that someone is constantly thinking about food, even after they’ve eaten a meal and should rationally no longer be hungry. A lot of overweight people (myself included) know this noise well, as it’s that constant thinking of what to eat next that can become debilitating at times and is a phenomenon that’s finally starting to be talked about. Of course, it’s also inevitable that it can be taken and turned into the subject of a movie and it seems like the film Saccharine has decided to play around with the horror of such an idea, but in doing so appears to have bitten off a little more than it can chew.

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leebutler Comedy, Review

Pizza Movie (2026) – Party

Released: 23rd March
Seen: 27th July

Stoner comedy might be one of the newer subgenres of film that exists. Sure, some people might say it dates back to the 30s with Reefer Madness, but that was mostly an accidental Stoner Comedy, failed propaganda that stoners would laugh at in midnight screenings because it failed its intended purpose. Realistically, the genre was started by Cheech and Chong in their run of movies from the late 70s through to the 80s. There’s been a fair few well-regarded stoner comedies since then; things like the Harold and Kumar series or most of Kevin Smith’s early output really helped explore what the genre could be. It’s been a little while since we’ve really had a good quality stoner comedy and now here comes Pizza Movie, and just like a real Pizza, even when it’s bad it’s still pretty good.

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leebutler Comedy, Family, Mystery, Review

The Sheep Detectives (2026) – Woolly Good

Released: 7th May
Seen: 25th July

In 2005, author Leonie Swann released her first book, Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story, to much acclaim, selling over 100,000 copies within six months, which is wildly impressive (certainly better than most books about sheep, I imagine). One of those copies would eventually land in the hands of screenwriter Craig Mazin, who recently showed off his dramatic writing chops with the incredible series Chernobyl and the incredibly popular The Last of Us. I suspect after writing a couple of shows like that (especially Chernobyl, one of the most intense TV series I’ve ever sat through), Craig needed something light and fluffy to clear his head, and so he adapted Leonie’s novel into The Sheep Detectives and, in doing so, made one of the most adorably charming and surprisingly intelligent movies of 2026.

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leebutler Action, Comedy, Horror, Review, Thriller

They Will Kill You (2026) – Killer

Released: 12th March
Seen: 13th June

In 2019, a fun little horror film called Ready or Not came out and became a major hit, at least among Horror fans. The film itself revolved around a bride being introduced to her new family, who turn out to be Satan worshippers, who need to hunt her down and kill her by sunrise to give their dark lord a tribute to maintain their family’s wealth. It was a truly insane, blood-soaked ride full of dark comedy and some of the most insane action scenes. It was a film that was almost destined to have imitators, and now here comes They Will Kill You that gives a crash course in how to copy from other better films and still make something awesome.

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leebutler Horror, Review, Thriller

Twisted (2026) – Uninspired

Released: 6th February
Seen: 1st April

The label Torture Porn was first used around 2006 when it was applied to films like Saw, Hostel and Wolf Creek. It was an easy way to describe some of the more extreme horror-slasher films of the era that almost revelled in how much gore they could get away with showing. They were some of the most extreme films in the genre that were also major hits in the mainstream cinemas and kind of opened a floodgate that we’re still dealing with. One of the people whose films first got this label, who really just seems to have embraced it in the years since, is the director of Saw 2-4 Darren Lynn Bousman, who used to be really good at making these films… but sadly, Twisted is far from his best work.

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leebutler Documentary, Review

Melania (2026) – Uggh

Released: 30th January
Seen: 23rd March

Donald Trump is a horrific fascistic scumbag, a useless pile of flesh that’s held together by bitterness and rape allegations. He’s up there on the list of worst world leaders to ever exist and yes, I am including the German guy with the funny moustache in that assessment. He’s vile, putrid, disgusting, and that’s the polite terms I can use without potentially risking getting investigated by the FBI. I do not like the man whatsoever, and I never ever have… I also have never been a fan of his wife, Melania. I’ve seen other people on the left try to pass her off as some kind of victim who secretly hates him and needs to just get away but I’ve never been one of those people, I’ve always been down to say she’s just as bad as him so when I heard there was a documentary being made about her, I was not looking forward to it. Of course, her documentary’s been a big talking point all year; it made so much money but also got critically panned, and it’s been the butt of every joke about a bad documentary for several months now. Now I’m not going to pretend I’m a fan of the film’s subject matter (did you work that part out already), but hey, I can enjoy a documentary about a bad person if the documentary is done well… but this isn’t, it’s Melania, and there is nothing good about Melania.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Family, Mystery, Review

Zootopia 2 (2025) – Sssensational

Released: 27th November
Seen: 8th December

In 2016, Disney released Zootopia, which told the story of a society made entirely of animals (as in lions, tigers, bears, oh my) that was dealing with the disappearance of the predator class of animals. A buddy cop mystery movie told with just a ton of adorable animals in people clothes was basically a license to print money for Disney, which would rake in over a billion dollars from this one movie alone, and that still only made it the 4th highest-grossing movie of the year, which really says a lot about how insane the box office was only a decade ago. In the years since Zootopia has remained a very popular property, even getting a TV show on Disney+ in 2022, but it’s taken until now for Disney to get around to making a sequel, and it was absolutely worth the wait.

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leebutler Comedy, Review

The Roses (2025) – Thorny Fun

Released: 28th August
Seen: 6th December

In 1981, William Adler released his eighth novel, The War Of The Roses, about a couple who slowly feel their marriage falling apart and go through an absurdly horrific divorce. This story got adapted into a film of the same name in 1989 which was a massive hit, making $160 million on a $26 million budget. As a pitch black comedy, the chances of it being remade probably seemed unlikely (remaking comedies is rare enough, remaking pitch black comedies about couples who divorce and almost torture each other to death is something that was almost never going to happen) but here we are in 2025 with The Roses coming out and honestly being funnier than you might expect it to be.

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leebutler Action, Comedy, Review

Fight or Flight (2025) – Gloriously Silly

Released: 4th September
Seen: 1st December

In 2022, a little film called Bullet Train came out that asked the logical question, “What would happen if you put Brad Pitt on a Japanese bullet train full of assassins?” The answer was a pretty fun movie with a lot of wild over-the-top cartoon characters, a lot of inventive action scenes with stunts by a guy who did a lot of Marvel work and the director of Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. It was the kind of film that was just balls to the wall fun, at times those balls made their way through the wall because they were slammed against it with such velocity. It was also a pretty big hit, and like a lot of big hits, it’s almost required for someone to try and make a knockoff version of it. Enter Fight or Flight, which takes Brad Pitt and replaces him with Josh Hartnett and jams some wings on the train to turn it into a plane. With that, you have another pretty damn fun movie.

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