Movie – Page 20 – Movie Meister Reviews

September 22, 2023 leebutler Horror, Review

Elevator Game (2023) – Going Down!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 15th September
Seen: 20th September

One of the most strangely fascinating subgenres of horror is one where a weird thing on the internet turns out to not only be real but deadly. Films like Slender Man, Grimcutty and Countdown all took modern technology and twisted it to become something strange and deadly, a kind of modern-day campfire story that takes a technology we’ve all become used to and turns it into something truly terrifying… or at least, that’s what it’s supposed to do. You might notice the trio of examples mentioned earlier are some of the worst horror films released in the last five years and sadly, Elevator Game joins them in that group of horror movies that takes a potentially interesting modern story and just does nothing with it.

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September 21, 2023 leebutler Action, Adventure, Review, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Blue Beetle (2023) – Delightful

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 14th September
Seen: 19th September

The DCEU is dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of its burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourners who continually scream for the Snyderverse to be revived. It is dead and will have its final death rattle later in the year when Aquaman 2 comes out before all the toys are thrown out and we restart this experiment again with a brand new man in charge of everything. Perhaps that well-known death of the franchise explains why Blue Beetle will soon be limping past the finish line just barely making its production budget back… which is a massive shame because Blue Beetle is absolutely awesome from start to finish.

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September 17, 2023 leebutler Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Review, Sci-Fi

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) – COWABUNGA!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 7th September
Seen: 13th September

By now the story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their creation is well known. From its start as an underground comic designed to parody superheroes to the legendary cartoon series that gave us the theme song that you are inevitably humming right now to the first movie that not only was a defining action film for a lot of childhoods but allowed New Line Cinema to go from a little independent company to one that was big enough that it could eventually make the Lord of the Rings movies. It’s an absolute phenomenon of a franchise that’s had several iterations over the years with various visual styles and tones that range from the dark and serious to the light and comedic. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem leans more towards light and comedic but also might be the best take on the franchise since the 1990 film.

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September 15, 2023 leebutler Crime, Mystery, Review, Thriller

Marlowe (2023) – Mar-no

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 6th April
Seen: 11th September

Philip Marlowe started life as a character created in the 1920s, created by Raymond Chandler for a series of short stories that appeared in assorted magazines at the time. Before Raymond’s death in 1959 he would end up writing over half a dozen books about Philip Marlowe’s adventures, along with several short stories that would make up a few anthologies. The character was so popular that even after Raymond’s death there were books written by other authors, more and more detective stories about Marlowe have filled bookshelves over the years.

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September 13, 2023 leebutler Documentary, Review

Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America (2023) – Important

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 6th September
Seen: 9th September

Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America Info

The Boy Scouts Of America was founded in 1910 with the intention of teaching the young men of the US skills that they might need to survive. From knot tying to starting a fire to first aid lessons, being a Boy Scout was a sign that you wanted to be a contributing member of your community and its leaders were in positions of trust that gave them some form of societal power. Sadly, it should not be a shock that when this much power is placed in the hands of a group of adults who have access to children without anyone around them, it’s almost inevitable that this would lead to some serious issues and the movie Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America details one of the worst cover-ups in history, one that should’ve probably destroyed the Scouts.

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September 12, 2023 leebutler Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Netflix, Review

The Monkey King (2023) – Royalty

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 2nd February
Seen: 9th September

Journey to the West is a 16th-century Chinese story that follows the adventures of four major characters, Tripitaka, Pigsy, Sandy and The Monkey King. This story is regarded as one of the greatest Chinese novels of all time, has been translated into an abridged English language version, is the subject of multiple adaptations in every medium you could think of and is a truly important piece of work that I haven’t read or even heard about before doing background research for this review of the Netflix animated film The Monkey King, which adapts that characters specific story from the original text. It’s important to tell you that I have not read the original text because I cannot tell you if this is a faithful adaptation of it (though based on the Wikipedia description, it seems to get the core beats of the story correctly) but I can tell you if it’s a good kids movie… which it is.

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September 11, 2023 leebutler Crime, Mystery, Thriller

The Ritual Killer (2023) – Dead Boring

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 19th April
Seen: 9th September

I think it’s time to ask a very serious question… does Morgan Freeman owe someone money? Does the legendary five-time Oscar-nominated (and only one-time winner, somehow) who starred in such monster hits as The Shawshank Redemption and Bruce Almighty have a huge tax bill that he needs to pay off? It’s a question that feels like it needs to be asked because lately, it seems that every time he’s being seen on screen it’s in some low-budget piece of shit that shouldn’t exist, a piece of shit selling itself almost entirely on the fact that it stars Morgan Freeman. This is a man who deserves to only have to work when he wants to, when a project is good enough to be worthy of him… he shouldn’t have to take up a supporting role in The Ritual Killer to pay the bills!

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September 6, 2023 leebutler Horror, Review, Thriller

Jagged Mind (2023) – Loopy

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 15th June
Seen: 3rd September

Before we begin, a warning that this film deals with the very heavy subject of spousal abuse, in particular gaslighting and abuse of those with a medical condition which might be a triggering topic for some. If that applies to you then you might want to skip this movie entirely, though you also might’ve skipped it already, because it seemed to get very little promotion which makes a depressing amount of sense when you realise it’s a queer horror film about spousal abuse which doesn’t tend to be a marketable film. If that isn’t a trigger for you though, keep going on (also if you got viscerally angry at the idea of being given a trigger warning… grass, go find some and touch it)

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September 5, 2023 leebutler Biography, Drama, History, Review

Flamin’ Hot (2023) – Heart-Warming

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 9th June
Seen: 3rd September

In the episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend titled “Josh’s Ex-Girlfriend Is Crazy” there’s a song titled The End Of The Movie where noted songperson Josh Groban reminds us of a universal truth… “Life doesn’t make narrative sense”. This reality creates a problem when someone becomes famous enough to warrant a portion of their life being turned into a biopic, a strange series of events has to be somewhat retrofitted into a three-act film structure in a way that might not be completely accurate but still tells a satisfying story.

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September 4, 2023 leebutler Documentary, Review

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023) – Suh-mash

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 10th January
Seen: 2nd September

In February of 2013, Caleb Lawrence McGillvary was hitchhiking. One of the people who gave him a ride turned out to be Jett Simmons McBride who, with Caleb in his passenger seat, drove his car into a utility truck and pinned a worker between his vehicle and the truck. When a woman came over to help, Jett tried to pull her away while proclaiming himself to be Jesus Christ and shouting racial slurs about the man who he had just hit with his vehicle. This is when Caleb sprung into action with a hatchet he had in his bag, hitting Jett 3 times in the head which got him to release the young woman and incapacitated him until the police came. When interviewed about this, Caleb would insist on being called Kai and described his moment of defense with the onomatopoeic phrase “Smash, Smash, Suh-mash” which would go on to become a meme and earn Kai the label “Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker”.

By May of that same year, Kai would be arrested for the murder of New Jersey attorney Joseph Galfy and eventually be sentenced to over 5 decades in prison.

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