leebutler Review

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) – This Blade Is Dull

Released: 18th February
Seen: 20th February

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Info

There has been a trend in horror films lately where a classic slasher franchise will do a sequel starring the original cast set about 40 years after the original film that ignores every other sequel that came before it. This trend has given us absolutely brilliant films like the 2018 Halloween and it’s given us reasons to despise the very concept of cinema with things like I Spit On Your Grave: Deja Vu. It’s a high risk-high reward concept because it will pull in fans who want a heavy hit of pure nostalgia but you then have to give them a film that somehow honours the original while also being something new and fun. Texas Chainsaw Massacre does none of that, it just exists in a boring way that makes me wonder why this franchise keeps on going.

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leebutler Review

The Lost Daughter (2021) – Found It

Released: 31st December 2021
Seen: 13th February 2022

The Lost Daughter Info

In 2006, the Italian novel La figlia oscura by Elena Ferrante was released. Eventually translated in 2008, the book got the English title of The Lost Daughter. This year at the Oscars the film adaptation of this would only receive three nominations, two for acting and one for the screenplay which honestly feels like a lot less than it deserves but considering the material, they’re definitely the best categories for a film like this.

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leebutler Review

Home Team (2022) – It’s A Shame

Released: 28th January
Seen: 31st January

In 2012 the coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton (Kevin James), received a one-year suspension for his part in a scandal that was known as “bounty gate” where players on the team were paid to intentionally injure players on the other team. Now, Sean has maintained his innocence in this and the details are more complicated than I care to look into (I’m not a sports person, I had to get all that off Wikipedia so I understood the situation as best I could) but the key point is that Sean didn’t coach his team during 2012 and instead used that time to coach his son’s sixth-grade team during that season. This story is the inspiration for the movie Home Team, which is what happens when the Happy Madison team decides to make a sports biopic and then gets bored and just makes their usual shit.

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leebutler Review

Brazen (2022) – Lifeless

Released: 13th January
Seen: 23rd January

Brazen Info

Normally I wouldn’t expect to be dealing with this until June, that’s the pattern that Netflix has created with their release of Lifetime Wannabes like Hostage House, Dangerous Lies and Secret Obsession. I was meant to have a few months before I had to deal with this bullshit, there was meant to be time to mentally prepare for the onslaught of bad plotting and bad acting one expects from this “midday movie made on a budget of couch cushion change by a writer who had 5 hours to complete the entire script” but nope, 2022 sucks and therefore we have to deal with Brazen now because why not?

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leebutler Review

Project Power (2020) – A Fun Pill To Swallow

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on August 23, 2020

For the last decade or so, the Superhero genre has dominated the cinemas. It felt like every couple of months there was some new Marvel or DC property coming out that would be the only thing worth talking about in the world of cinema. This year was meant to be no exception, with movies like Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984 and The New Mutants scheduled to drop roughly three months into the ongoing apocalypse we’ve decided to have instead. 

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leebutler Review

Floor Is Lava: Season 1 (2020) – Average Entertainment

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on July 16, 2020

I have a feeling everyone at some point has played a game of “The Floor Is Lava”, a simple game of skill where you would try to get around a room without touching the floor. Normally the players are either five-year-old children experiencing a sugar high or drunken adults, which is basically the same thing. It’s a simple little game that some executive looked at and went “There’s a show in this” and then they just stole a lot of stuff from Wipeout, but forgot the personality that goes with it.

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leebutler Uncategorized

HOLLYWOOD (2020) – Hooray For Hollywood

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on May 2, 2020

In 1985, during the height of the AIDS crisis, Hollywood heartthrob Rock Hudson became the first celebrity known to have the illness. This let the public know the secret that had been going around Hollywood for quite some time… Rock Hudson, star of stage and screen since the 1950s, was gay and had been hiding that his entire life.

What if he’d never had to hide? 

What if he’d been able to walk down the red carpet holding the hand of another man? What if there wasn’t a 26-year gap between Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier winning Oscars as black performers? What if Anna May Wong actually got her due respect?! Hollywood gives us those what-ifs and then some and it turns out that it would have been great.

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leebutler Review

THE BIG SHOW SHOW: SEASON 1 (2020) – It’s a good show show

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on April 16, 2020

I have a theory. It’s a simplistic theory, it’s a bad theory, but it’s a theory. Every single wrestler who tries acting will, at some point, make an average-or-worse children’s film. Hulk Hogan basically made a career out of them in the 90s, The Rock did a whole bunch of bad kids films in the 2000s, John Cena recently joined the club with Playing With Fire and so did Dave Bautista with My Spy. If you can name any other bad kids films by wrestlers, please do so in the comments.

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leebutler Uncategorized

LOCKE & KEY: SEASON 1 (2020) – Great For Locke Down!

NOTE: Here is my review from Soda & Telepaths that was posted back on April 15th, 2020.

In 2008 IDW Publishing released the first issue of Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez. The book gained a cult following pretty quickly and was actually optioned to be a TV series back in 2011. They even shot a pilot for Fox TV which would’ve starred, not kidding, Jesse McCartney AKA that kid who sang Beautiful Soul (I don’t know why this amuses me, I thought I’d share that info anyway). 

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