Review – Page 38 – Movie Meister Reviews

June 30, 2022July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022) – Gotta Go Slightly Faster

Released: 31st March
Seen: 29th June

Back in 2020 the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie was released. It quickly received wide acclaim from many people, largely because the studios changed the main design of Sonic after an initial backlash but people also praised several of the performances and thought it was a good representation of the character… I called it one of the worst films of 2020, largely because it felt like another standard “C list celebrity and CGI character take a road trip” movie that took a character known for speed and spent most of the movie with Sonic unable to use his speed power which is his main character trait (and also serious questions about how workers were treated in order to get the film finished with the new design). So naturally, a sequel sounded like an exhausting prospect for me… so imagine my surprise when Sonic the Hedgehog 2 isn’t totally awful.

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June 24, 2022 leebutler Review

Shattered (2022) – Cracked

Released: 9th March
Seen: 22nd June

Sometimes when trying to pick a movie to review, the choice can be made as easily as “It was a cheap purchase on Google Play and looked halfway interesting” and that’s how the movie Shattered was first chosen. On the surface it should be at least somewhat interesting, it stars terminally fascinating performer John Malkovich, incredible young superstar Cameron Monaghan and personal adored favourite Frank Grillo. That trio alone should make for a fascinating and fun movie just on pure charm factor alone… but charm can only do so much, you still need to have story and characters and that’s kind of where Shattered starts developing some serious cracks.

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June 15, 2022June 15, 2022 leebutler Review

Please Baby Please (2022) – STELLA-R!

Seen at the Sydney Film Festival

Sometimes a film is targeted to such a specific audience that once someone comes up with the perfect one-line description of the plot it almost renders the job of reviewing the film pointless, if the single-line description sounds like a great film to you then you’re going to like it and if not then you’ll probably hate it. Please Baby Please is part of this year’s roster of films that are part of the Sydney Film Festival and in the film festival program this film was described with the sentence “A Streetcar Named Desire by way of John Waters”… so that’s my job rendered useless, if that phrase doesn’t immediately make you go “I HAVE TO SEE THAT” then this film isn’t for you, review effectively over.

But screw it, we’re here, let’s bump up the word count a little bit

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June 7, 2022June 7, 2022 leebutler Review

The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel (2021) – Business As Usual

Released: 11th March 2021
Seen: 5th June 2022

In 2003, the documentary The Corporation was released. It remains one of the most fascinating examinations of corporate culture because it took the common idea that a corporation is a person and asked the question “If Corporations are people, what kind of person would they be?”. Spoilers for a 20-year-old documentary but the answer was a psychopath. It didn’t come to this conclusion lightly either, it literally took the psychological profile of a psychopath and proceeded to show how the world’s biggest corporations ticked every single box with incredible ease. Since The Corporation came out though, the world has changed dramatically so the question The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel asks is “How have corporations changed?” and turns out, they’ve gotten worse.

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June 5, 2022July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

10 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival Films I’m Excited To See

Once again, we are heading towards the time when the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival will be happening in all its glory. Once again, unlike a lot of film festivals, they have an online portion for their festival (you can check it out here) that’ll be running for the entire month of July. There really is nothing like a good film festival, especially one full of fascinating documentaries and this one has dozens of them.

They also have a bunch that’ll be happening in the last week of July that’ll be in person in Melbourne… but I’m not in Melbourne so I won’t be able to see those, I can see the online ones and now I have access to the full list of films they’ll have on offer so here is a list of the 10 films that have me the most excited/interested/curious. Please note this isn’t a specifically ranked list, just the 10 that stood out to me.

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June 1, 2022 leebutler Review

The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022) – Juicy

Released: 26th May
Seen: 31st May

In early 2011, the first episode of Bob’s Burgers hit the airwaves and was an instant hit for maybe the first week and then the ratings quickly went down. Reviews for the early season were mixed and the show was considered to be on the bubble in terms of renewal but it eventually got a second season. Around the second season, the show began to pick up its stride, slowly turning into a juggernaut and currently has been running for 12 seasons with a 13th one already ordered… and this reviewer has only seen up to episode 2 of the second season. This means that going into The Bob’s Burgers Movie there’s a chance to answer the question “Can The Bob’s Burgers Movie work for someone who isn’t caught up on the show’s history?” and the answer is a resounding glorious yes.

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May 24, 2022July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Marry Me (2022) – A Little

Released: 10th February
Seen: 23rd May

In 2020 Jennifer Lopez was robbed, one of the biggest robberies in recent years which we shall not be getting over any time soon… that robbery was, as they often are, perpetrated by the Oscars who denied her a nomination for her absolutely jaw-dropping performance in Hustlers. It was a shocker to everyone that she was snubbed, she was one of the people everyone just assumed were going to be nominated but for some reason, she wasn’t. Still, it was enough for people to really see just what Jennifer could do when given a chance and people were hopeful that her next big film might be able to get her the award she should’ve had 2 years ago… she then made Marry Me, a film that’s basically fine but isn’t going to be getting any awards any time soon.

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May 23, 2022May 29, 2022 leebutler Review

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) – Picking Up The Slack

Released: 20th May
Seen: 22nd May

The history of the Chip & Dale characters goes all the way back to 1943 when they were mostly known as a pair of adorable creatures who got into over the top scrapes against people who were in some way invading their space, normally Donald Duck. They appeared in about 2 dozen assorted cartoons before the end of the 60s and then were basically relegated to being background stock characters who might be brought up for a quick gag until they were rebooted into the versions most people know them as today, that being Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers which was part of the early run of the Disney Afternoon. Since about the 90s most people think of Chip & Dale as the Rescue Rangers and while they might get brought up here or there, they haven’t really had a major moment to shine since then… until now

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May 20, 2022July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Moonfall (2022) – Eclipsed

Released: 3rd February
Seen: 19th May

Back in the late 90s, one of the biggest names in Blockbusters was Roland Emmerich. The man made Independence Day, a film that not only showed that there was a new master of the blockbuster but also made so much goddamn money. Independence Day was the highest-grossing film of 1996, its visuals are some of the most remembered images from 90s cinema (the shot of a single beam of light destroying the White House alone is etched into the memory of everyone who was around in 1996) and it basically elevated Will Smith into a global cinematic phenomenon… yeah, Roland Emmerich kinda fluked it with that film because he’s really never been that good since, and Moonfall is just proof that he needs a new schtick.

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May 19, 2022July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Firestarter (2022) – Fizzles

Released: 12th May
Seen: 17th May

In 1980, Stephen King released his eighth book, Firestarter, which did what most King books tend to do and became a major hit. As is also inevitable with all King books, it was adapted into a film back in 1984… this would be an adaptation that Stephen King hates, only unlike his hatred for The Shining he wouldn’t be alone in his dislike of 1984’s Firestarter.

That film was fairly universally panned by both critics and audiences and remains one of the lesser adaptations of Kings work, which means it’s one of the few works of his that probably warrants a second attempt at adapting since they clearly didn’t get it right the first time… so, see you all in about 40 years when they try again because they didn’t get it right this time either.

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