leebutler Documentary, Review

Strange Journey: The Story Of Rocky Horror (2025) – Sweet

Released: 5th December
Seen: 6th December

The first time I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show was on a VHS tape while at home sick from school. For a long time I had been aware of the VHS tape that sat in the house, an impossible to miss set of ruby red lips on the cover, hovering wickedly under the words “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” printed in slightly-raised silver writing. Like everyone else on earth, I’d heard of the film before, indeed my school even taught us how to do the Time Warp at one point so elements of the film had entered my consciousness but the film itself hadn’t, so in my sickly state, I watched the film for the first time and was soon transfixed by it. It’s brilliant songs, completely mental performances and strange references that flew over my head just washed over me in that living room. Even on a crappy VHS tape, the magic of Rocky Horror worked on me, as it does for most people who see it. At that moment I joined the cult, the cult that has kept Rocky Horror in theatres and in the public consciousness for 50 years. Now seems like the perfect time to celebrate this truly insane film with a documentary and Strange Journey: The Story Of Rocky Horror is the exact kind of documentary that this classic deserves.

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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 Uncategorized

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 (2025) – Upgrade

Released: 4th December
Seen: 4th December

In 2023, the long-awaited movie adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s came out to a pretty harsh critical reaction (myself included, I was not the biggest fan of it for a myriad of reasons) and a box office take that most films would kill to get. It was truly a sensation, bringing in about 300 million on a 20 million budget which makes sense because this franchise is basically review-proof. That’s the kind of return on investment that guarantees a sequel. It was inevitable that one was going to come out and probably quickly and sure enough, here we are with the second film, and to give the filmmakers credit, they seem to have paid attention to the problems that people had with the first one and have vastly improved things. 

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leebutler Thriller, Review

Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) – Go Away Now

Released: 15th May
Seen: 2nd December

In 2023, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye decided to try his hand at acting with the miniseries The Idol and the reviews for that series were absolutely scathing on a level that very few shows could get. It had an infamously bad production history, and every episode was met with brutal vitriol as it became apparent to everyone paying even a little bit of attention that Abel was not a good actor. Honestly, the reviews were so bad that it seemed like it should stop him from ever being asked back to try and do anything even close to acting again… but alas, lessons were not learned and someone decided to give him a movie where he confirms he can’t act and his co-stars prove that even their incredible talents can’t save this crap.

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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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leebutler Action, Comedy

Playdate (2025) – Detention

Released: 12th November
Seen: 30th November

Sometimes a film just rubs you the wrong way and it’s really hard to explain why. Sometimes there is just something about the tone and performances in any given film that, for some reason, triggers something deep in the hate-filled portion of your brain that makes you want to scream in anger and yet it’s hard to fully pinpoint what it is about that film that gets you going. This is a problem for someone reviewing a film that has this kind of issue happen because the entire point of a review is to pinpoint what exactly it is about a film that does or doesn’t work and explain that in a way that can be understood… but here we are, Playdate just seemed to rub me the wrong way and now I’m going to spend the better part of a few paragraphs trying to put my finger on what its problem is because “It sucks” is just not good enough an explanation, even though it does absolutely suck.

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leebutler Documentary, Review

The Perfect Neighbor (2025) – Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

Released: 17th October
Seen: 4th November

On June 2nd 2023, Police were called to a street in Ocala, Florida to respond to an alleged disturbance call. Susan Louise Lorincz called them to report that a couple of kids were being loud near her house and creating a nuisance, a call she had made multiple times in the past for all kinds of issues that largely revolved around those kids just playing in the street or in the open field near her house (a field she did not have any ownership of). Susan was informed that police were on their way… 2 minutes after she hung up, Susan would be calling the police back to inform them that she had just shot her neighbour, Ajike Owens, who was the mother of one of the children that Susan regularly had run-ins with. Ajike would not survive the shooting and the circumstances that led to this horrific event are the subject of the documentary The Perfect Neighbor

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leebutler Comedy, Review

Oh, Hi (2025) – Nice To Watch You

Released: 25th July
Seen: 2nd November

One of my personal favourite film performances in cinema history is by Glenn Close in the movie Fatal Attraction. The story of a woman who has a one-night stand with a married man who then goes absolutely insane and basically tears his life apart because she refuses to be ignored is captivating and that performance has stuck with me since the moment I first saw it. Indeed the entire genre of a scorned lover seeking revenge on their partner is so wickedly fascinating that any time you have a couple breaking up and one of them deciding to make sure the other knows how much it hurts, I am there with a beaming excited grin so you can imagine my joy reading the plot of Oh, Hi and expecting a modern take on the idea. Well, if this is the modern take… ok, it’s fine, I guess I don’t need to see any boiled bunnies, but something of that level would be nice.

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leebutler Comedy, Drama, Review, Romance

A Nice Indian Boy (2025) – Lovely

Released: 4th April
Seen: 2nd November

It seems so long ago now, but it was only 7 years ago back in 2018 when a little film called Love, Simon came out. A film that took the standard story of the teenage romcom and did a gay twist on the formula, which made it feel special. It feels like that let people in the industry know that they could actually make gay films with some mainstream appeal, which has led to a few really nice, simple and enjoyable films that have been accessible to more than just a queer audience. It’s a sad truth that films featuring queer people in general tend to just be relegated to underground films, if we even get to be part of them (Do not give me the whole “Oh gays are in everything” crap, I literally have a spreadsheet that will prove you wrong). So it’s really nice to see that we get to have a gay version of the “Person invites their new partner to meet their family” genre, especially one that’s as downright heartwarming and charming as A Nice Indian Boy.

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leebutler Drama, Horror, Review

Until Dawn (2025) – Glitchy

Released: 25th April
Seen: 3rd October

In 2015, the video game Until Dawn was released on PlayStation. It was a major hit almost instantly, the game being mostly story based, where the player would have to essentially keep a cabin full of teenagers alive for a single night while assorted creatures tried to kill them. The central gimmick of the game was a system that allowed the players choices to make a difference in the ending (AKA you pick up a certain book and it might lead to a specific character living that would die in any other playthrough), It was enough of a hit that it spawned a few spin offs and even recently got a full remake for the newest console. It’s the kind of game that was pretty much destined to get a film adaptation at some point and now it has one, it just doesn’t work like you would hope.

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