leebutler Comedy, Horror, Review, Thriller

Anything That Moves (2025) – Is It Sexual? Yeah!

Released: 14th September
Seen: 14th September

The final film I saw this year at the Sydney Underground Film Festival was chosen pretty much at random. I ran into that situation that I’m sure a lot of people have run into when it comes to film festivals. I bought a set of 5 tickets and used 4 of them for films I was interested in, so the last one was going to be chosen pretty much at random. I want to note that I entered this movie without any prior knowledge or preconceptions about what it would be like. It’s one of those films where the basic description in the booklet made the final choice for me… probably should’ve picked something else, I’m not going to lie.

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leebutler Documentary, Review

Occupy Cannes (2025) – Tromatic

Released: 31st July
Seen: 13th September

Ever since 1974, Troma has been one of the best-known independent movie companies on the planet. The company responsible for bringing us such treasured films as The Toxic Avenger, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. and Class of Nuke ‘Em High have managed to somehow keep their doors open for 5 decades and counting, through a combination of making quality cheap underground films and just raw determination. They’ve also just been relentless in trying to sell their films, pimping their product like a desperate Girl Scout trying to make quota. One of the many tactics that they’ve used over the years to get their films distributed is to attend the Cannes Film Festival and use guerrilla marketing stunts to get attention, and in the documentary Occupy Cannes, we get to see just how that goes for them.

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leebutler Comedy, Crime, Review

The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man (2025) – Crap

Released: 12th September
Seen: 12th September

This year, I managed to make it to my favourite film festival in the world, the Sydney Underground Film Festival. It’s the kind of film festival that pushes the boundaries of good taste and often surprises me with what it presents. Last year, I didn’t have the time to actually review what I’d seen because of my full-time job, so it’s really nice that this year I can return to reviewing what I went to see this year. This is the third film that I saw there, and when I looked at the schedule of what was on offer, I saw that on the same day there was a perfect pair of films. The first was the documentary on the Butthole Surfers, which I absolutely adored. Within an hour of that film finishing, I would then be able to see a film called The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man… Well, you can imagine my delight at the comedic value of following Butthole Surfing with Pee Pee Poo Poo, that’s too perfect a pair to pass up and with a title like The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man, surely it’ll be some dumb fun to numb the brain with, right? Well… it was dumb, I can definitely call it dumb.

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leebutler Documentary, Review

Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt (2025) – Bodacious

Released: 15th August
Seen: 12th September

In 1996, a song called Pepper made it onto the charts and became somewhat of a hit. While it only barely made it to the top 40 on the mainstream charts, it hit number one on the modern Rock charts, which back then actually meant something. It was at least enough to get you noticed, maybe even get a performance on Letterman. It also didn’t hurt that the band’s name was The Butthole Surfers, a name so immediately iconic that it would go on to be referenced by The Simpsons and remain a punchline for decades to come. Pepper turned The Butthole Surfers into one of those magical acts that can lovingly be called “One Hit Wonder”, which is still a pretty big thing for a lot of young bands… by the time The Butthole Surfers got their one hit, they’d been a pretty popular underground touring band for 15 years with a fascinating history that is presented with great adoration by the film Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt.

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leebutler Comedy, Horror, LGBT, Review

Queens Of The Dead (2025) – Dance Or Die

Released: 11th September
Seen: 11th September

In 1968, the world of cinema changed forever with the release of a little underground horror film with the simple but provocative title of Night Of The Living Dead. To say it changed the world of cinema forever might be an understatement. It revolutionised the Horror genre, presenting a form of violence that hadn’t been put on the screen before. It contains one of the greatest examples of a black main character in horror, was at the start of the independent film boom of the 70s and, of course, essentially created the modern Zombie that everyone has referenced since then.

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leebutler Horror, Review, Thriller

The Long Walk (2025) – Run!

Released: 11th September
Seen: 14th September

In 1979, Stephen King released the book The Long Walk under the pseudonym Richard Bachman (a name he picked partially to avoid saturating the market with King books and partially to test if his success was based on skill). The book was well received like a lot of early King works were and has been named one of the best books for teenage readers by the American Library Association. Like a lot of King books, there have been talks about an adaptation of The Long Walk for years, way back in 1988 it was going to be made by George Romero, but that ultimately fell through. Next up was Frank Darabont, who took a shot in 2007 and then in 2019, one André Øvredal (the man behind Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) had a go, but none of these versions made it. Finally, someone looked at the content of the books and presumably went, “Hey, this feels kind of like a more fucked up Hunger Games… why don’t we just get the Hunger Games guy?” and so Francis Lawrence was gifted the chance to make The Long Walk… and made one of the best films of 2025.

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leebutler Action, Comedy, Horror, Review, Sci-Fi

The Toxic Avenger (2025) – I Love You Toxie

Released: 29th August
Seen: 30th August

In 1984, a little independent film company known as Troma released a film that would change the course of the company forever. What started as a little low-budget horror film tentatively titled Health Club Horror would be released with the more memorable name The Toxic Avenger. To say that this film became a cult hit would be a massive understatement. The Toxic Avenger was the kind of cult hit that defined Troma. Toxie would turn into their official mascot and appear in several other movies. The Toxic Avenger would also turn up in other media, video games, comic books, a hit off-Broadway musical and even a Saturday morning children’s cartoon named The Toxic Crusaders. 40 years later and a certain subsection of the world still loves this big green freak in his torn up tutu, so much so that it almost feels inevitable that Hollywood was going to remake this little underground film because that’s just what happens to these cult films, someone will always try to recreate the lightning in a bottle that the original somehow had… so imagine my shock when they actually pulled off the magic trick of making this film work!

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leebutler Horror, Mystery, Review, Thriller

Clown In A Cornfield (2025) – Friendo Loves You

Released: 8th May
Seen: 24th August

In 2020, Adam Cesare released the young adult novel Clown in a Cornfield. The novel was a big success, ending up winning the Bram Stoker Award for Best Young Adult Novel and pretty much instantly getting optioned for a film. There would end up being 2 more novels written in the Clown in a Cornfield series over the years but the film took a little while to get made (probably because 2020 was not exactly a great time to try and film a movie, what with all the COVID hanging around) but eventually a little film called Clown in a Cornfield came out and made a brief splash before getting eclipsed by Final Destination: Bloodlines… which is a shame because it’s the kind of movie that deserves a lot more love.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Netflix

A Minecraft Movie (2025) – Loading…

Released: 3rd April
Seen: 22nd June

Is there even any point to doing this? No, seriously, was there any point for any reviewer to even consider touching this movie? Sure, I’m reviewing it several months after it was a phenomenon, largely because there is no way in hell I was going to be in a cinema while a bunch of people went insane for a zombie jockey on a chicken, but even when it was just coming out, what was the point of reviewing it? A movie based on Minecraft is one of those things that’s almost certainly never going to be some kind of critical darling but no matter what it was going to make a shitload of money. Not only did it end up doing that (Currently it’s the highest grossing film of the goddamn year) but it ended up being responsible for the trashing of several cinemas when audiences forgot how to watch a damn movie and lost their minds during a scene where a zombie boy rides a chicken. A Minecraft Movie is review-proof, there is no point… except that I saw it and I just have to ask, am I old now? Am I too old for this? Have I aged out of stupid childish trash? No, it’s the children who are wrong.

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leebutler Comedy, Review

One Of Them Days (2025) – Best Buds

Released: 6th March
Seen: 16th June

The buddy comedy is a staple of cinema that has created absolute legends of the genre. Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Cheech & Chong, some truly iconic comedy pairings have been the backbone of this genre. It’s a genre that lives and dies on the chemistry of the two leads; a truly great comedic pairing can make any film work even if the script isn’t that good. Entire careers have been made just from how good a couple of actors bounce off each other. It’s a tricky thing to make work, but when the stars align, you can get something pretty special. In One Of Them Days, we get to introduce the new comedic coupling of Keke Palmer and Sza, a double act that I don’t think anyone really would’ve expected to happen, but now that it exists, it’s actually pretty amazing to behold.

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