I watch a lot of movies, I don’t necessarily have a yearly goal but I started recording all of the movies I watched in 2023 and have wanted to post my thoughts so here they are. A few notes
- My rating scale is .5-5, and my review philosophy is “how well does the movie succeed at what it is trying to do?”
- Thus Pacific Rim would be rated highly, whereas Transformers would not. Obviously Lawrence of Arabia is better than Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League despite both getting 5 stars here
- Asterisks after a title indicate how many rewatches I had this year
- I’ll limit myself to two sentences on each movie, possibly 3 for the top 5. Mainly because I doubt anyone will read all of this
- Some of these “technically” released in other years but I count theatrical/US releases because that’s where I live
- After I post all of these I’ll add some wrap-up thoughts
Without further ado, I present all of the new releases for 2025
| Name | Year | Rating | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Years Later | 2025 | 3.5 | I understand what these are trying to do, I just don’t find them as gripping or deep as everyone else. How about that mega-cock though? |
| A House of Dynamite | 2025 | 2.5 | Look, if you’re going to repeat a sequence multiple times and it has a specific length, at least make it real time. Also the ending is cop-out and they know it |
| A Minecraft Movie | 2025 | 1.5 | It’s about what you expect. I’d say it got at least half a star for being in a crowded theater |
| Ballerina* | 2025 | 5 | “Can John Wick keep working without Keanu?” Yes. Also it has the single coolest movie kill I’ve ever seen |
| Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League* | 2025 | 5 | This movie is unironically incredible. It oozes style, is hailarious, and has a really good plot considering how stupid it is. This is going to be my hot take “best Batman” to out hot take the Lego Batman crowd |
| Black Bag | 2025 | 3 | What if monogamy was really fucking hot? Oh also I guess there’s a spy thriller in here too |
| Black Mirror: USS Callister – Into Infinity | 2025 | 4 | Look, if TV shows are going to be movie length I’m counting it. It’s pretty good anti-trek, and up there for the season |
| Bring Her Back | 2025 | 3.5 | There’s some really fucked visuals in this one and Sally Hawkins is compelling. The rest of the movie is pretty serviceable |
| Bugonia | 2025 | 4.5 | Timely themes and knock-out performances. You truly are convinced at multiple points that Emma is and is not an alien |
| Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc | 2025 | 4.5 | One of the prettier animations I’ve seen in a long time with a real art on beautiful “still” shots. It also has a good emotional arc to it as well |
| Clown in a Cornfield | 2025 | 3.5 | Significantly better than I expected. I expected dogshit, so pretty decent was a surprise |
| Companion | 2025 | 4 | Jack Quaid for best nepo baby? This is very reminiscent of Ex Machina but is definitely its own thing |
| DAN DA DAN: Evil Eye | 2025 | 4 | It’s 3 episodes of a TV show I like duct-taped together. Once again, well animated |
| Demon City | 2025 | 2 | “We have John Wick at home.” If memory serves this is not enough action, bad effects, and passable plot |
| Drop | 2025 | 0.5 | This shit sucked ass. It wasn’t even about the stupid fucking drop |
| Eddington | 2025 | 2 | This is like Don’t Look Up but for 2020 instead of climate change. It doesn’t land because all of these jokes have been made and your point was tired 2 years ago |
| Eternity | 2025 | 4 | Some of the most dynamic characters I have seen in a very long time. All 3 leads have great arcs and you fully end up for and against them throughout the movie |
| Fight or Flight | 2025 | 3.5 | Great value brand John Wick is still pretty watchable. I appreciated having cartoon characters and not bothering to explain why they exist |
| Final Destination Bloodlines | 2025 | 3.5 | It’s interesting to try to tie the whole franchise together. However they got a little lost in the weeds and what I really want is Rube Goldberg for murder |
| Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 | 2025 | 2 | I have never played the games. It’s serviceable Bloomhouse garbage |
| Frankenstein | 2025 | 3 | If you have to have the monster tell Victor “you’re the real monster” take another pass at the script. Also to take a master of puppetry and put in Twilight tier CGI wolves as an antagonist is disappointing |
| Friendship | 2025 | 5 | There was a joke in this movie that was so funny to me that I caused a chain reaction in the theater of people laughing at me and me laughing at them. You have to like Tim Robbinson’s humor but this is his peak to me |
| Good Fortune | 2025 | 2.5 | It’s like this movie was written by somebody who understands what is relatable and timely comedy, but not why. Presumably because it was (Aziz, you shoulda shouted out Riyadh) |
| How to Train Your Dragon | 2025 | 3 | It’s almost shot for shot the animated movie. Idk what this adds to the would but I guess some people got paychecks |
| I Know What You Did Last Summer | 2025 | 2.5 | Marginally better than the first one because it gets less bogged down in a pointlessly confusing plot |
| Jurassic World Rebirth | 2025 | 0.5 | You can’t just blast the Jurassic Park theme when you want me to feel happy, sad, excited, or really any emotion. There was also no reason for this film to involve children besides studio mettling |
| KPop Demon Hunters | 2025 | 3 | I saw this on the early part of the hype and was mostly impressed by the visuals. I found the story pretty route for kid’s media, and I just don’t have the palate for k-pop, though these were decent |
| Love Hurts | 2025 | 1.5 | Knock-off John Wick. I use that derogatorily |
| M3GAN 2.0 | 2025 | 4 | Honestly this is more like Scary Movie: Mission Impossible (Movie: Impossible?). I use that complimentarily |
| Mickey 17 | 2025 | 3 | I expected something with more subtly and bite from Bong Joon Ho. It’s ok, but I get that Trump sucks, you don’t need a metaphor to tell me |
| Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning | 2025 | 4 | Honestly a pretty good end(?) to the franchise. The AI doesn’t make a ton of sense but plenty of these movies don’t so I’m fine with it |
| Nobody 2 | 2025 | 2.5 | Maybe the best “funny” John Wick. I still am not convinced funny John Wick works |
| Novocaine | 2025 | 3 | Maybe the best funny “John Wick”. I still am not convinced funny John Wick works |
| “Oh, Hi!” | 2025 | 3 | There’s two ways to interpret the end of this movie. I chose to be charitable with it but if I take the crowd consensus I’d knock off a star |
| Paddington in Peru*** | 2025 | 4 | Paddington continues to be excellent. Honestly I’m fine if they just keep recasting as people have to move out if it means we can avoid another origin story |
| Predator: Badlands | 2025 | 3.5 | Look, Dan Trachtenberg knows what he’s doing with Predator so my hope is that he is trying to get people into the franchise so he can start making really cool movies. Dear lord, please don’t make Predator knock off Star Wars |
| Predator: Killer of Killers | 2025 | 5 | Absolutely stellar action, incredible characters, and bad-ass Predators. This is my hope that Dan can save the franchise |
| Relay | 2025 | 3 | It’s fine action with a cool premise. As someone with friends who work with confidential info I know that every Relay operator is so fucking pumped when they get these calls and they all absolutely discuss them with each other |
| Rental Family | 2025 | 5 | I would never have expected “sad pudgy american” as Brendan Frasier’s renaissance but fuck is he great. Another best actor nom seems almost guaranteed |
| Roofman | 2025 | 4.5 | I really appreciate this being filmed on location for a lot of the important parts. Tatum does a great job at playing a very unique man and Dunst is a great southern mom just trying her best |
| Sinners | 2025 | 4 | I really like this take on vampires, less sexy and more insidious. Just a great original movie |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 3 | 2025 | 4.5 | Honestly the best video game movie. Full of the references fans want, kick-ass music, and they make the plot better than the video game |
| Superman | 2025 | 3 | I like Superman being goofy and larger than life. The camerawork really took me out of it a few times and like every live action super-hero movie, it’s too long |
| The Amateur | 2025 | 3.5 | Rami Malek does a decent job at “Jason Bourne but with computers instead of fists”. I wonder if he’ll ever escape Mr Robot? |
| The Fantastic 4: First Steps | 2025 | 2.5 | Eh, it’s a fine Marvel movie that seems to be fairly separate from the rest of it. It’s still too long |
| The Legend of Ochi | 2025 | 3 | For a movie that claims to not have used AI, its whole aesthetic is “AI generated art”. You gotta give props to any novel children’s media at this point though |
| The Life of Chuck** | 2025 | 5 | Wow this movie just blew me away when I saw it, I know people hate to be told to go in blind but this movie really benefits from it. Full of joy, hope, and darkness while being told in a way that is very unique |
| The Long Walk* | 2025 | 4 | It’s hunger games for dudes. But its also pretty good |
| The Mastermind | 2025 | 1 | If you want to tell a movie this centered around a character there has to be something compelling about him. Even the wife is barely in this movie despite her ostensibly being part of the planning team |
| The Monkey | 2025 | 3 | It tries to walk the line between Final Destination and family drama. I’d much rather it have picked a lane, it felt like 2 movies taped together |
| The Naked Gun | 2025 | 3.5 | It’s a LOT of stupid goofs, jokes, gags, and japes. There’s going to be everyone will find at least one thing funny in this somewhere |
| The Phoenician Scheme | 2025 | 4 | Not the best Wes Anderson movie. I still like what he does now that he is less budget constrained |
| The Roses | 2025 | 4 | For your typical family dramedy movie this one is more funny and endearing than most. It also takes two people who aren’t traditionally portrayed as sexy in the media and gets you on their side |
| The Running Man | 2025 | 3.5 | Glenn just doesn’t have the juice like Arnie. The plot was also a little to convenient for him |
| The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants | 2025 | 1 | Walked out 45 minutes through to watch Five Nights at Freddie’s 2, maybe the score would go down if I finished it. Idk if this is what SpongeBob is like now or if my memory of it is wrong but I was not entertained |
| The Toxic Avenger | 2025 | 3.5 | Funny and timely to the world we’re in. It has a bit of that indie grime to it which is likely intentional and feels like Repo: the Genetic Opera, but good |
| Together | 2025 | 3 | It’s fine for horror but spends too much time on the relationship stuff at the beginning for how it ends. Again, don’t split the difference, pick a lane |
| Twinless | 2025 | 4.5 | This movie can kinda read like a horror from the description. It’s not at all really, and has some really beautiful moments from some really tragic characters |
| Weapons | 2025 | 4.5 | I think the trend of comedy writers making horror. I’m a firm believer that comedy and horror succeed when they subvert your expectations and boy does this subvert whatever you’re expecting from it |
The Toxic Avenger: has a bit of that indie grime to it which is likely intentional
Might want to watch the original 1984 film for the context. Troma isn’t quite what you’d call an indie studio.
Love this! I read a few, and I’m favouriting so that I can return for more.
The only thing I would change is to remove “The” from title sorting.
Believe me I agree with you and it’ll be obnoxious on day 3 but between the multiple programs I used to get this list exported and in a usable format plus all the writing I just couldn’t be fucked
Cool to see the USS Callister episode on here. I loved the original episode and this was an amazing follow-up.
What are you, stupid? Why not 2025 movies?
Magnificent. Thank you for the effort. I really appreciate it.
Surely Sinners deserves at least 4.5 for the music scene in the joint alone!
I’m glad we agree on The Mastermind, though. I thought about walking out half way through and deeply regret sticking it out.
I found 28 Years Later a mixed bag. It felt like it tried to be five different types of movie in one; only some of it resonated with me.
(Great post, by the way!)
Loved the music in Sinners!
28 years later was such a mess. I don’t think I would have been so disappointed if it was named something else. It didn’t feel like it matched the series at all. And the ending. What the fuck was that?!
Excellent list, your opinions are pretty close with mine from the movies I saw here. I should really watch Begonia and Weapons.
I’d put Bugonia first of the two but both are easy recommends
Nice list. I need to do something like this, but I have to figure out how to remember to rate and review something within 24 hours of watching it.
Btw, you missed your Novocaine review and posted the Nobody 2 review twice.
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I use Letterboxd and now just have a habit of recording a movie right after I finish. Pretty easy to do when you watch a movie more than every other day
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Awesome reviewing thank you, will try to see some of your faves.
This is fun. I’d like to see something like this, but each movie only gets a 6 word commentary.
I am not that talented at writing
Nice recaps. Looking forward to the other posts. I actually laughed out loud at some of your comments.
Thanks! I was planning to do 2 more for the rest and a recap on Monday
Didn’t Drop get good reviews?
Not from this guy apparently.
This was a really cool wrap up, and I read way more of these than I expected that I would!
I will take issue with one thing in your review of The Running Man. You said that the plot was “too convenient”, but with the exception of the last 5 minutes, it was really faithful to the source book. (The Arnie version took the names of the characters and the general idea of a game show and made something that had almost nothing to do with the source.) I was super excited to see this, because the original book is one of my favorites. I was really bummed that they pulled their punches on the changed ending though, and it soured me on the rest of the movie.
I had heard it was more faithful to the book but I haven’t read much King/Bachman so I can’t comment there. I mostly meant that it felt really convenient that he happens to end up in a city that happens to have Anti Running Man sympathizers, who just happen to find him, and he just happens to dream about getting caught so he runs away, etc. Maybe more of that was orchestrated than the movie conveys but I lack that context
I have read a number of King novels, but The Running Man is the only Bachman one that I read. It just really clicked with me for some reason, and I was super excited for a faithful adaptation. I didn’t realize just how faithful this movie was to the source book until after I saw it and then went back to look at the book summary afterwards (I hadn’t read the book in a long while before going to the movie).
That ending though. WOOF.
Well it was not the only Bachman movie this year. The Long Walk was also one of those and I liked that one more
I felt the same about clown in a cornfield, also watched the last drive in version with some interviews with the director and author that were fun.
I had a similar experience with Friendship, different laughs coming from different parts of the theater audience for completely different lines, I just think cringe comedy can be a bit divisive. The other recent Tim Robinson release The Chair Company feels like if Tim had written The Game or one of those other 90s thrillers.
OBJECTION!
- Minecraft: my best friend told me it was a good movie. I haven’t seen a movie this unfunny for a very long time. I lasted for 30 minutes but stopped when the hero went to the magical world for no reason at all. 1/5
- M3GAN 2: the first one was good and original, but they should have stopped there (like Cube or any other movie with a weird back story). I stopped watching after 10 minutes. 1.5/5
- Mickey 17: 4/5 because the story was original and not too focused on the action part, it felt like an Asimov book instead of a random super hero movie full of explosions.
- The Running Man: the main character complaining about his sick daughter for 1 hour was annoying, but it was a fun satire of the shit TV that we have, and it was a better interpretation of the book IMHO, 4/5 because I watched it in a luxury movie theater and I had a good time.
You’re… objecting my opinion? I agree with you on Minecraft I gave it a 1.5 and said at least half a star is because it was in theaters. You also didn’t even give M3GAN 2.0 a chance. I’m not even sure M3GAN appears in the first 10 minutes
I watched M3gan up to the part she starting singing to the daughter. I couldn’t take it anymore. I agree, the first one was good but 2.0 was a damn mess.
