Movies I watched in 2025

I feel like I have seen a lot of movies that came out this year. I tend to only go to the movies a few times a year but movies are moving from theaters to streaming services so quickly it is easy enough to still catch them in the calendar year.

Favorites

These are not in any particular order and unless I mention a review I will not be giving them a rating. There were a lot of good movies in 2025. Of the ones I have seen, here are my favorites.

Sinners

I did write a review for Sinners so I will not go into too much detail here. The fact that this movie has two (unexpected to me anyway) musical numbers that blow you away is quite an achievement. Having Michael B Jordan play twins and the skill with the way that was handled is impressive. Creature design is just the right amount of otherworldly. The locations an cinematography give you a motivated and engaging way to experience the story. I may have to go rewatch this again.

Weapons

Recently rewatched Weapons and I still mostly stand by my review. I still wish the cop and unhomed person segments were something else. I am sure it fits with the themes of the movie with the cop being a weapon of the state. But the entire section is just a bit of a “feels bad man” for me. Gladys is a queen and I am looking forward to the prequel which is apparently in the works. When the kids chase her through houses and the neighborhood I laugh everytime.

Wake Up Dead Man

I think this is my favorite Knives Out story. Like Rian Johnson I was raised Catholic and am no longer practicing. I add this just to say there are things in the movie that feel different if you have that experience. The setting and the mystery are perfect for a Benoit Blanc story. Frankly the solution to the mystery is also perfect for the setting. So there’s a lot of good stuff happening here. Leah and I watched this and were surprised at the runtime as it does not feel like 2 hours and 24 minutes. Glenn Close is really a lot of fun and so is Josh Brolin. This seemed fun to make and it is fun to watch.

Bugonia

I really enjoy the director Yorgos Lantimos and this movie did not disappoint. As per usual the performances in his films are committed and at times absurd. The visuals are not as out there as Pretty Things but there are certainly moments. It is now out on streaming and I need to watch it again. I like it when a black comedy does at least have some genuinely funny moments.

One Battle After Another

Seriously, this black comedy had some very funny moments. Leonardo DiCaprio is hit or miss with me but happily I think he is great in this movie. I especially enjoyed the roof running scene and my have said out loud “parkor” when the kids were hopping over things. The fall from the roof is pretty brutal and I was not expecting it at all. The driving scene at the end with the camera close to the road as it goes over hills was cool too. I will just leave you with a “Hail Saint Nick!”

Wicked: For Good

This one was highly anticipated in this house. Wicked: For Good has been reviewed by me back when Leah and Noah and I saw it in a double feature with Wicked. It does what I expected having seen the musical but with a couple new songs. I liked Alphaba’s new song and did not really care for Glinda’s. There are a few moments of CGI voids that do not really happen in the first one which I thought was a bit disappointing. It is not as fun as the first one which I think is why I did not see it a second time in theaters. Leah bought it as soon as it was out on digital and has seen all the extras the same day.

Bring Her Back

Talk about a gut punch of a movie. This one is not for the feint of heart. I think it out does Heredetary for that scene that will turn away a bunch of people. I thought Jonah Wren Phillips (the possessed kid) did an amazing job. The effects in this movie while being supernatural are also somehow believable. It does a great job of building tension, setting your expectations, and then subverting your expectations.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

When we combined our DVD collections Leah and I only had two duplicate movies, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2. We made it a date night and went to see this one in person. It was interesting to see the Crazy 88 fight in full color but I think I like it better switching to black and white. Somehow the original seems more violent to me. The added animation run time doesn’t seem necessary to me so I see why it was removed originally. I think I might like watching the two DVDs back to back better than this movie.

Others

Saw a few more movies that came out this year but I would not call them my favorites. Not that they are bad by any means.

Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro makes beautiful monsters and worlds for them to inhabit. This is a fairly faithful telling of the story. There is a line in the movie where Frankenstein is described as Prometheus and I got a kick out of that. I thought the acting and action was good.

The Phoenician Scheme

This was a fun quirky film in the typical Wes Anderson style. Benicio del Toro is really fun in this movie but I think I enjoyed him in One Battle After Another better. It’s not in my top three Wes Anderson films though (Which are The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore)

Heart Eyes

This was a dumb fun horror movie in the style of a 80s/90s teen slasher. I enjoyed it but I do not think I will watch it again any time soon.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Similar to Heart Eyes but with even less rewatchability. Really though it was not dumb or as fun as the trailer. Seriously, skip the movie watch the trailer.

Superman

Wrote a whole review about Superman where I even go into a bit why I do not really care about Superman as a character. If you are into Superman though I think James Gunn has done a really good job with building out a cast of characters and putting a different spin on things.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

This is a perfectly fine Fantastic Four movie with a throwback design that is fun to watch. It is well done I just got a little bored.

Thunderbolts*

Rounding out the comic book movies is Thunderbolts* which I wrote a review about so I will not add much more. I think Florence Pugh steals the show in this and most everyone else is just kinda there.

28 Years Later

It was beautiful at times but all the hype about using cell phones to film scenes did not really do anything for me. I thought Alfie Williams, the young boy in the film, did a really good job. Especially, later in the film after he’s encountered some tragedies. There are some more out there moments which have not been paid off yet so I am interested to see where they are going with this in The Bone Temple.

Until Dawn

Matthew and I saw this and we knew it was going to be bad going in and it did not disappoint. Timey-wimey stuff is an interesting way to play with the multiple possible endings of the game. It probably is the best you could expect from a movie version of this game.

Companion

I am glad I did not see the trailer before this movie. Why do movies give away the entire plot of the movie in the trailer? They put all the best parts in there to the point that if you see it I do not think you need to watch the movie. The marketing really hypes up something crazy happening here but I think once you know what is going on the film just overstays its welcome. It happens so early that you have about an hour of just padding out the runtime. It is not bad but I would have kept people in the dark longer about what is going on.

This is day 6 of 100 Days To Offload.