My Top 10 Movie of 2025
A list of my favorite movies from 2025
This is my second installment of top movies for the year. Doesn’t feel that long ago I wrote that first one. Without any further ado.
10: Eternity
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller and Callum Turner as people who have passed on into the afterlife. Run like a train station the depiction of the afterlife is interesting. As is always I have a dilemma in writing about a movie, I want to tell you some big plot points that you’ll find interesting to make you want see the movie but I also don’t want to spoil anything. I’m choosing non-spoiling. I’ve stopped watching trailers on the internet completely and try to arrive after the trailers in the movie theater. Movie almost always start exactly 30 minutes after the showtime listed.
I’ll just say this movie brings up a problem that would be hard to reconcile with the standard when you die you go to heaven and everything is perfect idea.
9: The Phoenician Scheme
The Phoenician Scheme was directed by Wes Anderson, and it stars Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, and Benedict Cumberbatch. This is Wes’s 12th feature movie and they are still great. He’s able to attract quite a cast of big stars which is fun. I’m going to avoid going into the plots in any of these synopses but I will say Benicio del Toro was great. I’ve always found him interesting, but turns out he can also be very funny as well.
8: Superman
I am always very excited when a Superman movie comes out. I know he has his critics but he is still one of my all time favorite super hero. I grew up at a time when he was the only super hero to be in a major motion picture. Also with James Gunn directing I was doubly excited.
My exceptions were through the roof and I don’t know that it quite lived up to them but I’ve seen it again since and it’s growm on me more and more. I can’t remember where but I saw someone say “It makes you want to be a better person”. I really like that they finally pulled some of the comic book elements into the movie. Seeing his robots in live action was fun and opens the door to a rogue’s gallery of his that has barely been tapped. Out of Lex Luthor, Brainiac, General Zod, Doomsday, Darkseid, Bizarro, Metallo, Parasite, Mongul, and Mr. Mxyzptlk we’ve only seen a few.
7: Thunderbolts
Marvel in my opinion, and I believe, the opinion of many others has been pretty lackluster over the past few years. I went into Thunderbolts with the lowest expectations and was happy to find Marvel seems to have found it’s footing. This movie tackles some interesting issues, has a great cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell (the son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn), Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a great villain, she did an amazing job, and Florence Pugh is very charming. It also has one of the most badass super hero fights in years.
6: Death of a Unicorn
This didn’t get a lot of attention, but I thought it was very interesting. Starring Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd who both did a great job. The horror genre in recent years has produced some of the most interesting movies. When I was a kid we had Jason, Freddy and a bunch of other poorly produced, poorly written junk. How times have changed.
5: Dog Man
My son had read the books and really wanted to see this. I saw the trailer and I was not enthusiastic at all about going to see this with him. I was completely wrong. The humor was unique. The overall energy and style of the animation was amazing. Pete Davidson did a fantastic job as Petey the Cat. Great to see with your kids or just by yourself.
4: M3GAN 2.0
The first movie was OK. I enjoyed it but this movie took everything to another level. It was less a horror movie and more of an action movie. I thought this movie was going to be huge when I saw it in the theater, much bigger than the numbers ended up being. The humor was great as well. Look forward to seeing a third mvie if they make it.
3: Bugonia
Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos who is currently my favorite working director. You should go to his IMDB page and watch every movie he’s made.
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons are both great actors and they are both in top form in this movie. They take a pretty simple concept and get a lot of milage out of it. Apparently this was a remake of the 2003 South Korean cult film Save the Green Planet! which I have not seen, but probably will at some point now.
2: Weapons
Weapons stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, and Austin Abrams. All of whom do a great job, Amy Madigan especially. Another example of how horror has become arguably the most interesting genre of movies in recent years. It takes some very old horror concept and presents them in a very modern way.
1: The Life of Chuck
This movie gave me a warm feeling. Again, it’s best to go into this with no knowledge of what it’s about. A very unique movie though. It really deserves more attention than it got. I think in the future a lot more people will know about. The Life of Chuck was written and directed by Mike Flanagan, and it is adapted from the novella by Stephen King from his collection If It Bleeds. Stephen King’s books have been turned into some of the best movies of all time, The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, It, Carrie, Misery, Doctor Sleep, Stand by Me, The Green Mile, and Pet Sematary.
Here is a notable mentions list. They didn’t make it into the top 10 but they are all worth watching.
Together: Honestly not the best movie in the world overall but a interesting concept with some interesting visuals. I just wish it was executed a little better.
The Monkey: Interesting horror movie, another one based on a Stephen King book.
Die My Love: This is definitely not for everybody. If you’re not into weird artsy movies, definitely skip this, but some will definitely enjoy it for the acting and mood.
Mickey 17: Original new science fiction which I will always support. Not a completely new concept but a new spin on it.
Fantastic Four: Fun comic book movie, shows me Marvel is getting it’s footing again.
The Toxic Avenger: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a new Troma movie. Peter Dinklage plays the Toxic Avenger. If that doesn’t make you want to see it I don’t know what will.
Companion: Another new science fiction. With AI becoming more and more integrated into our life this movie may be even more relevant in the future.
Christy: Sydney Sweeney plays the boxer Christy Martin. This movie bombed in the theater but it’s interesting story. I had seen Christy Martin box a few times but knew almost nothing about her. Her life story is pretty interesting and takes quite an intense turn at the end.
The Housemaid: Another Sydney Sweeney movie just coincidentally right after Christy. This also stars Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. It’s based on a book and it’s a fun movie with some serious twists.
Bring Her Back: A great horror movie with some seriously disturbing scenes.
The Naked Gun: A reboot of the old series. They kept the style of humor the old ones had going and did a pretty good job of it. Hopefully we start seeing more big comedies in the theater in the coming years.
Sinners: Great movie, this would have possibility made it into the top 10 but the first half really dragged for me. The second half was a lot of fun and had some interesting concepts.
Rental Family: Brendan Fraser is continuing to make some great movies after a very long hiatus. Very heart warming.
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