With 2025 beginning to draw to a close, and all eyes now firmly on Christmas and the New Year, it’s time to take a look back at what 2025 served up in film. It’s been another packed year of movies, and whether you caught all the films on offer or just a small handful, there was certainly plenty of choice.
In this edition of Movie Reviews Special, I’m delivering a whistle stop tour back through 2025 to remind you of how things shaped up. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all in here, so prepare yourself accordingly.
Oh, and a quick note to say, while this Special focuses on 2025, a few of the films highlighted below may have been released in 2024 in some parts of the world. There is often a release delay in different countries, and sometimes different territories get them at different times, or some films debut at festivals over a year or two before they get an official release (this year’s The Toxic Avenger being a prime example).
Similarly, the beginning of the year also included a couple of titles that were released in late December last year. These films were still playing in cinemas quite prominently in January (and beyond), so they form part of the viewing landscape for 2025.
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January
OK, so as noted above the year began with some films which carried over from 2024 to 2025. One of these was Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and another was the Robbie Williams bio-pic, Better Man. Both were excellent films which brought fun and fantasy to the screen, while at the same time they retained their quintessential Britishness.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was screened on BBC One on Christmas Day in 2024, before being made available on BBC iPlayer, and then through Netflix in 2025. Meanwhile, Better Man received a theatrical release on Boxing Day 2024, but remained in cinemas throughout January.
Unfortunately, Better Man didn’t do particularly well on the big screen, and notoriously flopped in the US, but it is a marvellous movie which deserves to be seen by a wider audience, and is hopefully being seen now.
Discussing Better Man at the beginning of the year, I said:
“The film depicts the ups and downs of Robbie Williams’ life; demonstrates his journey from cheeky chappie to arrogant knob head, and then to humble and very likeable star; and it brings a great deal of charm and emotion to the screen. Plus, it is highly entertaining, which is what you want from a biopic.”
Joining Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Better Man at the top of the year was the marvellous Andrew Garfield/Florence Pugh romantic drama, We Live In Time; the Gothic horror, Nosferatu; and the beautiful and touching war-time drama, White Bird, which finally made its way onto streaming after being shunted around the release schedules for what seemed like forever.
Other movies doing the rounds in January included Bank of Dave 2, Babygirl, A Complete Unknown, Back in Action, Rippy, A Real Pain, A Different Man, Night Bitch, Wolf Man, Saturday Night, Emilia Pérez, Unstoppable, Flight Risk, You’re Cordially Invited, The Brutalist, Here, The Sand Castle, and Companion. Plus, Sean Baker’s rather enjoyable drama-comedy, Anora was all over UK cinemas, and it went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards a couple of months later.
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February
From here, it was into February with the haunting supernatural picture, Presence; the highly enjoyable children’s film, Dog Man; and the Olympics drama, September 5. Meanwhile, Amy Schumer faked a pregnancy in the comedy, Kinda Pregnant; and Anthony Mackie donned the red, white, and blue outfit for the sadly underwhelming Captain America: Brave New World.
Other films hoping to grab some attention included Heart Eyes, Death Before the Wedding, Elevation, The Gorge, Hard Truths, The Monkey, Demon City, Love Hurts, Turn Me On, and The Last Showgirl. Plus, music icon, Luther Vandross took the spotlight in the biographical drama, Luther: Never Too Much, and Renée Zellweger reprised the role of Bridget Jones for the truly wonderful Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
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March
Into March and films included Nickel Boys, Counterattack, Mickey 17, Delicious, Fight or Flight, For Roger Moore with Love, Black Bag, Last Breath, Flow, O’Dessa, Revelations, Gator Creek, Con Mum, and Novocaine. Plus, the docu-film, Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna arrived on Disney+.
Meanwhile, Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown teamed up with the Russo Brothers for sci-fi action movie, The Electric State; Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot got torn to pieces (online, not in real life) in the really-not-that-bad Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; and Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista starred in the bloody awful In The Lost Lands.
Describing In The Lost Lands, I said:
“The whole movie is devoid of energy and atmosphere, it all feels incredibly derivative and tiresome, and it’s very dated. In The Lost Lands is utter shite and a complete waste of time and money.”
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April
Into April and Nicole Kidman fronted the mystery thriller, Holland; Sofia Carson and Kyle Allen starred in The Life List; and Jack Black and Jason Momoa headlined A Minecraft Movie. Incidentally, A Minecraft Movie was one of the biggest hits of the year, so don’t be surprised if a sequel materialises in the not-too distant future.
Other films included A Working Man, Drop, G20, Pets, Sebastian, The Penguin Lessons, Ash, The Alto Knights, Bullet Train Explosion, Until Dawn, and the superb Sinners – which seemingly came out of nowhere and wowed pretty much everyone. Meanwhile, classic fantasy film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith received a theatrical re-release for its 20th anniversary.
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The Summer Blockbuster Season
Over to May, June, July, and August, or as they are collectively better known as the ‘Summer Blockbuster Season’, and what a season this turned out to be.
Things kicked off with Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, which turned out to be a great entry in the MCU, before continuing with Final Destination: Bloodlines, Lilo & Stitch, and Fear Street: Prom Queen. Then came The Phoenician Scheme, Fountain of Youth, Karate Kid: Legends, Clown in a Cornfield, Dangerous Animals, The Ritual, Predator: Killer of Killers, Ballerina, and How to Train Your Dragon.
Was that all? Heck no!
The summer season carried on with Deep Cover, 28 Years Later, Elio, KPop Demon Hunters, F1, M3GAN 2.0, Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Old Guard 2, Heads of State, Smurfs, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Naked Gun, and The Pickup. Plus, Freakier Friday, The Toxic Avenger, The Thursday Murder Club, and The Roses were all vying for attention too!
Some of the best movies during this period included Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Superman, and Bring Her Back. And then there was the mystery-horror, Weapons.
Discussing the movie earlier in the year, I said:
“Weapons is an impressive horror. It manages to frighten using very simple techniques, while the mystery is teased and twisted across the movie’s two hour runtime. The end result is a picture which keeps interest levels high, and nails continually bitten. It’s excellent, do take a look.”
And then from the sublime there was the bloody awful. Which came in the shape of Amazon’s War of the Worlds.
I didn’t hold back on this one and said:
“The dialogue is terrible, and feels as if it has been cobbled together through a two-way conversation between ChatGPT and ChatGPT; the visual effects look no better than an Instagram filter; and the staging over computer screens is soulless. You could get away with this sort of thing during the pandemic, when studios and filmmakers had no choice but to make films this way, but producing a film like this now just smacks of cost cutting.”
Other movies released during these months included Havoc, Exterritorial, The Woman in the Yard, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Nonnas, Bad Influence, Death of a Unicorn, Warfare, Lost in Starlight, and The Salt Path. Then there was Screamboat, Our Times, Straw, Ocean with David Attenborough, Shark Whisperer, Ziam, Brick, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, Wall to Wall, and A Normal Woman.
Plus, The Legend of Ochi, Materialists, Fixed, Together, Nobody 2, Night Always Comes, The Life of Chuck, Eddington, The Map That Leads to You, and Eenie Meanie. Oh, and the Red Sonja reboot finally made its debut, although it probably shouldn’t have bothered.
Anyway, all-in-all a packed summer and there were more hits than misses. Well, at least when it came to the big blockbusters (some of the streaming titles were naff).
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September
Moving into the final four months of the year and September began with the financially very successful, The Conjuring: Last Rites. Pitched as the final entry in The Conjuring Universe (it’s doubtful it will be), audiences seemed to take to it rather well and it was a big hit in the run-up to Halloween.
Meanwhile, Netflix served up Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, as well as The Truth About Jussie Smollet?; Austin Butler starred in action crime-thriller, Caught Stealing; and Liam Neeson popped up on Amazon via Ice Road: Vengeance.
Other movies doing the rounds in September included Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, The Wrong Paris, McWalter, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Swiped, Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires, and Him. Plus, The Strangers reboot lurched on with the BLOODY AWFUL The Strangers: Chapter 2, while Leonardo DiCaprio starred in the marvellous One Battle After Another.
And then there was The Long Walk – an adaptation of a the Stephen King novel of the same name. This dark, dystopian survival thriller was rather good and kept audiences on the edge of their seats.
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October
Into October and Dwayne Johnson flexed his acting muscles with The Smashing Machine; Mark Wahlberg starred in Shane Black’s action-comedy, Play Dirty; and Jared Leto portrayed an AI construct in Tron: Ares. The visuals and sound proved amazing in the Tron sequel, but sadly the story was a let down.
Meanwhile, other movies on offer included Mission Alarum, The Man in My Basement, Steve, The Threesome, Good Boy, John Candy: I Like Me, Roofman, The Twits, The Woman in Cabin 10, and the rather profitable, Black Phone 2. Plus, Beast of War, The Astronaut, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The Elixir, Sketch, Regretting You, Shelby Oaks, and the moving (and brilliant) British drama, I Swear also debuted.
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November
Slipping into November and Colin Farrell starred in Ballad of a Small Player; Kathryn Bigelow delivered the political thriller, A House of Dynamite; and the Predator franchise continued with Predator: Badlands. Meanwhile, Glen Powell took the lead in The Running Man; and the Wicked saga concluded with Wicked: For Good – a movie which cleaned up at the box-office and then some!
Other movies released in November included Mango, Being Eddie, A Very Jonas Christmas, Now You See Me Now You Don’t, and In Your Dreams. Then on top of all this there was Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.
Describing Frankenstein, I said:
“This is a lavish production, but not a stuffy, self-indulgent one. del Toro has worked his magic and pulled off a film which will hopefully become the default Frankenstein movie for years to come.”
Rounding out November Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield starred in After the Hunt; Netflix delivered Champagne Problems; and Disney released Zootopia 2. Then there was Jingle Bell Heist.
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December
And finally, into December and although we are not quite there yet, the year is closing out with a number of big releases including Troll 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and Jay Kelly. Meanwhile, Netflix is serving up the mystery-thriller, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and over on the big screen you can catch the remake/reboot of Silent Night, Deadly Night.
And all of the above arrives before James Cameron serves up Avatar: Fire and Ash. Avatar movies tend to do rather well at the box office, so expect this one to do well to.
Then as everyone takes a break for Christmas, Jack Black and Paul Rudd star in Anaconda, which opens on Christmas Day. The film is a spoof comedy reboot of the Jennifer Lopez movie of the same name, so expect a big snake, alongside some big performances from Black and Rudd.
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2025: Summed Up
So, another packed year of films, right? Well, yes, and not a bad one.
As with all years, there were hits, misses, and lots of in between. There were also one or two surprises thrown into the mix.
Streaming continued to remain a popular choice, but also delivered a lot of mediocre movies. Meanwhile, the cinema offered many of the best pictures of the year, but big screen attendance took a hit, which in turn is likely to reduce the number of big projects in the future.
The only thing I can say is audiences must support the movies they want to see, to ensure they see more of the same. Streaming is convenient, and offers up some real treats (KPop Demon Hunters, Frankenstein, etc), but do go to the cinema, do rent movies, and do buy discs, etc, to ensure you’re getting to see the best movies rather than something an algorithm wants you to watch.
Anyway, there’s still more to come for the remainder of 2025, but hopefully this edition of Movie Reviews Special provides a snapshot of what this year has served up so far.
Alex
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Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this edition of Movie Reviews Special. For more posts, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.
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