All right, after two rounds of foreplay, we are ready for the main event, as we count down the top ten (well, MY top ten) movies of 2025. This is just the culmination of my completely subjective listing of the films that brought me the most joy over the last twelve months! I am excited to share them with you and hear your favorites in return.
I preambled enough in parts one and two of this list, so it’s time to get down to the brassiest of tacks and see what I dug!
10. Freaky Tales
I sometimes grow weary of movies being set in the 1980’s without much point. It feels like flicks and shows are doing it endlessly these days for one of two reasons: to cash in on nostalgia from the 40+ year old crowd (me), and/or to have a reason for the protagonists to not solve all of their problems with cell phones.
Freaky Tales has a reason to be set in its era, though, as it deals with things specifically going on in the music and sporting worlds of Oakland, California in the 1980’s.
This movie is an anthology of stories centering around that part of the world and showing various elements coming together as the flick rolls on. It’s got a pretty decent cast with Mr. Everywhere, Pedro Pascal, playing a big role and Tom Hanks of all people serving up a three minute guest appearance. I really enjoyed these freaky tales, especially the first and fourth of them, as they were full of badass action set pieces that blew me away. The fourth arc, the one about Golden State Warriors legend Sleepy Floyd, is such a blast.
Sure we never get any explanations for how or why anything is happening in this one. But who needs it? Sometimes you just want to have a really great time watching a cadre of fun characters take down Nazis in the 1980’s.
9. Fight Or Flight
It’s absolutely wild that this movie made my Top Ten. I’m all in on the Josh Hartnett renaissance, but to imagine he’d finish the year in a movie in my top ten? I’d never have figured that.
If you remember my passion for Bullet Train, though, it’s easy to see why I enjoyed Fight Or Flight so much. It’s Bullet Train in the sky. I’d say it’s “Bullet Plane”, but I’ve seen a lot of other folks already make that joke. It’s one heroically talented but relatably bumbling man versus an entire mode of transport full of enemies. It’s all steam and bombast. And Hartnett is surprisingly perfect casting for the lead role.
Is Fight Or Flight changing the world or the way movies are going to be made? It is not. But is it a riotous way to spend 90 minutes or so as you watch a star continue to reclaim what was once his destiny? It sure is!
8. Novocaine
We remain in the “A Blast, But Kind Of Empty Calories, But Also I Don’t Care” stretch of the list here, with Jack Quaid’s Novocaine, and it’s not the last time he’s showing up in my Top Ten. As a matter of fact, for those interested in some bonus reading, he starred in a third movie that finished not far out of my top 30: Neighborhood Watch!
(He also was a bit player in John Cena and Idris Elba’s Heads Of State, and he was the best part of that movie. Quaid was EVERYWHERE in 2025)
Novocaine’s premise of taking a real life medical condition–the inability to register or feel pain–and turn it into a borderline superpower for an action movie is nifty (if potentially offensive to the people who actually suffer from this), and Quaid has the everyman charm to pull it off. He is funny, but he’s got just enough fighting chops from his tenure on The Boys to be believable.
Also on the cast is Prey’s own Amber Midthunder as Quaid’s love interest, and she stands out here. It’s great to see her in anything (except maybe this year’s Opus which gave her practically nothing to do).
7. Predator: Killer Of Killers
Hey, speaking of Dan Trachtenberg Predator franchise movies!
This animated movie drop on Hulu and Disney Plus was quite a surprise when we got it this year, and after remembering how much I liked the aforementioned Prey, I figured that I should give it a shot. I was super glad I did!
Predator: Killer Of Killers looks phenomenal, and I don’t just mean in the animation (which is some stand-out work, by the way). It’s got some fantastic editing and design, as well. It’s obviously simultaneously both easier and harder to do some things in animated style, but KoK has an uncut shot during one of its arcs where we follow a Viking woman tearing a path through her enemies. It looks amazing. And the way each Predator looks different from each other is special, too. It reminds us that these are an individualistic species and that centuries are passing between each scene, so we are not only seeing how Predators can differ from one another, but also how they change over time.
Based on this list, I definitely enjoyed Killer of Killers more than Predator: Badlands, which you’ll remember came in at #20. Both were very good, though. Where would Prey rank if I was factoring in all of Trachtenberg’s Predator work? It would probably be his crown jewel. Which sadly makes me realize I’ve liked each of his movies a LITTLE less than the one before it, but I have been a big fan of them all, which is the better takeaway here.
6. Companion
And just like that, we are back to Jack Quaid’s epic 2025!
Companion is one of the very few movies in 2025 that I watched twice (we’ll get to another in a bit) because I somehow caught it in theaters by myself, then re-watched it on streaming with my wife to show her how good it was. Quaid co-stars with Sophie Thatcher in this one where the advertising (and even the base poster) probably gave too much away, but it still worked in spite of all of that.
Quaid and Thatcher play a young couple in love, and we are told straight away that Iris (Thatcher’s character) will end up killing Josh (Quaid’s) by movie’s end. Man, this picture was giving EVERYTHING away, wasn’t it? But the joy is in the journey and how Iris gets to that point. The story is intense and powerful, and even knowing what you know, everything comes together in a workable fashion.
Companion spent most of the year in my top five until it was knocked out very late by a recent entry. Speaking of which!
5. Wake Up Dead Man
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out / Benoit Blanc trilogy actually follows the Dan Trachtenberg Predator series path of my liking each entry a little less than the one before it. But just like the alien hunter series, I’m still all the way in on whatever is next. Wake Up Dead Man was a wonderful entry into the Daniel Craig franchise.
Whereas with Knives Out and Glass Onion I was able to speculate (wrongly, I might add) on the ending of each film, Wake Up Dead Man had me befuddled from the start. I was completely in the dark as to how the murder took place in this one or who was to blame. And I enjoyed that! Mysteries are often really hard for me to follow, but Johnson tells tales that are expansive and complex, but also simplistic enough for an idiot like me to understand. When we got to the resolution of Dead Man, it all (well, 90% of it) made sense and flowed congruently for me.
Also, if you watched Knives Out and had this as a concern, Daniel Craig seems to have toned down that accent he affects a hair with each passing entry. He certainly sounds less like Foghorn Leghorn in this one than he did in the original.
But yeah, give me more of these. One every other year if that’s the pace it takes to make them. I’m seated the first weekend for whatever comes next in this universe.
4. Heart Eyes
Another of the movies I watched twice this year, Heart Eyes is a very divisive picture in the horror community, and it certainly ranks higher on my list than it will for a lot of other people. But I regret nothing because I absolutely loved this flick.
Director Josh Ruben is one of my favorite talents, both as a comedian and as a director (his previous works were the Shudder original Scare Me and Werewolves Within). So I was happy that his newest outing landed so well with me. Heart Eyes is so married to its premise of being a rom-com with slasher elements added in, that you can go stretches of this one during the first act where you forget it’s even a horror movie. It’s committed to getting you to care about the burgeoning relationship between Ally and Jay. And it’s not afraid to use every rom-com trope in the book to get you there. A head-clonking meet-cute. An enemies to lovers cliche. A rush to catch someone at the airport. It’s all there.
And then, oh yeah, it turns into a slasher chase in the second act and becomes the effort most fans wanted to see. I think some of this one’s detractors got a little bored by the early going, but not me. Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding had such great chemistry that I was having too much fun watching their interplay to worry about when the killings would start back up.
3. Thunderbolts*
Wildly undeserving of being a commercial flop for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thunderbolts* was the superhero movie we needed in the 2020’s. It replaced some of what we are tired of with more character-driven elements and a story about the mental health of our protagonists.
It took the concept of a lovable rag-tag team of losers (not original to the genre, as we have been doing that since at LEAST Guardians of the Galaxy) and made them even more losery than usual. It was led by an extremely game Florence Pugh who is one of those actors whose love for her roles just comes across so well on screen. She could tell me that she hates being in the MCU and doesn’t care for the character of Yelena, and I’d just congratulate her on tricking me. She certainly seems like she wants to get the Widow over with an audience. And she seems to be having fun playing her.
Additionally, you have David Harbour, Lewis Pullman, and Wyatt Russell all doing great work across the effort. And the resolution to the conflict in this one? The whole third act? It’s some chef’s kiss kind of stuff.
2. Sinners
So Sinners wasn’t my FAVORITE movie of 2025, but I have spent all year saying it was the BEST movie of 2025. So that counts for something.
Sinners is… of my god… it’s just so good. It’s got several of the most memorable scenes on 2025, and Ryan Coogler put all of his talent and will into this one. The scene where Sammie’s music opens up the juke joint to sounds from the past and future is the best scene in a movie this year. It’s in the running for best scene this decade. Michael B. Jordan’s playing of a dual role of twins is a marvelous performance from him, as manages to make both Smoke and Stack different as human beings but similar as twins.
There is also the element where the movie all but completely hides its true intent until halfway through. You don’t know it’s going to be a vampire horror until the middle of the film, and that’s fine because the first half about Smoke and Stack trying to set up the joint is compelling without the fear of vamps attacking.
Sinners is a picture that’s hard to put into words, so you kind of just have to see it. And it’s one that if/when I watch again, will definitely go up in score for me. I feel like, even for it coming in at #2 on my list, I low-balled it the first time around.
1. Superman
Superman 2025 was everything I ever wanted.
It’s a movie that really understood Superman. Who he is, why he is, and what he is. I’m not going to split hairs here: I really did not care for the Man Of Steel / DCEU iteration of the character. Henry Cavill is a fine actor, but the material he was given to work with was drek.
With Superman, we got a Kal-El who is sure, passionate, and relatable. And most of all, he was human. He went out of his way to protect all life, and he was a through-and-through good person. And the movie understood that it’s the Kents who make him who he is. Even though we didn’t get loads of them in the film, what we got reinforced that he is the reason he is who he is. So, no, at no point do they tell him he should have let a bus full of school kids drown.
James Gunn’s take on the Man Of Tomorrow was a boon to my spirit when I watched it. It took one of my favorite characters in all of fiction and did right by him. This movie genuinely lifted me up when I watched it. And for that reason, it’s been my #1 of the year ever since it came out.
And that’s the list. It’s a weird top ten to be sure, but what can I say? I’m a weird guy. And these are what made me most happy this year.
But now it’s your turn as I turn the floor over to you: what were your top ten films of 2025? Let us know in the comments.
And don’t worry; these lists aren’t over! Soon I’ll be doing my Top 20 First Time Watches Of 2025 where I shout out the ones I enjoyed that didn’t release this year.
Until next time… take care!
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