We are back, and when we last looked at this list, we counted down #20-11 of the best non-new-release films that I watched in 2025. I had seen 169 such movies in the calendar year, so we are talking some great pictures across the board here. Everything from #20 onward has been at least a 4.0 out of 5.0!

Now it’s time to finish this list off. And with it, my Worst Of 2025, and my Top 30 Of 2025 in the rearview mirror, we can spend the rest of 2026 living in the present!

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10. Yojimbo

For my more thorough review of Yojimbo, click HERE!

Just as with entries twenty through eleven, we are kicking this segment off by talking about Akira Kurosawa. Sometimes things work out nicely like that.

Yojimbo clocks in as my second favorite Kurosawa of all the ones I have seen (now totaling four: Seven Samurai, this, Rashomon, and Ran, in order of my preference). It’s hard not to compare this to Seven Samurai, but… here there is one samurai. And he enters a town and decides he needs to stay to help the civilians fend off the threat of two opposing gangs. It’s some great heroic stuff that has inspired other tales in both the East and West.

But then again, Kurosawa influencing the work of others? Ho-hum, yawn, what else is new for one of the most celebrated artistic talents of all-time?

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9. Superhost

Superhost takes the #9 spot out of 169 flicks that I watched last year entirely based on the strength of Gracie Gillam’s performance. She is the Barry Bonds of indie horror actresses: just hitting home runs every second she is on screen. This is legitimately one of my favorite horror outings from any actor ever. She is THAT engrossing in Superhost.

Gillam plays Rebecca, an unhinged rental property owner who is AirBNB-ing out her home to a couple of vloggers who make videos about their experiences at such locations. Rebecca is dying for a positive review, and she is willing to do anything to get it.

I just had so much damn fun with this movie. Is it high art? No, it’s an indie thriller I found on Shudder, and we all know how that can go. But this one was unquestionably a winner, and I laughed and gasped my whole way through.

I really want to go back and watch everything Gillam has ever done now. She is THAT good in this outing. Is she always as talented if she doesn’t have such bizarre material to work with? Who knows? But I’m willing to find out.

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8. Dirty Dancing

*Insert some kind of joke here about this movie giving me The Time Of My Life*

Okay, with that out of the way, can we all agree to ignore the fact that Baby is 17, and Johnny is clearly, like, 25 years old (Swayze himself was 35 when this came out, and he couldn’t possibly have been playing more than a decade younger. And that’s being generous)? It’s icky, and I don’t want to think about it. Plus, this is an old movie set during an even older era.

Glad we agreed to ignore that. Because when we get past it, we are left with a movie that floored me. But shouldn’t it have? And shouldn’t I have expected it to? Patrick Swayze was a god damn supernova of charisma and talent. He just commanded a screen when he was on it. Virtually every movie he is in is worth watching just because of what he can do.

Which is not to dismiss Jennifer Grey who holds her own against her superstar screenmate. She plays Baby as so sympathetic yet entitled. She really grows up over the course of this film, and her dynamic with Johnny is unimpeachable. You really root for these two. You know, once you agree to ignore the age thing.

Also? Sometimes you just need a dancey, sappy, happy, “all the good people win and even the bad people are okay with it” ending to a movie. Not everything needs to be dour or realistic.

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7. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

The title is only, like, 10% of why this movie ultimately ranks this highly.

That said, the titles DOES let you know exactly what you are in for, and it’s a tremendous conceit. And one of the characters actually says this full title in the film, and it comes across as natural! No easy task! But yeah, this is the story of a vampire who doesn’t want to hurt anyone and her quest to survive.

Sara Montpetit stars as the vampire in question, and she gives a nuanced and entertaining performance as Sasha, who just wants to feed off of donated blood bags and never sink her fangs into anyone. Felix-Antoine Bernard is Paul, her companion who is willing to give up his life for her… after they fulfill his last requests.

Everything here is subdued (up to a point), and I’d say if you want a humorous vampire property, I’d actually choose this over the more popular and successful What We Do In The Shadows. Does that make me a hipster? I’m okay with that in this instance if so. I really want more folks to check this film out.

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6. 28 Weeks Later

In preparation for 28 Years Later coming out last year, I watched 28 Weeks Later since I had never seen it before. How did that work out for me? Well, check out my Worst Movies Of 2025 to find out!

So, okay, Years may have been an absolutely befuddling dud. But Weeks was anything but! I’ve seen 28 Days Later two or three times in my life, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from its less heralded sequel. It turns out I liked it about as much as I enjoyed the original. This was a movie that really subverted what I thought it was going to do. I spent the first act thinking this picture would be a redemption arc for cowardly Don, but it ultimately goes in a completely different direction. I was pleasantly surprised!

Add to that an absolutely stacked cast, featuring a lot of “Before They Were Stars” turns from folks like Idris Elba and Jeremy Renner, and you have a dynamo of an outing that blew me away.

It’s just too bad about 28 Years Later, guys.

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5. A Star Is Born (2018)

For my more thorough review of A Star Is Born, click HERE!

So many stars have been born over the years, but this is the only one I have watched. I should check some of the other ones out sometime and see how they measure up to the 2018 effort.

However good those other movies of the same name are, though, I have a hard time imagining their topping the most recent flick. I thought Bradley Cooper’s turns here, as both director and co-lead, were brilliant. I’m surprised he was shut out of the winning side of the Academy Awards in 2019. I look at some of the winners from that year and think… “really?”

Regardless, I just found A Star Is Born this past year, and I loved it. Gaga and Cooper were superb, and this further opened me up to a burgeoning respect for musicals.

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4. Die Hard With A Vengeance

For my more thorough review of Die Hard With A Vengeance, click HERE!

Is Die Hard With A Vengeance as good as the first Die Hard? Is it at least good enough that it’s worth having the conversation?

On the surface, that feels absurd to me. Die Hard is one of the five best action movies of all time. Hell, it’s almost certainly in the top three. And I’m willing to throw in the third entry in its franchise as nearly as good as it is? That’s implying DHwaV is a, what? Top ten action movie of all time?

Maybe! And what of it?

For an action flick, this one has everything. Great adventure beats. Humorous moments to keep the tension at an appropriate level. A high chemistry pairing of leads. Multiple protagonists splintering off to save the day in several locations. A magnificent villain. At exactly what point is there something in Die Hard 3 to look at and say, “Oh, that’s where it tripped up”? Because I can’t find it.

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3. Lilo & Stitch

For my more thorough review of Lilo & Stitch, click HERE!

Upon returning from DisneyWorld this spring, I made it my mission to check out a few of the Disney properties I had never gotten around to. The first was The Princess & The Frog. The second was the original Lilo & Stitch. The former was good. The latter was fantastic.

I’m surprised I never got around to Lilo & Stitch before. I’ve never been particularly adversarial to Disney movies, and I loved The Emperor’s New Groove, which came out just, I think, two years little before this. But yeah, this one just missed me for whatever reason.

When I watched it, I regretted that. This is a ton of enjoyment from top to bottom, and it has some of those Disney moments that hit you right in the heart. I’ll confess to having enjoyed the live action interpretation that came out last year, too, but it’s not a patch on the originator.

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2. Whiplash

Unlike with Lilo & Stitch, I was not surprised at all to have skipped Whiplash during its first few years. It just never seemed like it would be for me. I don’t care about drumming, I’m not musical myself, and I have little to no interest in jazz.

Oh, foolish, simple me.

Whiplash isn’t JUST about jazz. It’s about a power dynamic between a ruthless instructor and his talented pupil. It’s about Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons acting off of each other in probably the best performance each has ever individually given. The switch that Simmons flips multiple times in the flick where he goes from affable to malicious is just insane. And Teller’s desperation and need for approval until the very end is so relatable and palpable. This is a clinic from each actor.

For not being much of a music guy, I was mesmerized by the story here, too. It’s so intense! I was hanging on each scene, desperately needing to know what would happen next. And even though the movie seems to just… end right when you think you might get an answer or two, it’s a great culmination where you are left wondering to yourself who, if either, “won” between the teacher and the student.

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1. Flow

Flow was one of the first movies I saw in 2025; I actually saw it in theaters back in January, on the 11th. So is that a good thing or a bad thing that I basically spent all year waiting for something different to top this list, and nothing ever did?

Flow is a spectacle. It’s all about animals surviving together on a boat during an immense flood. The animals are not anthropomorphized in any way; they are just simple creatures who are following their natural instinct to live. The film has no dialogue because it’s just these animals and no people to root for. Just… a cat and his companions.

But it’s beautiful. Damn, is it beautiful. The animation is gorgeous, and the sound engineering is spot-on to keep you engaged throughout the experience. And it’s a short movie, too, that knows not to overextend its premise.

If I had seen Flow a few weeks earlier, it would have finished pretty damn high on my Best Of 2024 list, but unfortunately I was a little late to the game on this one. No matter; it’s getting its recognition here, on this list, in this year. Which I’m sure is just as important to the creators as the Oscar gold this picture took home in 2025.

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And that’s it! Whew! It’s been a busy month of lists and countdowns, but now it’s time to go back to the regularly scheduled nonsense around here.

Until next time… take care!