My Top Movies Of 2025
1. Marty Supreme
2. Nosferatu
6. The Surfer
7. Sinners
10. Together
11. Blue Moon
12. Train Dreams
13. Highest 2 Lowest
14. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
15. Harvest
16. September 5
17. Weapons
18. Predator: Killer Of Killers
19. Flow
20. Saturday Night
Bubbling Under: F1 / Nobody 2 / The Monkey / Bring Her Back / Roofman
Still To Watch: A House Of Dynamite / Emmanuelle / Sorry, Baby / Hurry Up Tomorrow / Sentimental Value
Old Classics to You, New Favourites for Me: Top 5 Discoveries of the Year: A Place In The Sun (1951) / The Cranes Are Flying (1957) / The Skeleton Dance (1929) / The Imposter (2012) / Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
2025 Round-Up
Avatar: Fire and Ash
James Cameron directs Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña and Stephen Lang in this sci-fi epic threequel where Jake and Neytiri’s family encounters a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe, the Ash People.
Banshee pirate raid! In terms of engaging action this is the best of the bunch. The emphasis is on peril and threat rather than spectacle and wonder. I am there for that. Who doesn’t want to see a bastard reincarnate and a witch leader hook up? Get real freaky naughty? Still three hours is draining. But we have finally got there! All the exposition and hippy dippy fauna was worth it. If this was the first entry I’d be all-in on this franchise. I’m loyal to Cameron. And I cared a lot more about the protagonists this multiplex marathon. Yet I don’t feel these factors had anything to do with nostalgia or built in affection. It just is a more adventurous, kinetic adventure. The kids on opening night loved it whenever two blue women snarled at each other. Lost their collective shit.
7
Fantastic Four: First Steps
Matt Shakman directs Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn in this MCU future retro reboot of the first family of superheroics.
The alt-Sixties blast from the past visual design of this is very cute. Good cast, less quippy. And it is completely standalone. All steps in the right direction. But… BUT… it isn’t very exciting. So close, cigar free, this ain’t the blockbuster you are looking for.
6
Wicked: For Good
Jon M. Chu directs Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jeff Goldblum in this sequel to the musical fantasy where Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West ends her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.
Draggy filler that deflates the goodwill the first part stole out of me. They don’t let Ariana Grande’s Glinda cook. The Dorothy quest parallels / revelation just don’t work. Weak Oz.
4
Happy Gilmore 2
Kyle Newacheck directs Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald and Benny Safdie in this belated sequel to the golf goon comedy.
So, so many cameos. And padding rerun footage from 1996 classic to explain half of them. I didn’t even recognise Eminem until afterwards when I was on the IMDB trivia. The first hour is very funny… JUSTICE FOR SHOOTER! Sandler (and the Sandler machine) at his most workable dumb settings. The extended extreme sport finale… less funny. It feels like a movie trying to justify itself to a 2025 audience when it truly doesn’t need to. It has the built-in following and it has the jokes.
7
The Housemaid
Paul Feig directs Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar in this thriller where the new live in housemaid has just as many secrets as her rich, toxic employers.
Holy Shit! Not erotic enough. Shithouse rat crazy wish fulfilment twists. A terribly blank performance from Sweeney when Seyfried is there, present and giving it her all. The late in the day line of dialogue that Sidney’s character is “smart enough” to beat the true villain made me laugh out loud. She ain’t shown it over the last 90 minutes. I have never witnessed such a gormless “hero” that wasn’t satirical. The only thing she be good at are gentle dusting while standing on the furniture, walloping men over the head repeatedly with heavy blunt objects and flans. I’m not a big fan of flans. Makes A Simple Favour look like Basic Instinct. But we turned up for trash and I got a bin fire. No complaints here.
5
Marty Supreme
Josh Safdie directs Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion in this period drama about an unlikely table tennis player whose dreams of global domination keep getting thwarted by his shitty attitude.
I don’t care for Chalamet, Paltrow or ping pong. And with all that considered, Marty Supreme is easily the best film of the year. A heart pounding wild ride of hubris, bad choices and wriggling out of the mousetrap into another one just snapping shut. Odessa A’zion is captivating and matches our anti-hero’s freak. Had me in a headlock for 2 and half hours and just squashed my face into its totalitarian hustlin’ stress. Immaculate.
10
Havoc
Gareth Evans directs Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant and Forest Whitaker in this action movie about a dirty cop trapped between multiple factions of a gang war at Christmas.
Natalie looked down her nose at this throughout. Right from the opening CGI car chase. Fair shout. Yeah, that bitty sequence of meh ain’t a high point. But the later argy bargy is elite… especially in the stand out extended nightclub barminess. Hardy has been a million times better in classier romper stompers but this scratches an itch. Olyphant, even on payday autopilot, is heads and shoulders above most A-listers as a screen presence.
6
Train Dreams
Clint Bentley directs Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones and Kerry Condon in this arthouse drama following one turn of the century logger as time moves on without him.
Fractured and poetic. Malick and Roeg seem to be the pillars this is built between. Beautiful and emotionally pummelling. Time, fate, progress, memory pull a man through history. An intimate, literary Forrest Gump that anchors itself around Edgerton’s gruff, soulful central performance. I reckon this or Song Sung Blue will eat One Battle’s lunch come Oscar night.
8
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Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 