It’s here! Finally! All the other awards have been dished out, but can we really close out the discussion on the films of 2025 without my full, definitive ranking of every new release I’ve seen so far from last year? For various reasons this is a bumper year of films, with over a hundred on the list, which has also led to this list coming out so much later than I’d intended, and the longer it took the more films I’d watch and would then need adding to the list (21 of these films were watched for the first time in 2026). I aimed for the end of January, then the end of February, then the day of the Oscars, but obviously all those dates inevitably sailed by, and I settled on releasing the list today, whatever day that may be as it sure as heck ain’t the day I’m writing this intro. Without further ado, here’s my full ranking of films I’ve seen that were released in the UK in 2025:

Honourable Mentions: The three films I started and have yet to finish are:
Havoc – it just didn’t have the energy of Gareth Evans’ other films. I started watching it, fell asleep, never started again.
Eddington – started watching it on holiday where the AirBNB had access to it. Aisha didn’t enjoy it so we stopped about halfway through. I didn’t get around to finishing it on that trip, and it isn’t streaming anywhere yet for free. I’ll finish it when it pops up on Netflix or wherever.
How to Train Your Dragon – I think we made it less than 90 seconds in before we looked at each other and went “Nope.” My wife loves the animated films, I think they’re fine, but with this we both hated everything about the visuals and feel of that first minute and a half. We will not be returning to “live-action” Berk ever again.

109. Flight Risk

Garbage film made by garbage people. Not sure why I even watched it. Letting Mark Wahlberg play himself is fun, I guess.

108. A Working Man

I went in expecting Beekeeper levels of fun, but got this unsatisfying film instead. Other than Statham, no characters are around long enough to make any kind of impression, there are too many villains in too many distracting outfits, and the biggest problem of all is that the fact the film is called A Working Man, but unlike The Beekeeper (or Renny Harlin’s The Bricklayer), Statham’s character’s profession as a construction foreman doesn’t play into anything else in the rest of the film. Statham is always good with kids, and it was nice seeing him be reunited with Jason Flemyng, but otherwise this was bad.

107. Clown in a Cornfield

Annoying characters, boring plot, uninteresting kills.

106. Until Dawn

Had no idea what this was going in, other than some kind of horror flick. I normally love a time loop story, but this got old fast. The exploding water bit was the only part I enjoyed.

105. Reunion

We needed something to watch with the in-laws over Christmas and this looked like it ticked a lot of our collective boxes, however it unfortunately left some key ones unchecked, namely being funny, compelling,or good at all. Michael Hitchcock and Jillian Bell do their best to strive for some humour by playing oddballs, but anchoring this around Lil Rel Howery, who works best as a comedic sidekick, was a big mistake. And the inevitable wrap up conclusion scene was full of so many nonsensical leaps in logic, it was easily the most laughable aspect of this so-called comedy.

104. Into the Deep

Half a decent shark/pirate/treasure movie, half a bunch of cloying flashbacks with a landlocked Richard Dreyfus non-committedly delivering occasionally relevant wisdom, followed by a plea from Dreyfus to respects sharks and the ocean that feels frankly insincere. The other half of the film is fine but occasionally laughable (treasure is very easy to find, literally on the deck of a sunken ship; after one person is attacked by a shark the crew seek help from a nearby boat, only for that boat crew’s leader to spend so much time introducing everyone, giving his thoughts on global warming and explaining the significance of his shark tooth necklace that the injured person dies right in front of him). There’s some decent enough action (surprise harpoon!) but this is very meh.
Read my full review here: https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2025/01/into-the-deep/ and listen to the podcast episode here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-216-into-the-deep-2025–64338410

103. Here

As Robert Zemeckis should have learned by now, a novel premise does not guarantee an entertaining film. Yes it’s fascinating how much has happened in a single place over the lifespan of the Earth, but little of what actually happens is all that interesting, and most of it is quite depressing. I particularly did not enjoy Paul Bettany. It’s cloying, overly sentimental, and boring.

102. A Mother’s Embrace

I agreed to review it for Blueprint: Review because I thought it had sea monsters in it and would therefore make for Deep Blue Sea podcast content. Whilst there is an aquatic beastie towards the end, it’s more metaphorical and not the kind of creature feature I was hoping for. Read the full review here: https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2025/11/a-mothers-embrace/

101. The Woman in Cabin 10

Also watched in case it might make a good DBS episode, this is just a fairly predictable and overlong mystery, where the key points are laid out neatly early on and you just wait for the pieces to fit together. Normally you’d have a fun supporting cast of potential suspects and colourful characters, here we get the underused Hannah Waddingham, David Morrissey, Kaya Scodelario and Art Malik, many of whom get nothing to do other than be annoyed at Keira Knightley now and then.

100. Fear Below

An actual shark film that we actually recorded an actual podcast episode about! It’s a rare period shark film, in which some gangsters in post WWII Australia accidentally drive a van full of gold into a shark-infested river, so hire a diving team to retrieve the loot. It’s pretty standard stuff, and my personal theory is the film-makers found themselves in possession of a couple of old timey diving suits, and built a film around them. Listen to the podcast episode here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-235-fear-below-2025–66733895

99. Friendship

I’m calling it, I just don’t enjoy the comedy of Tim Robinson. I watched the first two seasons of I Think You Should Leave and the only thing I found funny was a sketch starring Will Forte. Friendship has more of Robinson being awkward and yelling loudly in a way that maybe is funny to some people, but to me is just annoying.

98. Amber Alert

Tyler James Williams and Hayden Panettierre are a reluctant ride share driver and his persistent passenger who spot a car matching the description from a recent amber alert after a child is kidnapped. A long car ride chase ensues with minimal action or tension, and a little too much of the characters getting to know each other. Pretty standard thriller, not enough to recommend but it passed a train journey.

97. Captain America: Brave New World

I didn’t see any trailers past the initial teaser. All I knew going in was that Harrison Ford had replaced William Hurt as General (now President) Ross, and that he was the Red Hulk. Imagine my confused anger when this is a last act reveal that the entire preceding 90 minutes builds up to! Granted, without the knowledge of an inevitable Hulk fight there isn’t much to grab onto here, so I guess the marketing team clung to what they had. The action and acting are fine-to-good, cameos felt unnecessary and there wasn’t enough Tim Blake Nelson (but when is there?). Lower third MCU, for sure.

96. Elevation

The Earth is attacked by creatures that cant live above 8,000 feet, so the last dregs of humanity live in the mountains. Morena Baccarin is a grumpy scientist who is grumpy, Anthony Mackie wants to save his son. It’s a thin premise that drags even at 90 minutes, with only some fun bits on a ski lift and in the mines allowing for much entertainment.

95. The Penguin Lessons

Penguins are cute, Steve Coogan is funny, political oppression is bad. Other than that, nothing really stuck with me.

94. The Strangers: Chapter 2

Watched it for the podcast, just in time for Chapter 3. I had high hopes for this, given how much Renny Harlin and Madelaine Petsch seemed to want to make it and show what happened next in the story, essentially remaking the original Strangers film just to get to make more, but this wasn’t it. Not a great deal happens, and save from a mid-film animal encounter this is just spinning its wheels. Chapter 3 needs to be pretty darn good to justify the existence of this whole project, and needs to be packed with so much plot that there’s no possible way this could’ve all been tackled in a single film. We’ll see. Listen to the podcast here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-267-the-strangers-chapter-2-2025–69766346

93. The Electric State

It’s definitely a film that exists, so I appreciate it must have cost some money, but why did it need to cost all of the money? Why was it spent on this generic, unremarkable nothing of a film, and not literally anything else? Soderbergh could’ve made 10 great films (and probably a few not so great films) with the entirety of that! $320,000,000! How much did Pratt make?! The visual effects, production design and world building are good, but there’s got to be a better story they could all be utilised on.

92. Last Breath

Watched to potentially cover on the podcast, but it’s such a by-the-numbers straightforward film that we gave up trying to find an angle on it. One of the divers (Finn Cole) on a team maintaining undersea gas lines becomes stranded and unconscious with no air supply during a storm, and the rest of his team (Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu in a pressurised underwater chamber, Cliff Curtis, MyAnna Buring and Mark Bonnar on the ship) fight to save him. I knew the outcome from the true story going in, so the story’s built-in tension didn’t really impact me all that much. There’s nothing wrong here, everyone is performing well and it’s always good seeing people who are good at their jobs just getting on with it and dealing with the situation at hand, it just wasn’t all that entertaining.

91. A House of Dynamite

Quite unsatisfying. I knew going in it was about two hours long. I then discovered we were witnessing the same 25-ish minutes from varying perspectives, in essentially real time, so I figured we’d go through it all four times, or perhaps three times plus a combined climactic sequence. So when the film ended after the third run-through, and without any form of resolution, I was surprised and somewhat disappointed. I appreciated the realism of how the kind of event depicted occurs without warning, and the people vital to the decision making are more than likely to not all be readily available at a moment’s notice. Gabriel Basso’s attempts to take part in an unprecedented high level meeting whilst on Facetime and going through security were particularly stressful.

90. Bring Her Back

I believed the hype but was disappointed. Sally Hawkins is, as always, incredible, but this took way too long to get somewhere I could see coming from the off. Jonah Wren Phillips is also outstanding as a creepy child who I now think about every time I use my chef’s knife.

89. The Amateur

Perfectly fine revenge thriller. Rami Malek is a CIA cryptographer with minimal field experience who goes after the international group of mercenaries who killed his wife (Rachel Brosnahan). Some fun kills – I love the swimming pool scene, and the following scuffle in a laundromat is also fun – but the underused supporting cast, especially Brosnahan and Jon Bernthal, made this frustrating. It’s overall fine though.

88. Code 3

A pretty decent comedy drama about the last shift of a long-time paramedic, this ultimately becomes frustrating at how just how ass-backwards the American medical system is. No real news there, but it does dampen the comedy somewhat. It’s also surprisingly bloody at times, as you might expect from a medical film.

87. The Naked Gun

I had high hopes as Akiva Schaffer directed Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers, one of my highlights of 2022. I really enjoy the early Naked Gun films, and the Police Squad TV show, but this didn’t do it for me. There’s certainly a lot of funny jokes in it, but there were far, far more that I either didn’t find funny, or I could see where they were going a mile away and they didn’t deviate or surprise me in the least.

86. The Roses

I’d been looking forward to this as I like pretty much everyone involved, but it was disappointing, and as much as I try to avoid trailers I’d caught short clips of this one and of course all the best bits had been ruined. Cumberbatch and Colman have great chemistry, but I just found it very difficult to empathise with their seemingly perfect lifestyle being fraught with problems that didn’t really feel all that extreme. The bit with the whale was excellent, though.

85. Nobody 2

The very definition of diminishing returns. It’s mostly more of the same as the excellent Nobody, just not as good. Nothing can reach the height of that film’s bus fight, and whilst they tried with a new duck boat scene, it feels too comedic. I think this should’ve been a one-and-done.

84. The End

Not sure if this really counts as a 2025 film but it never got a proper UK release outside of the London Film Festival and I saw it last year, so I’m counting it. It’s an odd film that I’ve heard literally no-one talk about ever, but I watched it because it features Michael Shannon, Lennie James and Tim McInnnerny singing. They, along with Tilda Swinton, George McKay and Bronagh Gallagher, play survivors in an underground bunker twenty years after some kind of apocalypse, where they are soon joined by someone from the surface, Moses Ingram. It’s not a fun film, but I tend to enjoy these kinds of chamber pieces. It drags a bit, but it was still an interesting watch.

83. The Brutalist

I saw this in the lead-up to the Oscars, when it seemed an absolute certainty that it would be winning Best Picture, so I saw it out of obligation more than anything else. When I heard the tide was changing and that Anora might be in with a shot I tried to see that, but podcast scheduling got the better of me and I couldn’t make it to the only available screening prior to the ceremony when I was near a cinema and not at work. No big deal, other than The Brutalist kind of sucks. It’s way, WAY too long, clocking in at around four hours but feeling like at least six. It didn’t help that my expectations were pretty high – I’d been told that the first half, before the intermission, was essentially cinematic perfection is every way, but that the second half took some turns and didn’t end too well. The first half dragged and felt fine-to-good at best, and whilst I appreciated the turns of the second half I just didn’t care and wanted the film to end so I could go home. I’ve since seen Anora, and think it’s Best Picture win was entirely justified as it’s fantastic. Alas it was released in the UK in 2024, so it will not be appearing on this list, but it would definitely have been near the top.

82. Hallow Road

Starts out as a decent enough thriller, with concerned parents Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys receiving a late night panicked phone call from their daughter after a traffic collision, then follows them as they drive through the night to her location, talking to her on the phone the whole time. I thought the premise might get repetitive and constricting, but much like films like Locke it doesn’t, but it wavers too far from a relatable premise and I didn’t enjoy the plot directions. Pike and Rhys are both as reliably excellent as ever, though.

81. The Running Man

Another disappointment. I enjoy the Schwarzenegger film and have at least loved every film Edgar Wright has directed so far, but this is easily bottom of the pile. Glen Powell is no fun playing a guy who’s mean all the time, the production felt rushed (something that has apparently been mentioned in some behind the scenes interviews) and whilst this did take a more realistic tone than the admittedly quite silly earlier film, it cops out at the end and leaves a poor taste in your mouth. I’ll give it another shot, just to be sure, and if we’re being honest this should probably rank a little higher as it is still quite well made, but given it’s made by Edgar Wright I was expecting more. Plus I really hated the scene where Emilia Jones is taken hostage and made to feel bad for owning a scarf that cost more than the less fortunate characters in the film would see in a month. It just made me annoyed at the people who made the film, many of whom presumably also own quite a lot of metaphorical scarves. Should I feel bad because I’ve paid money to see a film in a cinema, when that money could’ve gone to someone less fortunate? Well now I do.

80. Dog Man

The premise is silly and fun, the animation style is cute and the performances are good – Pete Davidson made a pretty good villain, though I could’ve done without Ricky Gervais. It passed another train journey, but was a little too kid friendly for me.

79. Heads of State

Not as predictable as I initially though. Cena and Idris are playing exactly what you’d expect, but they’re having fun doing it and so did I. Jack Quaid steals the film with not a lot of screen time.

78. Ballerina

I remember mostly enjoying the experience, but even re-reading the plot on Wikipedia the only thing that I can recall is lots of grenades. I really need to write these reviews straight after I watch the films.

77. Megan 2.0

As with Nobody 2, this feels like more of the same, but less so.

76. Eternity

One of those films where as you’re watching it you can tell that there’s no way this will end satisfyingly because the whole system is broken and the film is under two hours long, so there’s not enough time to revolutionise the entire premise upon which the narrative has been founded. Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early are clearly having fun as the afterlife consultants. And whilst I approve of Miles Teller being cast as a guy who is kinda frumpy, grumpy and and irritating, I’m not sure I can even conceive of a world in which Callum Turner is considered to be aesthetically superior than Elisabeth Olsen, that simply does not compute in the slightest.

75. Goodrich

I’m finding Michael Keaton is one of those actors I’ll happily watch in anything (I just watched Johnny Dangerously, in which he is also excellent). This kind of comedy drama doesn’t do a lot for me, and it plods along the expected beats, but I had a good time with everyone involved.

74. Ella McCay

Similar to Goodrich, it’s a comedy drama that I kind of liked and had a good time with, but can’t wholeheartedly recommend because it’s nothing particularly outstanding, just fine. Felt like some bits had been cut out, as one character’s turn came quite abruptly, but it was already too long, so maybe not all the threads impacting Ella’s life needed to have so much time devoted to them. An odd film for James L. Brooks to return for, but he pulled a heck of a cast together for it, and having Julie Kavner narrate it was delightful.

73. Honey Don’t

Part two of Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s lesbian mystery trilogy, as with Drive-Away Dolls I liked this but didn’t love it. Margaret Qualley is significantly less irritating in this one, Chris Evans is well used and I enjoyed Aubrey Plaza stepping a little outside of her comfort zone. Structurally this is off though, as there’s a few disparate elements that are going along nicely, then get wrapped up way too abruptly to be satisfying, with an ending that felt like it was from a different film entirely. Charlie Day managed to thread the needle of a character who persistently hits on Honey and flat out cannot comprehend that she’s a lesbian, but remains bizarrely likeable and somewhat charming. Impressive.

72. Elio

One of those films that I remember thinking was mostly fine when I watched it, but absolutely nothing stayed with me from that viewing. I think it did some surprising things with a relatively overused replacement doppelganger side plot, and many of the alien designs were fun, but this is definitely not amongst Pixar’s best.

71. Deep Cover

Surprisingly good, given its a comedy that went straight to Amazon Prime. Nick Mohammed, Orlando Bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard make for an unlikely trio of improvisers roped into an undercover operation to bring down the evil Paddy Considine (who was also the bad guy in Heads of State). Mohammed is as enjoyable as ever – I particularly laughed at him cycling into a canal – and whilst Howard doesn’t get a lot of comedic moments, she is still fun in the role. Bloom, on the other hand, is something of a revelation as an overly dedicated “real” actor insisting on implementing elaborate back stories and delving far too deeply into them. I hope we get to see more comedy from him.

70. The Surfer

One of the sweatiest, filthiest and somehow smelliest films I saw last year. I always enjoy Cage when he’s trying, and he’s giving it his all across this whole film. It’s frustrating at times and can stretch the boundaries of credulity, but I enjoyed the downward spiral and Cage is just co damn captivating.

69. Good Boy

Great concept – a horror story told from the perspective of the pet of a guy under some kind of demonic influence – and it’s well done, but I found the viewing experience to be overall quite upsetting. If anything it’s a compliment to how well directed the dog is throughout that I fully believed the performance and just wanted that good good boy to be taken away from the whole situation and given a full afternoon of tummy rubs. I am available for this activity, if required. The shot of Indy waiting at the window for his owner to come home, then cutting to him in the exact same spot clearly a long time later just broke my heart.

68. Beast of War

Another Australian period shark movie, this one successfully covered on the podcast, and one that’s actually pretty good. A small group of Australian World War II soldiers are left stranded in a small stretch of water aboard a raft, with a bastard of a shark swimming nearby. It’s not a unique premise, but it’s well done, makes good use of a limited budget (lots of background fog helps hide the small set) and has some pretty excellent action sequences. Worth a watch! Listen to the podcast episode here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-258-beast-of-war-2025–68535614

67. The Bad Guys 2

The first film left no lasting impression on me, and I don’t think this one has much either, but I still really enjoy the world of these films, the fast pace of the action, and just how funny they are throughout. Craig Robinson’s Mr. Shark is, predictably, my favourite, and him dressing up in so many disguises, whilst always quite clearly being himself (which is, let’s never forget, a shark who can walk around), never fails to bring a big grin to my face.

66. Freaky Tales

Did this film even get marketed at all? It’s an odd curio with a surprising number of famous faces cropping up, given how underseen the whole thing is. If you like punks fighting Nazis and evil cops getting what’s coming to them then give it a whirl.

65. The Thursday Murder Club

About as good as I could’ve hoped it would be. I’ve enjoyed all the books (haven’t read the latest one yet) but they’re easy reads that don’t really amount to much other than an entertaining way to pass the time, which is absolutely fine by me. I was wary of the central cast – Ben Kingsley and Helen Mirren felt too obvious, Pierce Brosnan felt utterly wrong, Celia Imrie was an unusual but effective choice – but in the end they all worked together well, and there’s an excellent supporting cast including the likes of David Tennant, Daniel Mays, Naomie Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Paul Freeman and Jonathan Pryce (in a role he’s essentially cornered the market on ever since the third Pirates film). This accomplishes exactly what was intended – a mostly faithful and gently enjoyable murder mystery that pretty much everyone will be just about fine with. I can’t imagine there’s any mad rush to make any more, though.

64. Die My Love

Watched so I could listen to the Blank Check podcast episode dedicated to it, which I have yet to do. It’s my third Lynne Ramsay film, after We Need To Talk About Kevin and You Were Never Really Here, and I’m not desperate to watch any more as they seem horrendously depressing, despite being very well acted and directed. Jennifer Lawrence is especially good here, as a lady spiralling downward after having a baby with Robert Pattinson’s useless chump and spending her days alone with a child she seems to resent. I didn’t care for the subject matter and found the whole experience excruciatingly depressing, as I’m sure was the intention. Does it count as a bathroom fight if it’s just one person attacking a bathroom? I think so.

63. Goodbye June

This is at least the second film in which Kate Winslet plays an uptight, straight-laced character who doesn’t get on all that well with her personality-clashing siblings, but they all gather together around an imminently dying mother, and celebrate Christmas during the run-up to her death. However, given pretty much no-one else seems to have even heard of 2019’s Blackbird, it can be forgiven, and ultimately Winslet connected well enough with that film that she wanted to direct this one, and I’m sure the fact that it was written by Joe Anders, her son, had something to do with getting it all made. It’s a good, extremely well cast drama, with Andrea Riseborough, Toni Colette, Johnny Flynn, Stephen Merchant, Timothy Spall and Helen Mirren making up the central family, and Jeremy Swift and Fisayo Akinade as some of the hospital staff. It was released just before Christmas, and it felt like the kind of soap opera episodes that are released on the big day itself, real emotional, tear-jerking affairs, and this did its job on both me and my wife.

62. Zootropolis 2

It’s fine. Some good action, some great comedy, particularly when they lean into the different scales the various animals live at, but this suffers the same way many sequels do, where they try to bring back all the characters that were fan favourites from the first film, whilst also attempting to expand in new directions with new characters, so everyone feels a bit underserved. Ke Huy Quan’s Gary De’Snake was over-hyped and is ultimately just fine, Fortune Feimster’s overzealous beaver Nibbles Maplestick is over-used and trying. Full marks for Patrick Warburton’s Mayor Winddancer, with plenty of horse-based humour that worked for me far more than most of Nick’s sarcastic asides. A third film is heavily threatened in the post credits scene, but I think we’re fine where we are, thanks.

61. A Real Pain

Very middle of the road. It’s a fine little comedy drama, feels very personal for Jesse Eisenberg, and the portrayals of both his and Kieran Culkin’s characters are very realistic, I just don’t think this is going to stick with me for too long.

60. Jay Kelly

I liked this, far more than a lot of other people it seems. It’s too long and navel-gazey, and as usual Noah Baumbach spends a lot of time trying to make us feel sorry for some very privileged people, but as character studies go this was an enjoyable one. Casting Lenny Henry in a minor flashback role was jarring, and had me distracted for the ensuing 10 minutes or so as I tried to work out why he’d been cast in such a minor role, but there’s a lot of that in the film. Other highlights include Stacy Keach, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup and of course Laura Dern. Clooney and Sandler have great chemistry, as they do with pretty much everyone.

59. Caught Stealing

Hey, someone else made a Guy Ritchie movie, 20 years after he stopped making them. I liked Caught Stealing a lot more than it seems most people did, but it’s still sitting firmly in the middle of this list. I generally don’t enjoy Austin Butler in films, but fortunately he’s surrounded by an eclectic ensemble including a mohawked Matt Smith, seedy Regina King, and Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio as soup-slurping Hasidic henchmen. Zoe Kravitz isn’t in this nearly enough.

58. Play Dirty

I generally enjoy every Shane Black film that doesn’t feature a predator, but this is easily the bottom of the pile outside of that category. I’ve seen way too many heist and con-artist films to be surprised by anything that ever happens in them, there are frankly far too many explosions for this kind of film, and putting Wahlberg front and centre is almost guaranteed to knock off a star or two from my rating. As with Caught Stealing though, this is saved by the supporting cast, with the likes of Keegan Michael-Key, Thomas Jane and Lakeith Stanfield providing good flavour and comedy.

57. Death of a Unicorn

Very predictable and as subtle as a unicorn horn through the stomach, but I had fun with it. Any film casting Anthony Carrigan and Jessica Hynes wins some points from me, even if they are underused, and casting Will Poulter as an irredeemable shit is always delightful.

56. Anaconda

I hoped this would be better. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good enough time with this odd, overly convoluted remake/reboot/spiritual reimagining, but it could’ve been so much better by just committing to its premise and showing a better attempt at actually trying to make Anaconda again. The comedy works, but way too much time is spent on side plots that aren’t comedic, so it feels like a lot of potential was wasted. I love everything Steve Zahn is doing as the worst guy you could bring along on such an expedition, and everything with the pig was outstanding. The odd choice to dress two characters identically to Sam Neill and Laura Dern in Jurassic Park was just distracting. Listen to our podcast episode on it to hear the excellent ideas Jeanette Ward has that surely would’ve fixed it: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-266-anaconda-2025–69649190

55. Bugonia

A very surprising Best Picture nominee, and one that has stayed with me more than I thought it would after first viewing. I read a review in which it was described as “arthouse Deep Blue Sea“, so of course I had to find out what that meant and, to be honest, I’m not sure. I’m still mostly on the Yorgos Lanthimos train, even after Kinds of Kindness, but this is a step down from the likes of The Favourite and Poor Things. I had the ending spoiled for me beforehand, which didn’t help, but the performances are all excellent and the mood of the whole thing is quite compelling.

54. Tron Ares

I’d heard it was awful so I skipped it until it was streaming on Disney+, and even then only gave it a shot because my podcasting co-host Mark recommended it. I’ve never been a massive Tron fan but I’ve always appreciated the boundary-pushing the franchise has achieved with regards to visual effects. In a cinematic era where it seems the highest heights have already been achieved, Tron Ares isn’t going above and beyond the likes of Avatar, but the fully conceived world on display here is still breath-taking. Plot-wise this is essentially a bunch of chases strung together around some standard tech rivalry stuff, but Greta Lee is great and Jared Leto continues to be a frustratingly good actor regardless of his real life creepiness.

53. Saturday Night

I’ve never seen a full episode of SNL, but I’ve watched a lot (and I mean A LOT) of it on Youtube. This was great, mixing lots of SNL legendary stories into the truth of the pre-opening night chaos. Nicholas Braun playing Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson has no reason to work but does perfectly. Apparently this was originally planned as a single-take film, which could’ve been excellent (even if they’d done some Birdman-esque seam-hiding on doors and whip-pans) but would’ve been a logistical nightmare given just how much is going on. I appreciate not everyone was aiming for exact imitations, settling more on approximating the energy, but Nicholas Podany absolutely nails a young Billy Crystal.

52. Drop

Fun, tight little thriller that doesn’t really outstay its welcome but, as is often the case with these kinds of films, does lose track a bit once it extends beyond the core premise/setting. Not a vast improvement on Christopher Landon’s other films, but I like that he’s having fun in his horror-adjacent niche.

51. Nonnas

About as good as this type of film can be. Extremely predictable, but comfortingly so, and with a stellar cast all bringing the goods. A warm, hearty, satisfying lasagne of a film.

50. Dead of Winter

Of all the Love, Actually cast members who could follow in their co-star Liam Neeson’s footsteps in the geri-actioner sub-genre, Emma Thompson would not have been my first guess. Surely it’d be Bill Nighy or Colin Firth, or the likes of Laura Linney, Martin Freeman, Andrew Lincoln or Chiwetel Ejiofor in a decade or so. Regardless, it’s Emma Thompson who plays Barb, setting out alone to spread her husband’s ashes on a frozen lake in northern Minnesota. She runs afoul of a kidnapping plot and does her best to stop it, whilst trying not to catch hypothermia or lose a hand to frostbite in the process. It’s not revelatory, but as these kinds of films go it’s very good, with a run-of-the-mill premise being elevated by Thompson’s sheer talent as an emotive actor, conveying real depth and gravitas with minimal dialogue. And if that’s not enough, this is probably the only film in which Emma Thompson receives a headbutt from Judy Greer, so it’s got to be worth watching for that alone.

49. F1

About as good as a film about needlessly, wastefully and incredibly dangerously driving in circles can be. I hate Formula One, only really watched this because of the Oscar nomination, but I was engaged throughout and it passed a train journey. Plus I’ll watch anything Kerry Condon is in, especially when she’s allowed to keep her accent. Script-wise this is the opposite of Top Gun: Maverick, in which the plot and intention is repeated ad nauseam, whereas here Pitt’s Sonny Hayes won’t tell anyone what he’s doing until it’s happening, if then. Maybe the film with the most discussion about tyres since Rubber. 

48. Relay

I sure did learn a lot about the foibles of the US Postal Service, and the text-to-speak communication system. Riz Ahmed plays a kind of fixer who communicates with his clients only via a system primarily used by those with hearing impairments, which adds a nice unique wrinkle to things. I didn’t love the overall ending, but the journey up to it was well orchestrated and genuinely interesting.

47. Eenie Meanie

A strong recommendation from Chris Hewitt on the Empire podcast (who I met at the Dangerous Animals press screening last year and sweatily recounted the hilarious anecdote of the time he once replied to one of his colleagues promoting their appearance on my podcast on Twitter) led me to watch this on Disney+, and I was not disappointed. Samara Weaving gets dragged back into her old morally questionable lifestyle by her screw-up ex-boyfriend (Karl Glusman) who just wont stop making the worst decisions possible and ruining the lives of everyone around him. He’s such a frustrating character that it almost derails the film with how much you hate him, but if you can get past just how much of a fuck-up he is then this is a real hidden gem, check it out.

46. Nuremberg

I’ve said it before, if Michael Shannon is in something, that’s a reason to watch it. Nuremberg is a pretty good depiction of the trial of Hermann Göring (played by a mostly seated Russell Crowe), focussing on the conversations between him and psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek). Shannon plays the judge presiding over the trial. Everything is well done, the cast all perform well, and it made my train journey pass a little quicker, but not a lot stands out in my memory.

45. The Gorge

A mash-up of so many different movie genres, I enjoyed the ride The Gorge took me on, and am annoyed it went straight to streaming; I can imagine this would’ve been a very entertaining cinema watch. It’s a little long, but the pace keeps it going and you need time for all the developments to occur. Equal parts predictable and utterly unpredictable, so that balances out nicely, I guess?

44. Novocaine

Jack Quaid continues to impress in this action comedy, as a mild-mannered guy who cant feel pain but gets embroiled in a fairly violent plot to save his new girlfriend when his bank gets robbed. They make the most of the premise, but this works mainly on the back of how eager and charming Quaid is. I like him far more than either of his parents.

43. Frankenstein

Another surprising best picture nominee, and another film that would definitely have been better seen on the big screen. I generally like Guillermo del Toro’s films quite a lot, and whilst there was a great deal to appreciate here, overall I was a little disappointed. As great as Jacob Elordi is as the creature, Oscar Isaac feels miscast and Mia Goth made no impact for me whatsoever. The cinematography, production design, costuming, make-up and practical effects were all outstanding, as to be expected from a del Toro feature at this point, but nothing stood out for me scene-wise other than that being a silly place to put a big hole.

42. One of Them Days

Fun. A classic two friends have a few hours to raise a bunch of money, and hilarity ensues, kind of comedy, this time starring Keke Palmer and SZA as the more straight-laced sensible one with an upcoming important job interview and her far more relaxed and chaotic flatmate, respectively. I enjoyed this a bunch, but my wife had to bail out early on due to the stress of trying to ascertain what the leads were saying because they just talk so darn fast.

41. The Lost Bus

Just a really solid, tense, thriller. Good characters, good mix of drama and action, this should be discussed more than it is.

40. The Fantastic 4: First Steps

I think this might be the first Fantastic Four film I’ve actually seen in its entirety, other than the two Incredibles movies, of course. I loved the retro-futuristic aesthetic, the overall world-building, and Ben Grimm’s rocky beard. Pedro Pascal might have hit capacity with me here as I didn’t gel too well with him, but everyone else is excellent. Ralph Ineson as Galactus was an inspired choice, really grounding what is a frankly ludicrous antagonist. More Natasha Lyonne would’ve been welcome, as always, and where’d Mark Gatiss come from?! Who knew he was going to have such a banner year?

39. The Toxic Avenger

I had a lot of fun with this at the time, but it hasn’t really stuck with me. I made some notes on my phone at the time regarding front-flipping henchmen and toilet fights, so they must have been noteworthy. I feel like if I watched it again I’d have another great time with it, but it wouldn’t stick with me again. Disposable fun, I guess. Basically, if you think you’d like a film called The Toxic Avenger, you’re probably right.

38. Mickey 17

The plot gets a bit too convoluted for its own good, but I like seeing the kind of film Bong Joon Ho makes when given a big budget and creative freedom. The creepers are adorable. Not sure what film Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo think they’re making, but no-one else was on the same page. I approve of the bonkers choices Robert Pattinson has been making in this tumultuous career so far. If you want me to enjoy a film, all you need to do is have Tim Key dress up as a pigeon.

37. Warfare

I’m certain this is exactly the film directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza set out to make, and as war films go its essentially flawless. I cant rank it any higher though because its just so tense, and I got completely lost regarding which character was which for much of the film.

36. Together

Look, even if you’re seemingly trapped in an underground cave and you’re really thirsty, don’t drink the clearly toxic underground stream. I’m not saying the events of Together will happen to you, but it’s pretty darn likely that something will happen and it wont be pleasant. Bowels will likely be evacuated at great speed and volume (both meanings). Alison Brie and Dave Franco have great chemistry for some reason, and this was surprisingly grisly. Franco plays the kind of frustrating screw-up that he does so well.

35. Sentimental Value

Just a really solid drama centring around the making of a familial drama film, dealing with the various issues within the family, namely that the Dad was a bit of a dick in the past. Very happy to see Stellan Skarsgard finally getting some recognition after his 1999 snub for playing Dr. Jim Whitlock. Guess I should finally get along and watch The Worst Person in the World then.

34. The Phoenician Scheme

Like a few of Wes Anderson’s recent works, this has a lot of great elements that have stuck with me, but as a whole it didn’t really hang together. I loved the three leads, particularly Michael Cera who seems a great fit for Anderson’s style. The basketball scene and climactic fight are both a lot of fun, and I’ll always love Richard Ayoade being cast in anything, particularly as a gun-toting revolutionary but retaining his thin, nasally delivery. I cared less for the heavenly trial aspect of the story, but I overall enjoyed the ride.

33. Heart Eyes

Went to see this because it’s directed by Josh Ruben more than anything else. I knew nothing other than it was some kind of horror film, so discovering it was equal parts romantic comedy and slasher delighted me to no end. A killer exclusively attacking couples on Valentine’s Day and preying on two strangers who are not yet a couple but become more and more so as the film goes on and they’re continually stuck together because of the killer is such a fun concept. Maybe a little too much time is spent on the romance side of things, but there’s enough excellent kills to more than make up for it, and I loved Josh’s little cameo too.

32. Predator: Killer of Killers

Ever since Prey I’ve been eager to see how the Yautcha would fare in other periods of history, but assumed we’d likely not see them. I hadn’t anticipated Dan Trachtenberg returning with an animated anthology showing just that, and I loved it. The Viking segment is probably my favourite, but all three of these short stories absolutely rocked.

31. Thunderbolts*

It’s been a little while since a Marvel move felt like a proper, actual film, but here we are. Tidying up some of the loose crumbs from some of the lesser MCU projects of the past decade, this throws a bunch of semi-familiar faces, all dealing with their own respective traumas in varying, but equally ineffective, ways together, plus a new character or two, and the resulting banter and action works very well. The elevator shaft climbing scene is a perfect example of a small scale action sequence that allows for plenty of quips and character development whilst also advancing the plot. I appreciate how everyone in the film seems to hate Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent just as much as everyone outside of the film too. I hate the asterisk and the silly re-titling, just let it be its own thing, at least for the duration of the film! Florence Pugh is excellent as ever, and I thought Lewis Pullman’s Bob would irritate me almost immediately, but I never felt that way throughout.

30. The Life of Chuck

I had no idea what this was going to be, and found it pretty delightful throughout. The opening segment makes for a pretty excellent short film in its own right. This might have had an effect on me because I’m essentially the same age as the protagonist (I’ll be 39 in August), but let’s not dwell on that.

29. Companion

I went in blind here too, yet had a pretty good idea of the premise just from the poster, which felt odd given it’s treated like a reveal at the end of the first act. That aside, I really enjoyed this, and was just waiting for the inevitable deployment of the automatic corkscrew.

28. Wake Up Dead Man

I’m still sitting on this one. I really enjoyed it, as I have with this whole trilogy so far, but not putting Benoit Blanc front and centre for most of the runtime just doesn’t feel right. I’ve got nothing against Josh O’Connor, but he doesn’t really do it for me – he still hasn’t escaped being young Prince Charles in my head – so whilst he’s fine here he’s playing too much of a straightforward character, when I’m here for Daniel Craig and his southern whimsy. Everything else – cast, story, direction, atmosphere – is excellent, I just need to watch it a dozen or so more times for it to sit properly amongst the other two.

27. KPop Demon Hunters

Believe the hype, it really is that much fun, even if you’re just watching it on your own at home, on a laptop. I had a blast, the fight scenes are incredible, and of course I loved the weird messenger cat guy. The songs don’t live in my head as much as they do for other people, but then again I haven’t been listening to them on repeat (I don’t think I’ve heard any of them since, but also all modern songs sound the same to me because I am a dinosaur). The boiling kettle noodle airplane fight is probably my favourite set piece.

26. The Monkey

Fun! I had a great time with this. Inventive, gory, and incredibly surprising kills are always a win with me, and centring it around the creepy monkey toy that, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t exist outside of Toy Story 3, is delightful. The bit with the swimming pool is easily amongst my cinematic highlights of the year.

25. Predator: Badlands

Definitely one of the better Predator films. I like how this franchise doesn’t settle for doing the same thing again and again, even if the results are inconsistent. This one is great though, taking things from the perspective of a young Yautja stranded on an unfamiliar planet, with only half a robot to help him. Lots of great action and effects, a compelling story, just a lot of fun!

24. Nosferatu

Robert Eggers’ presents fun with shadows. A little too long, and didn’t really sell me on why we needed yet another retelling of the same old story, but I was captivated throughout. Good performances all round – I don’t understand how Nicholas Hoult hasn’t broken into A-list territory yet – with Willem Dafoe and Aaron Taylor-Johnson having the most fun respectively jumping around setting fire to everything and yelling about being a shipman. Simon McBurney makes an excellent pigeon-eating snivelling wretch. I worry for anyone who met Bill Skarsgard during the making of the film. Basing Nosferatu’s look on Peter Stormare feels mean.

23. Presence

A unique idea – a haunted house story told from the perspective of the ghost doing the haunting – that plays out like a solid drama rather than a gimmicky horror. Well drawn family dynamic and excellent camerawork throughout, Soderbergh had a heck of a 2025.

22. Sew Torn

This film should be discovered by more people, it’s excellent. Equal parts No Country For Old Men and Run Lola Run, but with a bunch of sewing-related contraptions along the way, I had a great time, and it’s only 95 minutes long. Alternative titles that should’ve been considered: Sew Barbara Sew, Sew Country For Old Hem, etc.

21. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Easily the film on this list I’ve seen the most times, because as soon as a Mission: Impossible film hits Sky Cinema they show it every fricking day, and they are pretty safe landing spots for when you just want to chuck something on whilst eating dinner. It’s a slight step down from Dead Reckoning (a film I seem to love way more than anyone else, how can you not love the film that introduced Haley Atwell to the franchise?), and it feels like it’s maybe around 40% flashbacks that I personally didn’t need, but dammit if I can’t help but love these films. The spectacle, the cast, the audacity to have both Holt McCallany and Nick Offerman playing gruff American advisors in the same scene in a competition over who can have the squarest head! Yes it’s way too long to only really have two big action set pieces, yes the Shea Whigham revelation is nonsense, yes Hannah Waddingham is in the most thankless role ever, but also there’s a submarine captained by Trammel Tillman, and it’s delightful, and I love it. I’m still surprised they didn’t play with the notion that, once Ethan gets into the pod, everything in the film after that point could be entirely in his head.

20. The Long Walk

I read and loved the book last year and had high hopes for this adaptation, despite it being directed by Francis Lawrence, and those hopes were more than met. It’s excellent, exceptionally well cast with a crop of young, mostly lesser known actors. Crucially it doesn’t outstay its welcome and become repetitive, which the premise could easily have led to. David Jonsson especially continues to impress.

19. Sorry, Baby

I appreciated this far more than I thought I would’ve done, given the subject matter and that it’s predominantly a drama. I’ll definitely be looking out for what Eva Victor does next. The John Carroll Lynch scene made this for me.

18. Sisu: Road to Revenge

Another live action cartoon, if you liked the first Sisu then you’ll probably like Sisu 2 too. Much earlier in this list I had a problem with the likes of Nobody 2 and Megan 2.0 being kinda retreads of their first films, which this kind of is too, but this is way higher on the list because it’s so much damn fun. This time around our hero is just trying to transport all the logs from his cabin to a new location, much to the chagrin of a bunch of Nazis. Log-based violence and shenanigans ensue, as well as gritty, tense train fights, truck explosions and raft-building. It doesn’t quite hit the surprising heights of the first film, but I still loved it.

17. Superman

Superman has never really been a superhero I’ve been all that fond of, and I’ve found his films often not all that exciting or fun. Turns out all they’ve been missing is having James Gunn at the helm, bringing all him comedy and silliness to what has always had the potential to be a very silly character. I loved Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan is always great), all the Fortress of Solitude robots, the Justice Gang, Krypto, everything. I liked all the central cast, especially Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, but I did find him yelling out the various codes for fighting moves to be an odd choice. Regardless, I’m looking forward to any more movies Gunn is in charge of, forever.

16. Jurassic World Rebirth

These films always get a bit of a pass for me, but even still I thought this was great. It’s a little disappointing that the premise set up at the end of Fallen Kingdom, that there are now wild dinosaurs roaming the world, has never really come to fruition and Rebirth quietly shuts it down completely, and the insistence on making the final boss creatures as being genetic mutations has grown thin. However, all the other stuff is so good that I forgive the other flaws. A team of mercenaries, led by Scarlett Johansson, are accompanied by Rupert Friend’s seedy businessman and Jonathan Bailey’s palaeontologist to visit Isla Sorna and extract blood samples from the three largest species of each class, for highly profitable medical yahda yahda yahda. Also, there’s a family at sea, headed up by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and they get caught up in it all too. The main dinosaur set pieces are the highlights, be it the Mosasaur hunt with its Spinosaurus hench-dinos, the romantic encounter with the Titanosaurus, the cliffside Quetzalcoatlus defending her young, or the T-Rex raft chase (easily my favourite), but I also enjoyed the character moments. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the initially most annoying character commited to film, David Iacono’s Xavier, became a fully rounded guy I found hard to dislike the more we got to know him, helped immeasurably by how much he knows he’s an awful person. Oh, and I didn’t particularly care for the merchandise fodder that is Dolores the Aquilops, but yes I do own the Lego set. I’m sure they’ll make more of these films, but I don’t know if we’ll see any of these characters again. Whatever, as long as there’s dinosaurs.

15. Nickel Boys

Proving Peep Show‘s cinematography style can also work for a hard-hitting drama. Original blend of storytelling techniques, an interesting and often over-looked subject matter and excellent performances add up to an important and essential piece of film-making. My attention waned a little in the middle, possibly due to watching it at home on a laptop with plenty of distractions, whereas this deserves a locked-in viewing experience. Amongst the best picture nominees from 2024 I put this below only Conclave and The Substance.

14. Dangerous Animals

One of the highlights of my year was attending my first press screening, courtesy of Blueprint: Review. I scheduled my whole week around it including taking a day and a half off work (the screening was in London, late on a Thursday), won a t-shirt during the opening shark movie quiz portion of the event, and even got to meet Empire magazine’s Chris Hewitt, who was introducing the film. I had an hour or so to kill between the film ending and my scheduled train, so I stood around awkwardly whilst all the influencers and more sociable people talked to each other and did promotions for the film, which was not great, but I’m used to hugging the wall when in public. Aside from all that, I loved the film. Jai Courtney excels at this kind of off kilter weirdo performance, and Hassie Harrison is excellent in the lead. There’s a reasonable romantic story and good amount of comedy too. I could’ve done with a little more shark stuff, as is the case with literally every movie, but I still loved it!
Listen to our podcasts episodes, spoiler free: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/bonus-episode-dangerous-animals-2025-mini-episode–66402100 and spoiler-full: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-234-dangerous-animals-2025–66600925 and read my full review here: https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2025/06/dangerous-animals/

13. Hot Spring Shark Attack

Sometimes there’s a film. A film so ridiculously, joyously gonzo, that despite the nonsense narrative, dodgy effects and utter inanity of the premise, you just cant help but get swept up in how fun it is. Hot Spring Shark Attack was, of course, covered for the podcast, during which I declared it was my new favourite film, and we should redirect the podcast to break it down scene by scene, if not minute by minute. Alas we have not done that (yet), but if you’ve ever even slightly enjoyed anything released by the Asylum or the Syfy channel, then you owe it to yourself to give Hot Spring Shark Attack a go. It starts with a hotel being inundated with sharks taking out hot tub influencers by squeezing down pipes due to their squishy bodies, but the directions it takes from there are nothing short of glorious.
Listen to our podcast episode here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-246-hot-spring-shark-attack-2024–67585257

12. It Was Just an Accident

Excellent. A surprisingly humorous story of a guy kidnapping someone who might have been his torturer some years before, leading him to recruit some other fellow torture victims to try and determine if they’ve caught the right guy, and what to do with him if they have. Having two of the team be dressed for their own impending wedding is perfection. Hits hard when it needs to, kept me guessing throughout, and a perfect ending. Definitely worth your time.

11. Marty Supreme

I’m glad I made the effort to get to this in the cinema some 6 weeks after it was released, I think I might be on the Chalamet bandwagon now – well, sometimes at least. I still don’t really care for him in Dune or Call Me By Your Name, but in this, and Wonka of course, he’s just so compelling. This wasn’t quite as tense and stomach ulcer-inducing as Uncut Gems, but watching gifted table tennis player but unadulteratedly selfish dirtbag Marty Mauser run around a self-built labyrinth of his own perpetual fuck-ups, endlessly screwing over himself and everyone around him (but mainly himself) chasing a fruitless dream was such a ride! Definitely not for everyone, but I had a blast, and I love the eclectic casts Josh Safdie pulls together from all walks of life, and the distinct characterful faces filling out many of the supporting roles.

10. One Battle After Another

It definitely deserves at least a second watch, after which it could very well advance further up this list, but I really loved One Battle After Another. I had no idea what it was going to be going in, and enjoyed the ride throughout. The climactic car chase was especially exceptional and worth the price of admission alone. DiCaprio is the best he’s been in years (I’d much rather he received an Oscar for this than trudging around in the snow for a few months), Benicio del Toro is, as always, delightful, and as much as I usually dislike Sean Penn on and off screen, I cannot deny how well used he is here. Hell, the whole cast is awesome, with the likes of Tejana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, neither of whom I’ve come across before, both putting in stellar work. It’s funny, it’s moving, it’s exciting. I’m not mad it won Best Picture, though it does feel like a less than exciting choice.

9. Avatar: Fire and Ash

I’ve got no shame in admitting to being fully Avatar-pilled at this point. I love these movies. They’re technical marvels, but beyond that I find the stories, the worlds, the immersion, the environments, the characters, all to be so compelling, and on such a staggering scale. It’s the same with the Jurassic franchise, I can look past the flaws and just enjoy everything else, but here if anything there’s far fewer flaws to ignore. Sure, story-wise things aren’t progressed a great deal beyond where we left everyone at the end of The Way of Water, mainly because Fire and Ash was conceived to be the second half of that film, but a 7-hour opus was deemed unfeasible for audiences to sit through (this much I agree with), but that’s about it. There’s a sequence in this film where one character is being held captive, and three different characters all set out on their own to save him, separately, and end up helping and hindering each others’ plans, to my utter entertainment. There’s another big super-whale fight, but even more violent. There’s a weird vortex going up into the sky that’s only kind of explained but ends up being really important. I love this stuff. I will watch it all forever. More please.

8. Flow

The highest “technically a 2024 release” film on this list, Flow is just beautiful. It thoroughly deserved the Animation Oscar last year. The dialogue free adventure of a cat trying to survive a flood and becoming part of an eclectic herd is wonderful, despite the heavy bias against dogs. The various animal personalities come across very well without having to Disney-fy them with overly emotive expressions and voices, and the score, which I’m listening to right now, is wonderful too.

7. Weapons

Definitely in the “need to rewatch it” club, I loved Weapons. I’m not sure where it sits in comparison to Barbarian, which I also loved, but I appreciate the non-linear narrative structure, piecing the mystery together from the disparate elements, and of course all the performances. Amy Madigan is the standout, sure, but Benedict Wong is not getting enough love for everything he has to go through. The only part I get stuck on is the floating gun, which just feels far too on the nose thematically. Then again, regardless of how obvious that theme is, it still seems to have been ignored by the many, many people that need to hear it the most.

6. Final Destination Bloodlines

This has always been my favourite horror franchise, but I was a little wary of a new instalment. I should not have been, as this rocked and might be the best in the whole franchise. The story works, the characters are believable and somehow not incredibly irritating, it looks fantastic and, crucially, the death sequences are spectacular. The backyard barbecue, the tattoo parlour, the hospital, these are some phenomenal scenes, some featuring moments I didn’t see coming, and using a lot of practical effects to boot. Tony Todd also gets the kind of send off every actor surely hopes for.
Listen to me talk about it on the Lambcast here: https://largeassmovieblogs.com/2025/05/lambcast-771-final-destination-bloodlines.html

5. Black Bag

A proper adult talky drama, with plenty of sexy tension and flirty intrigue, and a whole slew of spiky, combative scenes between excellent actors sharing the wealth of a great screenplay between them. There’s a mole somewhere in the National Cyber Security Centre, Michael Fassbender has been given a short list of potential suspects, one of whom is his wife Cate Blanchett, so he invites them all round for dinner, spikes the food, and hilarity ensues. Not enough people have watched this, it should definitely have been in the conversation for a handful of awards at the Oscars, and basically I’m insisting that everyone go watch it immediately.

4. 28 Years Later

I didn’t know how much I needed this franchise to return! At time of writing, The Bone Temple is currently my number one film of 2026 (although I’ve only seen eight new releases at this point), and that’s in part due to the foundations laid in 28 Years Later. I love a good causeway, and this uses one very well. The development of the world since the earlier franchise instalments makes sense and is well depicted, the acting from Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes and newbie Alfie Williams is all on point, and Aaron Taylor Johnson is really proving himself as a solid supporting character actor. I’m generally a fan of zombie and zombie-adjacent stories, and this is a particularly great one.

3. Train Dreams

I currently spend about 10+ hours a week across two long train journeys, one of which takes me away from my wife, dogs and home to spend four days working, before the other train brings me back to them. I appreciate many people undertake such a lifestyle, and many are separated from their loved ones for significantly longer than four days at a time. To these people I would suggest not watching Train Dreams, and especially not watching it on a train like I did. To everyone else I say watch this now. It’s a beautiful film, very moving, and I’m disappointed it didn’t do well in the awards season. 

2. Sinners

A real achievement. Effortlessly blending historical drama with horror, action, romance, comedy and, most surprisingly of all, a heck of a lot of music, this is a beautiful film that will remain in the conversation for years, if not decades, to come. It’s practically flawless, and I’m thrilled that the score, cinematography, and Michael B. Jordan were all deservedly award-winning at the Oscars, but I think this should’ve picked up a few more too (nothing against Paul Thomas Anderson, he should’ve won back in 1999).

1. The Ballad of Wallis Island

A simple, quaint little comedy drama that gives Tim Key a real chance to shine in a role literally tailor made for him, because he co-wrote it himself. Key plays Charles, a wealthy recluse living on a barely inhabited island, who invites his late wife’s favourite disbanded folk duo to reunite and play a private gig. That’s about as much setup as you need, but what follows is a delightful unfolding of events that is frequently hilarious, but more often touching.
Read my full review here: https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2025/12/the-ballad-of-wallis-island/

What were your favourite films from 2025? What films have I missed? The likes of No Other Choice, Hamnet and The Secret Agent are all on my 2026 list due to their UK release dates, but if there’s anything else you can recommend, I’m all ears! I’m already intending to watch the following:
Bears on a Ship
I Swear
Oh, Hi!
Row
Primitive War
Roofman
The Wedding Banquet
D(e)AD
Chainsaw Man – The Movie