Movie Preview: February 2025

Preview of 2025 completed. Favorite movies of 2024 revealed. Now it’s time to dive right into February to see the prognosis on what the second month of the year has to offer! As talked about in my January preview, the first month of the year was a trifecta of holiday holdovers, awards season expansions, and new January releases that are often dumped onto the calendar and ignored. The fact that “Mufasa” was either No. 1 or fighting for No. 1 in four of the five January weekends should tell you about how all of that went. Most of the new January releases didn’t do much. Our first breakout hit of the year was “Dog Man,” which opened on the final day of January to $36 million. As a reminder, even though two of those three days of that weekend were in February, I include the weekend in the month where it started, which is why we begin this post now instead of last week at this time. Anyways, February has our first Marvel movie of the year, which should give the month and the year a nice kick of adrenaline. Teaming up with the Captain are a plethora of smaller to medium-sized films that look to please audiences while crossing their fingers in hopes that they get a few dollars themselves.

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. The movies listed are the ones currently scheduled for a wide release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

February 7 – 9

Universal's "Love Hurts" 

As mentioned in the intro, the final weekend of January saw “Dog Man” open to $36 million, which was an almost identical opening as the most recent DreamWorks movie, “The Wild Robot,” which opened to $35.8 million back in the end of September. “The Wild Robot” dropped 47 percent in its second weekend. If “Dog Man” follows suit, that would put it right around $19.1 million for weekend No. 2, which should give it plenty of clearance to take a second straight weekend at No. 1. The biggest competition is… the Super Bowl. Not a theatrical event, obviously, but it needs to be noted because Super Bowl weekend has never been a great one for the box office, as movies that do come out only have two days instead of three, unless you can successfully counter-program. Even then, very few new movies have opened higher than $20 million. Seven, to be exact. And the highest of them all was the Hanna Montana and Miley Cyrus concert movie way back in 2008, which opened to $31.1 million. In which case, “Dog Man” is poised to counter-program the best, with it being a movie directed at kids. Two new movies will attempt to open against the Super Bowl this weekend, but one is an action and the other is a horror movie, so prognostication is not the best. But lets check them out, anyways!

Theoretically tracking slightly ahead in regards to the two new releases is the Valentine’s action movie Love Hurts. This movie stars Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan, who has now arrived at the point in his career where he gets to headline his own action movie after beginning his career as the kid Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” And he’s teaming up with Oscar-winning actress Ariana DeBose, who, having won her Oscar the year before, was the one on Oscar night to announce Key Huy Quan as the winner for supporting actor. Anyways, I haven’t quite been able to discern what their relationship in the movie is from the trailers or description, but they’re teaming to stop his brother, a crime lord who is out for revenge. And yes, this is another action movie where a middle-aged man has attempted to put his past life behind him, only to get dragged back into that life when others try to hunt him down. I’ll let you figure out what other action movies are like that. Box Office Pro has this pegged to open in the $8-12 million. My gut tells me that could be a tad bit optimistic, but I’m not a professional at this. Maybe a Valentine’s action film should’ve opened on Valentine’s weekend instead of Super Bowl. But that weekend has a giant Marvel movie opening, so it’s a bit of a lose/lose here. Reviews have not been released as of me typing this, so that’s also a little bit of a red flag, but we’ll see if it can overcome the hurdles that are presented here.

The horror movie that’s getting released on this weekend is also Valentine’s themed and that is Heart Eyes, which is a movie that seems to be combining rom-com with slasher flick as the “Heart Eyes Killer” is out wreaking havoc and stalking couples on Valentine’s Day. This gives the holiday its very own slasher horror villain alongside the likes of Halloween and Thanksgiving, amongst a few others. This movie is directed by Josh Ruben, director of the 2021 horror comedy “Werewolves Within,” and is written by Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy. Landon is the writer/director of “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky,” while Kennedy teamed up with Landon to help write “Freaky,” while also writing “It’s a Wonderful Knife.” Landon has his own movie “Drop” coming in April, so he’s been busy. But together as a team, they’ve all conjured up a Valentine’s Day horror film that has seem to have gone over quite well with those who have seen in. Reviews are out and it’s hovering around 90 percent. Copy and paste the same obstacles “Love Hurts” has with the Super Bowl this week and Captain America next week, while adding the fact that “Heart Eyes” has to deal with competition from “Companion” last week, which didn’t open high, but got excellent reviews, as well as “The Monkey,” which releases on February 21 and also has great early reviews. So it’s an excellent month for horror fans, but this might be a case of horror fans having to catch up on the movie over the course of the year if things are a bit too busy for it to break out in this particular moment.

February 14 – 17

Marvel's "Captain America: Brave New World"

It’s a double holiday weekend as Valentine’s Day lands on a Friday this year, with Presidents’ Day being the following Monday. That often leads to a very productive four-day holiday weekend when things align like that. And it’s Marvel that has laid claim on the weekend as they release the big blockbuster of the month, Captain America: Brave New World. This is the first of three MCU films being released this year, with “Thunderbolts*” in May and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in July being the other two. And the subtitle of this particular movie is coincidentally a bit like Marvel’s story at the moment. In past years following the success of “The Avengers,” the spent a good portion of the decade being invincible. And now we’ve entered a phase where public perception isn’t quite what it once was, as hating on the MCU is the cool thing to do right now. So instead of being this invincible force that can do no wrong, Marvel now has to try to win audiences back over. And after mostly taking 2024 off due to the strikes in 2023 impacting the production of several of their movies, leaving “Deadpool & Wolverine” as their lone 2024 release, Sam Wilson is the one who gets to lead the charge in 2025. As you’ll of course recall, he took the shield and the mantle of Captain America from Steve Rodgers at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.” Then in 2021 we had the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” tell his story of him officially accepting that role. With that transition out of the way, he now gets his own movie as he has Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk and Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder to deal with.

Will he successfully lead his own movie to box office success and win over audiences? That’s the unknown territory here that we’re all here to find out. Box Office Pro’s most recent tracking has it pegged in the $80-95 million range for the 3-day weekend, with $90-105 million for the 4-day weekend. In looking at the previous three Captain America movies, “The First Avenger” opened to $65.1 million in 2011, while “The Winter Soldier” opened to $95.0 million three years later in 2014. “Civil War” is not a good comparison at all due to it being a quasi-Avengers movie and performing like one, but if you use the tool provided by the-numbers.com and adjust for ticket price inflation, those first two movies adjust to $88.4 million and $125.4 million for their openings, respectively. Now despite criticism being heavy from audiences, Marvel actually had a six-movie streak of $100+ million openers, from “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in December 2021 to “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” in May 2023, before the world collapsed on “The Marvels” in late 2023. But “Deadpool & Wolverine” recovered quite nicely last year with a $211.4 million opening. So people complain… but they still go. All things considered, Box Office Pro’s range is probably a fair number, which would put it in the company of several other solo MCU adventures. Reviews and audience reaction will be especially key here, while the 4-day holiday weekend has to be taken into consideration. The 3-day total might be a tad bit lower as the opening is stretched over the four days. And not many MCU movies have opened over a 4-day holiday weekend, so there’s not a ton of comparison there.

Captain America does have competition this holiday weekend as we finally have the U.S. release of Paddington in Peru. As was the case with both previous Paddington movies, this third movie also opened in its home country of the U.K. back at the end of last year before finally arriving over here in America. It’s already earned $44.9 million over there and $93.2 million total worldwide, so perhaps its U.S. release is less important, but nevertheless the Paddington movies have received quite the prestige, especially “Paddington 2,” which was at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes for quite the long time. At one point it held the record for most reviews counted for a movie that was 100 percent before a couple of Grinches knocked it down to 99 percent… several years after the fact. The spurned a silly conversation of comparing to “Citizen Kane” as the best reviewed movie ever. That shows a lack of understanding as to how Rotten Tomatoes works. Not many critics are actually calling it the best movie ever. But the short version of what that high score means is that it’s a movie that’s hard to hate. Which seems to hold true for “Paddington in Peru” so far. It hasn’t had rave reviews in comparison, but it still stands at a 93 percent with 70 reviews counted as of me typing this post. The slight concern is that the director of the first two didn’t return for this one, but so far it seems new director Dougal Wilson took enough notes from Paul King to make this work from audiences. All that said, these movies don’t necessarily open super high in America. “Paddington” opened to $18.9 million here in 2015, while “Paddington 2” only opened to $11.0 million. So somewhere in the $15-20 million range is more or less what’s expected. As the title explains, Paddington bear is off to Peru in this movie to search for his Aunt Lucy, who he learns has gone missing.

February 21 – 23

NEON's "The Monkey"

Regardless of how Captain America does in its opening weekend, barring a monumental disaster, it is almost certain to take a second weekend at No. 1. But looking for a strong second place debut is the horror movie The Monkey. This comes from director Osgood Perkins, son of “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins, fresh off his breakout success with last year’s “Longlegs,” which was a serial killer horror film where the FBI was trying to hunt down a Satanic serial killer played by Nicolas Cage. Although in the same genre, “The Monkey” is a much different type of horror film as its basically a slasher horror about a toy monkey going around killing people. The movie is based on a short story written by Stephen King back in 1980 and also has James Wan on as producer. So the combination of Osgood Perkins, Stephen King, and James Wan certainly makes this a horror film that has breakout potential. Last year “Longlegs” opened with an impressive $22.4 million and held well to make $74.3 million domestically. Those are numbers that aren’t out of the realm of possibility here, especially since early reaction has been strong so far as it’s earned an 88 percent from its first 26 reviews counted. Box Office Pro pegged it in the broad range of $15-25 million, which is not particularly helpful, but it seems like it’s possible that it hits the top end of that spectrum, finishing off what should be a fun month for horror fans.

The other movie coming out this weekend is one that might seem vaguely familiar and that’s because The Unbreakable Boy was initially scheduled to come in March 2022. Filming took place in late 2020 and the movie was ready for its 2022 release date, but was pulled from the schedule eight days before its release by Lionsgate without much of any explanation. It spent two years sitting on a shelf being updated before it finally got its current release date around this time last year. So now more than four years after initially being shot, the movie is finally ready to hit theaters. The movie is written and directed by Jon Gunn and is about a boy on the autism spectrum who also has brittle bone disease. Zachary Levi plays the boy’s father Scott and the movie is more or less told from the father’s vantage point as he initially struggles with his son’s condition only to learn later what it means to be truly unbreakable, finding joy and gratitude in the most trying times. The movie is based on a true story and is adapted from the book that was written by the kid’s father. Director Jon Gunn latest movie, “Ordinary Angels,” was released last year in February and opened to $6.2 million. He also directed “Do You Believe?” and “The Case for Christ,” which opened to $3.6 million and $3.9 million, respectively, in 2015 and 2017. So a similar opening in the realm of $5-10 million is the expectation here.

February 28 – March 2

Focus Features' "Last Breath"

The final weekend of February, which includes the first two days of March, is looking like a bit of a quiet one, which should lead the way for a Captain America three-peat. There were initially three smaller releases scheduled for this final weekend, but literally in the middle of me typing this, the new Looney Tunes movie got pushed back a few weeks to March 14, so we’ll talk about the Looney Tunes next month. That’s why I always note that these release dates are subject to change. But that leaves us with the movie Last Breath as the first of just two movies to talk about here. This movie is a dramatized version of the 2019 documentary of the same name that tells the story of a diving accident back in 2012 where diver Chris Lemons and his two colleagues were carrying out repairs 300 feet below the surface of the North American Sea when their diving equipment failed. Lemons was dragged and trapped with only five minutes left of breathable gas in is tank. The documentary is currently available to be watched on Netflix, although when I searched it I learned that Netflix claims it’s leaving on February 14, so you have about a week to watch it before it leaves prior to the movie’s release. The documentary was directed by Richard da Costa and Alex Parkinson, and also written by Alex Parkinson. The movie stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole. It also has Alex Parkinson back as the writer and director of this dramatized version, which is slightly unique, but not completely unheard of, to adapt your own documentary into a dramatized film.

The final movie of the weekend and the month, as I quickly refresh to see if there are any more release schedule changes since I started typing, is the anime film Mobile Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-. I’m pretty sure I got the correct amount of u’s on that. I’m not sure how you’d pronounce that, which makes me glad I’m only typing this. It is apparently being billed as the sixteenth installment of the Gundam franchise. Although I’m not quite sure where they get that number because I click on the Gundam Wikipedia page and it says it’s a franchise that began in 1979 and has spawned 50 TV series, films, and OVAs, as well as manga, novels, and video games. So regardless of the number, this franchise is huge. And popular. “Mobile Gundam GQuuuuuuX” is an upcoming anime series, while “Mobile Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-” appears to be a theatrical cut of several of the episodes. Doing this type of thing for anime series has been fairly popular and trendy as of late, either releasing the first few episodes of an upcoming series as a movie, editing a season of a show into a movie, or some other variation of this. The most recent was “Solo Leveling -ReAwakening-,” which opened to $2.5 million from 846 theaters, while in October “My Hero Academia the Movie: You’re Next” opened to $3.0 million from 1,845 theaters. “Mobile Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-” is being being distributed by GKIDS and will likely open somewhere around those numbers, depending on what the final theater count ends up being.

 

DrogeMiester's Top 10 Movies of 2024

The year 2024 has finally come to an end and now it’s time for my annual dive into my top 10 favorite movies of the year. Well, actually, that year ended a month ago. Some people like doing this list the second the year ends. Others like doing it in December before everything even comes out. I like to give myself a few extra weeks to catch up on things and then release this list around this time of year. Plus there’s always movies that don’t expand until Oscar nominations come out that I like to see before putting my list out. And this year California was on fire, so they extended the deadline for Oscar voting, thus delaying the announcement. Sometimes real life happens and you adjust.

This was also the second straight year in 2024 where I logged everything I watched on Letterboxd. I haven’t done reviews over there because I only have 19 followers, so I use it as more of a diary. But it’s been an excellent film diary and fun to look back on. You can also create all sorts of lists on Letterboxd, so I’ve done plenty of those. The point of bringing that up is that I also keep an ongoing list of my favorite movies of the year. In years past, I would keep track of what I watched in an Excel file. I’d have a general idea of what my top movies were, but I didn’t actually sit down and create the official list until around this time. Now I update the list every time I watch something new. Thus all I had to do when it came time for this blog post was to fine tune things and trim it down to my top 25. And I actually considered for a bit simply sharing that Letterboxd list instead of doing this post, but I decided that I enjoy doing one final write up. So here we are.

As such, I was a lot less concerned about catching every last movie before making this post because I can just update the Letterboxd list if changes happen. Generally speaking, I do a pretty good job of keeping my finger on the pulse and prioritizing movies that I know I will like most. So I don’t imagine there will be many drastic changes moving forward, but this post here will be etched in stone as a reflection of what I thought of 2024 as of early February 2025. And if changes happen, that will reflect on the list over on Letterboxd. And if there’s drastic enough changes, I’ll re-share that list on social media. And I’ll post a link that that in the comments here. And yes, that is 25 movies deep instead of just 10, so check that out to see the honorable mentions. And you can add yourself to my list of 19 Letterboxd followers if you want. Anyways, as always, 2024 was a fun year for movies. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever come to the end of the year and thought the year was bad. Different years just have different strengths and weaknesses. Different personalities, if you will. If you watch as many movies as I do, you’ll find that there’s always plenty of good, just in different ways. And in 2024, the story was horror. One of the better years for horror that I can remember. That’s mostly reflective in my top 25 as a whole, but you’ll notice several entries in here that really rose to the top. I could’ve made a list of my top 10 horror films of the year and still had good horror movies that I had to leave off. And that’s impressive. But anyways, enough talking, here’s the top 10!

10- Flow

Kitty cat go “Meow!” Dog go “Woof!” Bird go “Chirp!” Not sure what the best written noise for a lemur or capybara is. But waters go “Woosh!” Kitty go “MEOW!!!” Kitty cat in danger. Kitty cat make friends. Kitty cat is safe. Ok, I’ll stop. But this is a foreign animated film without dialogue. Just the animals and the noises they make. It’s simple and cute enough that anyone who likes animals, old or young, can watch this film and enjoy it. But it’s profound enough that an expert film connoisseur can sit down and spend hours analyzing all of its themes and messages. And it’s the perfect movie for a teacher of a film class to use when the lesson is on animation. Make the class watch it and have every student write their five-page paper on it. It’s really quite the work of art. It was playing in exactly ONE theater in Utah last month and for my birthday I hunted it down and took my mom with me to see it and we both loved it. I’m rather proud of myself that I successfully found it, but as such this is a movie you might not have had the opportunity to see. So when it becomes available, find it and watch it. Especially if you’re like me and you love cats.

9- A Real Pain

My first of two really grumpy moments when Oscar nominations were announced and this movie was NOT in the best picture lineup when it was predicted to be in. It got a screenplay nod and a supporting actor nomination for Kieran Culkin, which is great. But it most certainly deserved more. I had heard the buzz about this since it came out at Sundance in January 2024. And sometimes that can be dangerous when it takes you too long to finally get around to a hyped up film. There’s a good chance of it feeling over-hyped. But this one caught me off guard in a good way. It’s written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg and stars him and Kieran Culkin as two cousins going on a trip to Europe to pay homage to their Jewish heritage. You wouldn’t think a movie that simple could be that powerful. I certainly didn’t, anyways. I expected it to be good, but perhaps mainly as an acting showcase. And no, this doesn’t have many big, grand, beat-you-over-the-head emotional moments. But for me it was very subtle and very impactful, showcases two cousins who both really cared about their heritage, but lived different lives and had different ways of showing it. And yeah, Kieran Culkin is a superstar. You knew that if you watched “Succession,” but this reaffirms that. I don’t know if he’ll ever be more popular than his older brother Macaulay, but in terms of acting, awards, and prestige, I think Kieran is the new king of the Culkin family.

8- Strange Darling

On the surface this is your typical crime thriller. A well-executed, extremely entertaining crime thriller. But a typical one. And I’m all here for that, familiar or not. However, this movie is narratively split into six chapters. And the chapters are presented to you… out of order. Again, non-linear story telling is nothing new. Just ask Christopher Nolan or Quentin Tarantino. One might call it a “gimmick” if used unnecessarily. But this movie told out of order takes you on quite the journey. It’s one of those movies that’s best experienced without knowing much of anything, which is why I’m trying my best to dance around things very carefully. But by starting in the middle of the story and bouncing around, then going back to fill in the gaps, your expectations get completely flipped on their head halfway through. It’s one of those movies where my jaw dropped and hit the floor. Like… WHAT?!?!? Some absolutely brilliant storytelling. And if I had a say in the Oscars, Willa Fitzgerald would be getting a best actress nomination. Because she is absolutely insane in this movie as “The Lady.” And even though Oscar didn’t notice her with this being the wrong genre for them, I hope others in the film industry have taken note because this girl deserves a long and successful career.

7- Sing Sing

The other moment of Oscar nomination morning that made me real mad is when this movie also didn’t get into the best picture race. Both this and “A Real Pain” were projected to get in and both missed. Because of that, we ended up with ZERO movies in the best picture lineup in my personal top 10 this time around. I know it was a weaker year for the awards race, but we were supposed to at least have two. Oh well. I guess that’s a spoiler alert for what’s not coming up in the next six choices. Anyways, even though A24 totally botched this movie’s release schedule and awards campaign, it’s one I’d highly recommend hunting down and watching. It’s about a group of people in prison whose lives get turned around by an in-prison theater program where they get the chance to act, prepare, and put on a show. A powerful message that sometimes giving people a purpose in life can make a huge difference in turning their lives around. And even though this movie is technically a work of fiction, most of the cast are people playing themselves. Or versions of themselves. People who actually went through this program and successfully made it out and turned their lives around, who now get the chance to tell their story in a unique way. And to me that element of it was what really put it over the edge.

6- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

One of the more baffling stories of 2024 was how “Furiosa” simply did not connect with general audiences. Critics loved it. And most people who did go see it generally loved it as well. But that’s the thing. Most people weren’t interested. And now that the year has come and gone, it’s one that’s easy to forget that it came out. It just didn’t have the same cultural impact as its predecessor. And to me that’s really sad because “Mad Max: Fury Road,” when the dust settled several years later, is the movie that’s become my favorite of 2015. Seeing George Miller back with his next entry in the franchise had me stoked. It had Anya Taylor-Joy playing a younger Furiosa, and that was great news because I love Anya. And we also had Chris Hemsworth joining the party, looking like he was having the absolute time of his life. And yeah, it wound up being a very different movie than “Fury Road,” but to me it was the perfect compliment. You didn’t get as many crazy, action-packed sequences. And the second you thought you were about to get one, it kinda drifted. And if you were disappointed because of that, I understand. But to me this wound up as a character piece and it was a rather effective one at that. We got to learn more about Furiosa that makes her role and story in “Fury Road” feel that much more impactful. And when you watch these two movies back to back, the existence of “Furiosa” makes “Fury Road” an even better movie. It’s rare to get a good prequel these days. It’s even more rare to get a prequel that does it’s job so well that it makes the original an even better. I’m sure one exists, but I honestly can’t think of a better example of this than “Furiosa” right now.

5- Late Night with the Devil

As mentioned in my intro, 2024 was an excellent year for horror. And although some of the entries in my top 10 could be categorized more as thriller than horror, there is definitely no debate on this one. It’s 100 percent horror. And one of the most creative and unique horror films to come out as well. In an era where it’s really easy to make a few quick bucks off of a generic jump-scare fest, it was great to see that there’s still plenty of creativity in the horror realm. Funny enough, at its core, “Late Night with the Devil” is a demonic possession movie. And we’ve seen too many of those to count. But like with “Strange Darling,” it’s how they presented it and framed it that made it unique. The setting was that of a fictional late night talk show. And the framing device was pseudo found footage. I say “pseudo” because they don’t fully commit to the gig and it’s not really found footage. But the idea is that they’ve found an old recording of this talk show host in extreme desperation mode doing a crazy Halloween episode. So yeah, the basic idea is something we’ve seen before. But framed in a way that makes it feel unique and fresh. And executed in a very intense and entertaining manner. The suspense builds and builds until all Hell breaks loose in the final act. And I do mean that literally and not as a curse word. We have demonic possessions, evil spirits, the Devil, and all sorts of Hellish things. If horror isn’t your thing, this won’t convert you. But if you do like horror and you somehow missed this one, this should immediately go to the top of your watch list.

4- Monkey Man

They called this movie the “Indian John Wick.” And in an era of action films where everyone is trying to be the next John Wick, that speaks a lot to the massive cultural impact that John Wick made on the action genre. Everyone who is making a new action film is trying to replicate that success. And in terms of a broken protagonist trying to get revenge on a group of evil dudes, then yeah, sure. “Indian John Wick.” But this is Dev Patel doing something special here. And if it was just him in the lead role of the movie, that would be hard enough given the intense training regimen that he most certainly had to go through in order to pull this off. But he also wrote, directed, and produced the movie. So he played just about every role in the production and he did a perfect job at it. And it was his first time directing a movie, too. So that’s even more impressive. However, I do think this movie separates itself from John Wick in many ways. It’s a lot more gritty and raw. Our lead character isn’t just a superhuman easily beating all the bad dudes. He’s a bit messy and chaotic. Very broken and very hurt, causing him to be quite unhinged, which presents an extra level of danger. And he goes through quite the impressive character arc, both mentally and physically. It’s an insanely fun action film, but it’s also very raw and emotional. It’ll give you what you came for if you’re a fan of action, but it also separates itself from the pack to feel unique and special. And for a while this hung out at No. 1 on my Letterboxd list. For a bit there, I wondered if we’d get anything to top it. We finally did in the second half of the year. But this is still the action movie of the year if you’re a fan of that genre.

3- The Wild Robot

Looking at how my top 5 ended up this year, this isn’t exactly a bunch of films that one would call user-friendly. They’re very niche to me. But thrown right in the middle of that mix is this absolutely delightful little DreamWorks film. If there’s one movie I can safely recommend to anyone and everyone, old and young, nephew and mom alike, “The Wild Robot” is the one. And if you have a heart, you’re going to fall in love with this movie, which tells the story of an A.I. robot that gets lost on an island full of wild animals and gets the “assignment” to help a raise a little baby goose so that it can get to the point of flying off with the rest of the flock during winter. You know exactly what’s going to happen with that premise and you brace for emotional impact as it hits, but like a Pixar movie that successfully pulls at the heartstrings every time even though you know what they’re going to try to do, the movie wins and you find yourself bawling in your seat like Wade from “Elemental,” wondering if you’re going to turn into a puddle. But lest you think that’s the only thing that’s going to happen, what you thought was going to be the movie’s climax ends up taking place in the middle of the film. And this film ends up going in lots of directions. Maybe part of that reasoning is that there’s a whole series of books this is based on, but instead of filling cluttered and chaotic with too much plot and too many characters, it all comes together in a very impressive way that makes it feel layered and complex. You’re not just going to cry. You’re going to experience every emotion possible. DreamWorks pulls a rabbit out of their hat with this movie and the result is one of their best yet.

2- Nosferatu

It’s not too often where my most anticipated movie of the year connects in the exact way I was hoping and dreaming it would, but that’s exactly what happened with Robert Eggers’ adaptation of “Nosferatu.” In fact, it came very close to going from most anticipated to No. 1 movie of the year. With both this movie and the movie that ended up at No. 1, they were very strong cases of if you know me well enough, you know they’re going to be my type of movie. And yeah, they’re both horror. With “Nosferatu,” Robert Eggers takes the story of Dracula that we’ve seen done a thousand times and puts his own dark and twisted spin on things. He’s a director who likes to take a subject matter and be as authentic as he can to that time period. No sugarcoating anything, but rather be honest and true to the original source material or era he’s in. And while that ends up as very dark and grim stories, the point is to be thematically rich and deep in a way you can’t as easily accomplish otherwise. So yeah, the director who gave us “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse,” and “The Northman” now takes on the original story of Nosferatu, bringing it back to its original gothic horror origins. This is not supposed to be a happy story with a fun, central villain. He’s a creepy, scary dude who gains an unhealthy obsession with a dude’s wife. And the only way to stop him is for the pure woman to give herself as a willing sacrifice. But in the process, Nosferatu brings plague, disease, and destruction. And there’s conflicting interests with our lead protagonists who battle with the idea of saving the whole city vs. saving your wife. This is the perfect “Nosferatu” adaptation in my mind with a final shot that is absolutely haunting. It makes me want Eggers to take on all the old monster movies and classic dark fairy tales. And he’s holding true for now. His next movie is a 13th Century Werewolf thriller titled “Werwulf,” coming Christmas 2026.

1- Longlegs

Some years there’s internal competition in my mind as to what deserves the title of my favorite movie of the year. This was not one of those years. This was very easy to decide. I mean, when I heard buzz about this movie, you’re really telling me that there’s a movie coming out that’s described as a serial killer horror movie that’s on par with “Silence of the Lambs” and “Se7en”? Directed by Osgood Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins who played Norman Bates in “Psycho”? There might not be a more “Adam movie” in existence. I tried not going in with too high of expectations, but this definitely has Oz harnessing his inner David Fincher (“Se7en,” “Zodiac,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Gone Girl”) as he’s telling the story of a Satanic serial killer played by Nicolas Cage. A fictional story, not a real one. But certainly inspired real lunatics that did exist. Cage is giving one of his most crazy and eccentric roles yet, which is saying something for him, but it absolutely works in the context of what he is supposed to be pull off. Most of the movie is focused on our FBI girl who is hunting him down, but the moments Cage does get leave a haunting and terrifying impression that will stick with me for a long time. You can call this a crime thriller if you want. If you have a stigma against horror and that gets you to watch, then cool, but to me this feels like real life horror. The type of scary, terrifying, Satanic work that could’ve very well existed. If the Devil is real and he has a real influence on people who fully let him in, I’m not sure how much more scary you can get. And if you wonder why and how such a dark and twisted movie can be my favorite, just keep in mind that the point here is to stop the Devil and catch people like this. Portrayals of evil don’t mean the movie itself is promoting evil. But it does leave a much larger impact than anything else I watched. One of the quickest 5-star reviews I’ve given. A movie that I instantly threw on the top of my list before I even left the theater. And there was never a threat of it being dethroned.

Movies of 2025: The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe

Welcome to the year 2025! Before we leave February and enter into January, it’s time to take a deep dive into the full year to see what this year has coming for us! This is always a fun project to do each year, if nothing else than to educate myself as to what’s coming out. I always enjoy looking back on this post in a year’s time to see how everything turned out! Some people on the internet or social media like to rank their most anticipated. I’ve always preferred to take everything and sort them into a few categories: movies I’m looking forward to, movies I’m concerned about, and movies I’m on the fence about for one reason or another or simply don’t know enough about to have an opinion either way. This using my catchy label of “The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe.” The order here is by release date.

This post will be long. Read every word if you want. But I mostly expect people to scroll through and look at highlights and titles, stopping if/when you care to read my brief thoughts on any movie. And, of course, this is not an all-encompassing list. Just highlights to give you an idea of what to look forward to. I tried to list most of the major titles as well as others that caught my eye. But I will have undoubtedly missed something. There’s also lots of movies that come out in the second half of the year that are not on anyone’s radar at the start of the year, especially when it comes to the festival circuit. There’s also directors who are working on projects that might come out this year, but I may have left off because I wasn’t sure if they’ll actually make it by this year or I may have just not known enough about. And, of course, the release dates listed are as of this post and are very likely to change. There’s several from last year’s list that made it again this year and there’s bound to be several from this year that will end up on next year’s list. So any release date is very tentative, especially if a strike or a pandemic hits.

All that said, there’s still plenty of titles here to go through. And for the most part I looked at the release schedule on the-numbers.com for my main source. But I cross-checked that with a few other sites to see what I could come up with. Joey Magidson from Awards Radar also releases an article each year of 100 movies to look forward to for the upcoming year that I looked through. I’ll post that in the comments for anyone curious. At the end of this all, let me know which titles you are most excited for or which ones you are dreading! I’d be very curious to see what you have to say!

The Good

Wolf Man – January 17

I already did a full January movie preview, which is why I gave myself a few extra weeks for this post. But I decided to list a few January titles, anyways. Even a few that have come out already. Just for the sake of being a completionist. “Wolf Man” has already been released, was a major flop, and got very mixed reviews. I’m still curious to see it, though. I missed it on opening weekend because I got distracted and decided to catch up on more 2024 movies. It’s Leigh Whannell doing another modern twist on a classic monster movie, like he did with “The Invisible Man” in 2020. He’s taking a big swing and that was bound to be a controversial swing with mixed results. And I can at least appreciate a unique attempt that’s not just another generic monster movie, even if I don’t end up liking it.

Companion – January 31

Do yourself a favor and go watch this movie’s trailer. I have no idea what to expect with this movie, but it looks wild. From the studio that brought you “The Notebook” – and the unhinged creators of “Barbarian.” That’s how the trailer goes. Making you think it’s a cute romantic comedy, only to sweep the rug out from under you and revealing a twisted psychological thriller. IMDb also has it pegged as a dark comedy and a sci-fi. I initially had this under the “maybe” section, because it might be a case of a trailer being better than the movie itself. But reviews came out and it’s currently at a 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes as of me typing this. So I’m sold!

Dog Man – January 31

A spin-off series from the “Captain Underpants” books, written by the same author. The initial “Dog Man” book was released in 2016 after the character first appeared in one of the “Captain Underpants” books. I loved the “Captain Underpants” when I was in Elementary School and I enjoyed the movie DreamWorks did a few years back. I learned over Christmas break that one of my younger nephews currently loves the “Dog Man” books, so this author has successfully spanned several generations and that’s always a cool thing to see.

Love Hurts – February 7

We’ve reached the point where Ke Huy Quan gets to be the star of his own action movie, while being front and center on the poster. And I think that’s cool, even if I don’t know how good this movie is going to be.

Heart Eyes – February 7

We have two movies in the first half of the year from Christopher Landon, writer and director of “Freaky” and “Happy Death Day,” with the other being “Drop” in April. Landon isn’t the director on this one, he’s just a part of the writing team, along with Michael Kennedy, who also helped write “Freaky” and “It’s a Wonderful Knife.” So this seems like a fun writing team and they’re taking on a Valentine’s Day slasher flick, with the Heart Eyes Killer stalking and killing romantic couples. Seems like the perfect Valentine’s Day movie, right?

Captain America: Brave New World – February 14

Yes, I’m still on the Marvel train. I enjoyed “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and I like Sam Wilson as Captain America. We also have Harrison Ford cast as the new Thaddeus Ross following the passing of William Hurt and he’s going to turn into Red Hulk in this movie. We also Giancarlo Esposito joining the MCU doing some sort of villainous roll, which is his specialty. Looks like he’s playing Seth Voelker, aka Sidewinder, the leader of the Serpent Society. So as a comic book fan, I think there’s plenty to be excited about. Hating on the MCU is the cool thing to do these days. And I guess that means I’m going against the grain and still enjoying the ride. If being a fan of comic book movies has gone back to being nerdy and niche, then cool. I embrace that!

Paddington in Peru – February 14

The first two Paddington movies are what I would label as the perfect family movies. Charming, adorable movies that are extremely hard to hate and great for the whole family. “Paddington 2” is especially fantastic. There’s a reason why it wound up being one of the best reviewed movies ever on Rotten Tomatoes. And I’m actually really upset that some attention seeking troll wrote a negative review several years later just to break it’s perfect score. I suppose 99 percent ain’t bad, though. My only hesitation with this third movie is that it’s not the same director as the first two, so I don’t necessarily expect it to be quite as good. But it came out in the U.K. several months ago and currently holds a 93 percent score, so I think we’re good.

The Monkey – February 21

I’m posting this 2025 preview before I’m posting my list of top movies of 2024. And if you decided to take time reading through this post, you get a surprise bonus. The horror movie “Longlegs” was my favorite movie of 2024. And it wasn’t even much of a competition. I’m not going to review that movie here. Stay tuned to that next post for my reasons why. But that tidbit of information is relevant here because “The Monkey” is another horror movie from the same director as “Longlegs,” that being Osgood Perkins, son of “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins. So of course I’m excited to see what the director of my favorite movie of 2024 is doing next. And while they’re both horror films, it’s worth noting that they’re very different types of horror films. While “Longlegs” was very similar to “Silence of the Lambs” and “Seven,” “The Monkey” is about a toy monkey that goes around killing people. So yeah, you can’t get much different than these two movies. But I’m still really excited!

Mickey 17 – March 7

Here’s a movie that I feel like I’ve been talking about for years. I know it made this list last year and I feel I’ve been hearing about it for quite some time before then, as well. Production started in 2022 and I feel that it’s had about 300 different release dates. Knock on wood here, but I think it’s finally going to make this release date? Anyways, it’s Bong Joon-Ho’s newest movie, starring Robert Pattinson in the lead role. Bong Joon-Ho is the Oscar winning director of “Parasite.” Him plus Robert Pattinson is all I need to know the be excited for this, but it is a sci-fi film where Robert Pattinson’s character, Mickey Barnes, signs up to be an expendable, meaning he dies over and over, but keeps being regenerated with a new body that has most of the memories in tact. And this goes on until Mickey 17 unintentionally survives and coexists with Mickey 18.

Novocaine – March 14

Jack Quaid seems like he’s having a lot of fun in 2025. He first is one of the leads in the movie “Companion.” A couple months later and he stars in this action comedy where he plays a guy who is unable to feel pain. When the girl he likes gets kidnapped, he takes advantage of this condition to go hunt her down. The filmmakers behind this are relatively unknown, meaning there’s a bit of a risk here, but they’ve been pushing this trailer quite a bit and I think it looks like a blast!

The Chosen: The Last Supper, Parts 1, 2, & 3 – March 27, April 3, April 10

Technically not a movie. This is Season 5 of “The Chosen.” Like with Season 4 last year, they’re releasing all of Season 5 in theaters, split up into three different parts. And instead of simply calling it “Season 5,” they subtitled it as “The Last Supper.” Because that’s what this season is focused on. We ended Season 4 with Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and now we’re going to spend Season 5 on the last week of his life, ending with the Last Supper. The final day of The Crucifixion will be Season 6, while the Resurrection will be Season 7. That’s the current plan here.

Drop – April 11

This is the second Christopher Landon horror film to come out in 2025, with the first one being “Heart Eyes.” Landon is the director of “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky.” And while he’s only a part of the writing team on “Heart Eyes,” he’s the actual director on this one. The April release date here has me nervous. And no director is perfect, so there’s always a chance for a letdown. But I’m hoping for another fun horror movie here. This one is about a single mother who goes on a date for the first time in a long time, only to be bombarded with texts from a mysterious sender who says she needs to kill her date or he (the sender of the texts) is going to kill her son.

Sinners – April 18

From director Ryan Coogler, teaming up again with lead star Michael B. Jordan. I’m not sure why this one is being released in April and not during awards season at the end of the year, but Coogler is the director of “Black Panther” and “Creed.” And this is his first film since “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” And his first non-franchise film since “Fruitvale Station” in 2013, so that makes this especially notable in my eyes. Premise is about twin brothers (both played by Jordan) returning to their hometown, trying to leave their troubled lives behind, only to find a greater evil back home. And the genre here appears to be… yes. Period piece, action, horror, drama, thriller. IMDb lists “supernatural horror” first, but the trailer gives off vibes of a combination of things. And maybe that’s why it’s not being pushed as an awards movie from Coogler.

The Legend of Ochi – April 25

Sundance film from this year, 2025. So it premiered just a few days ago from me typing this. People grew up being taught to fear the ochi, forest creatures. But a young girl runs into a baby ochi and becomes charmed by it. So she befriends it and sets off on a quest to return it to its home. This gives off heavy “E.T.” vibes, with a kid becoming friends with a cute creature that they’re not supposed to like, with the mean, grumpy adults trying to stop them. Initially reaction was positive and it seems like it could be a fun family film.

Thunderbolts* – May 2

I’m still a bit confused as to why they put an asterisk in the title of this movie. But this is the second Marvel movie coming out this year, with a third one in July. Yes, they’re back in business in 2025 after the strikes caused them to shuffle their schedule and push most things out of 2024. Some critics of the MCU will claim that their “failures” in 2023 caused them to cancel and postpone everything. That’s not the least bit accurate. When actors, writers, directors, etc. are on strike, big productions can’t always meet tight deadlines. That and that alone is why “Deadpool & Wolverine” was the only MCU film released in 2024. Anyways, this movie reminds me a bit of Marvel’s version of “Suicide Squad,” with the government recruiting a group of morally questionable characters to go on a mission for them. We have Yelena, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, John Walker/U.S. Agent, Taskmaster, and Ghost. As well as the introduction of “Bob,” aka Robert Reynolds, who is Sentry, one of the stronger characters in Marvel lore. Honestly, the cast of characters here looks like this will make for quite the riot. It might be the Marvel movie I’m most looking forward to this year, even if this the one that I have the least amount of confidence in regards to it performing well.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – May 23

It’s Mission: Impossible. This franchise has, generally speaking, gotten better over time. And Tom Cruise is going to do these movies until he’s in his 80s, trying to one-up himself each time. I do like how they ditched the “Part 1” and “Part 2” here and just with with “Dead Reckoning” and “Final Reckoning.” They should’ve made that decision BEFORE releasing “Dead Reckoning” as I think the “Part 1” of it all made it feel less like an event film and hurt it at the box office. That and they had the unfortunate timing of releasing it just days before “Barbenheimer” became a worldwide phenomenon. Anyways, these movies are a lot of fun. I had a question or two about “Dead Reckoning,” mostly in regards to a certain female character that I’m looking for an answer to one way or another. But outside that, I’m all on board. “Fallout” still remains my favorite of the franchise, but we’ll see what “The Final Reckoning” brings to the table. And even though this gives “final movie of the franchise” vibes, it’s not. Both Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have expressed interest in continuing. You think I’m joking about Tom Cruise doing these movies until he’s in his 80s. But he said in a recent interview that that’s what he wants to do. He was inspired by Harrison Ford doing yet another Indiana Jones movie.

Ballerina – June 6

A spin-off movie in the John Wick universe. Narratively speaking, Chad Stahelski made “Chapter 4” the final John Wick movie. And Lionsgate was probably, like, “Hey wait a minute. That was our money-making franchise!” So until Lionsgate can convince him and Keanu Reeves to come back for a “Chapter 5,” the spin-off route is where they’re going. Stahelski has spent a good portion of the last decade doing nothing but John Wick movies. And he created four excellent works of art that have completely changed the action genre, so I don’t blame him wanting to take a break and do something else. Him not being a part of “Ballerina” does make me nervous, especially since the new director is Len Wiseman, director/producer of the Underworld movies. But hey, John Wick was directed by a stunt coordinator who had never directed a movie before, so you never know. And I like Ana de Armas. So if her and Wiseman took enough notes from Reeves and Stahelski, I hope that they can make this work.

Elio – June 13

I’d say Pixar is on a roll right now, but they honestly haven’t been off their roll. They just had three straight movies get relegated to Disney+ by Mother Disney, which was definitely a huge mistake. But “Elemental” and “Inside Out 2” got them back on track in regards to making money in theaters, so hopefully “Elio” continues that. I have no reason to doubt that the movie itself will be good, especially since original movies are their biggest forte. This one is about a kid who is obsessed with aliens and has his dreams come true by getting abducted by aliens and joining their universe. As far as its actual financial prognostication? Well, if you want Pixar to continue making original movies, you better go support this. That’s how this game works. If people complaining about sequels only go see sequels, then it’s the sequels that studios are going to continue putting out.

28 Years Later – June 20

This might be a case where I will be sad when this movie comes out… because the trailer has been so fun to watch in theaters. Now horror sequels have had a spotty record, especially when it comes to delayed franchise entries, so I’m not guaranteeing this will be good. But they do have the writer and director back from the first one. If it’s successful… is the next entry “28 Decades Later”? Followed by “28 Centuries Later”? I’ll be honest and say this gives me a chance to actually go back and watch the first two movies. I have not yet. Whoops.

F1 – June 27

A movie about a Formula One driver coming out of retirement to mentor a younger driver. It stars Brad Pitt and is directed by Joseph Kosiniski, director of “Top Gun: Maverick.” It seems like the perfect summer “Dad Movie.” And I’m here for that!

Superman – July 11

I rank these by the order in which they are released, not by order of my personal excitement. But if I did do a most anticipated ranking, this is my easy No. 1. James Gunn through both the Guardians of the Galaxy movies with Marvel and “The Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker” has proven that he has a deep love and respect for comic books. It’s going to be an uphill better to fix DC’s overall reputation from general audiences, but I’m absolutely in love with his vision for DC. I’m an enjoyer of all comic book stuff, Marvel or DC. It’s silly to pick one or the other. But I’ve gravitated more towards DC over the course of my life, which is why I was even more upset with Zack Snyder’s incompetence, as he clearly had no idea what or why DC was so good. And it frustrated me that DC gave him the keys to the car and let him do whatever he wanted… until the Justice League fiasco, of course. But James Gunn knows what he’s doing. And not only is he bringing Superman back to his origins, making this feel very much like the Christopher Reeve movies, but he’s also diving into a lot of the actual Superman comic book realms that the old movies never got around to. Superman is my favorite comic book character and it looks like James Gunn is doing him right.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps – July 25

A speaking of a superhero franchise that has almost never been done right, is the Fantastic Four curse finally coming to an end? Fox was never able to get this right, which is unfortunate because the Fantastic Four is one of the best comic book arcs. But Fox going over to Disney gives Marvel the rights back and now it’s time to do this properly. Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards is perfect. Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn are pretty great choices Sue Storm and Johnny Storm as well. MCU haters will continue to hate, but hey, people liked “WandaVision,” right? Matt Shakman directed all nine episodes of that series and he’s the man in charge here. So is there at least one MCU movie this year that I can get you to be excited for?

The Battle of Baktan Cross – August 8

The latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson, an 11-time Oscar nominee for movies like “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Inherent Vice,” “Phantom Thread,” and “Licorice Pizza.” And with that lineup of films, it might shock you to learn that the man has never won an Oscar. Is this the year we fix that? The movie has Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, and Sean Penn headlining the cast, so it seems like this should be a huge Oscar player. Although none of my sources I went to have told me what exactly this movie is about. In fact, IMDb calls it “Untitled,” while Wikipedia calls it “One Battle After Another.” It’s both the-numbers and Awards Radar that call it “The Battle of Baktan Cross.” So I have no idea what this movie is about or what the title is going to end up being, but it’s Paul Thomas Anderson, so it’s most likely going to be worth watch. Especially with Leo in the lead.

Nobody 2 – August 15

I had no idea this sequel was coming out until I researched this post. Speaking of John Wick being highly influential to the modern-day action film, in regards to all the movies that tried to be the next John Wick, “Nobody” was a pretty darn good version of that, with Bob Odenkirk playing a normal suburban dad who was secretly a former assassin who gets dragged back into his old life. The movie was a lot of fun and made me want a John Wick/Nobody crossover. We’re not actually going to ever get that, but I’ll take a sequel to “Nobody” as a consolation prize.

Saw XI – September 26

Another movie that was on my list last year. And honestly I’m happy that the decided to give themselves another year on this one instead of rushing to start up a new trend of yearly Saw movies. But when “Saw X” came out, I decided to do what was a very bloody marathon of the entire franchise and I found myself really enjoying myself. They’re a lot of fun! And what was almost the most surprising is that “Saw X” was one of the best entries. So if they’ve got their groove back and are wanting to do more, I’ll be among the first in line to go see “Saw XI” this Halloween season.

The Bride – September 26

...of Frankenstein. As directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. We’re in a fun era of these remakes of classic Universal monsters. Leigh Whannell is out doing modern twists of them. Robert Eggers took on “Nosferatu” last year and now has his own werewolf movie coming next. And Guillermo del Toro has his own Frankenstein movie coming out at some point this year. But Maggie is taking on this remake of “The Bride of Frankenstein,” which may or may not wind up having an exclamation mark at the end of the title. She has her brother Jake and her husband Peter Sarsgaard in the movie supporting her in some form, while Christian Bale plays Frankenstein’s Monster and Jessie Buckley plays the Bride. We also have John Magaro, Penélope Cruz, Julianne Hough, and Annette Bening in the movie. So it seems like quite the party!

The Black Phone 2 – October 17

Plots under wraps with this sequel, but I hear buzz that they have some fun, exciting ideas here that will hopefully preventing it from suffering from horror sequel-itis. “The Black Phone” was a fun movie that I enjoyed in 2022. It wound up being more of a crime thriller than a horror film, but you didn’t find me complaining about that. We got Scott Derrickson back doing the sequel, so I’ll trust him. You might know him as the director of “Doctor Strange.” But horror is his main realm, so when he’s doing any horror film, I’m intrigued.

Mortal Kombat 2 – October 17

Yes, I did enjoy that “Mortal Kombat” remake that came out in early 2021, during COVID recovery. It was a part of Warner Bros’ day-and-date theatrical and HBO Max releases, that was definitely a mistake. But it still opened well despite that. And I guess it did well enough for them to justify a sequel actually happening? And the biggest thing that makes me excited for a sequel is there might actually be a Mortal Kombat in this Mortal Kombat movie, if you know what I mean. The first movie was essentially a setup for the main event, so I’m excited to actually get to the main event and see how much fun we can have with this.

Predator: Badlands – November 7

We got the Predator franchise back on track with the 2022 movie “Prey” that wound up going straight to Hulu. And that got a good enough reaction that they’re sending this next one back to theaters, while keeping director Dan Trachtenberg back on board. This and the Alien movies conceptually shouldn’t be too hard to get right, which has made some of the entries a bit baffling. But if we’re on a roll, let’s keep going. Now excuse me while I go spend some time actually catching up with the Predator franchise. I’m well aware of the concept and I know I’ll enjoy. But I have a few months to catch up.

Bugonia – November 7

The next movie from Yorgos Lanthimos, and now the fourth in a row to star Emma Stone. The two of them seem to have a very good actor/director connection going on and you don’t see me complaining about that. Emma is one of my favorite actresses working and Yorgos movies are always quite the ride. After scoring big time on the awards front with both “The Favourite” and “Poor Things,” last year was a quieter outing with “Kinds of Kindness,” but I still enjoyed it. And speaking of “Kinds of Kindness,” Yorgos also has Jesse Plemons back for “Bugonia.” And the description here of this movie is that two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. It’s an English-language remake of the 2003 Korean Film “Save the Green Planet!” And normally I’m a bit hesitant with English-language remakes of foreign films. But first off, it’s been over 20 years now. And second, Yorgos with that ridiculous of a premise? This should be a wild ride!

The Running Man – November 7

“The running man is an upcoming dystopian action thriller produced and directed by Edgar Wright.” Say no more. You had me at Edgar Wright! I always love it when we get blessed with a new Edgar Wright movie! If you’re wondering if there’s any connection to the 1987 movie of the same title, well… kinda. That movie was based on the 1982 Stephen King novel and was a very loose adaptation. It would be more accurate to say that Edgar Wright’s movie is another adaptation of the novel, one in which he plans on being more faithful to the source material. Funny enough, in said source material, the story is based in the year 2025, in a dystopian United States with the nation’s economy in ruins and world’s violence rising. Not impossible for us to get to that point before this movie comes out? Anyways, the movie is about a reality show where contestants win money by avoiding a team of hitmen sent to kill them.

Wicked: For Good – November 21

We are currently in the midst of a year-long intermission and as one of three people on Earth who hasn’t seen the actual play and doesn’t know this story ends, I’m eagerly anticipating the time where I get to see this resolution. It was suggested to me that perhaps I should go see the stage production during this intermission. It’s touring in Salt Lake here soon. I looked up tickets just for fun and… yeah, there’s a reason why I haven’t seen it. Those tickets are super expensive! Anyways, I’m obviously the least qualified person to tell you about the second half of this movie, so we’ll move on.

Zootopia 2 – November 26

I debated as to whether to be excited about this movie or nervous about. Maybe that alone should put this in the “maybe” category. But as I thought about it, there’s a lot you can do in the world of Zootopia. More crime fighting adventures with Nick and Judy sounds like an adventure to me, unlike the Moana sequel that we got that felt really forced and uninspired. If you’re wondering why we’re getting a ton of Disney animated sequels, it’s because they put out original movies and you didn’t see them. Your fault, not there’s.

They Follow – TBD 2025

Now we enter a handful of “TBD” movies. There’s a lot of these and for the most part I left them off this list due to uncertainty of them actually coming out, but I do know they’ve been working on a sequel to the 2014 horror film “It Follows,” which is fantastic! One of the best horror films of last decade. If the same team and director has an idea of what they want for a sequel, I am very curious to find out! Let’s just hope it actually comes out so that I don’t have to put this on next year’s list. Too much waiting is going to kill me.

Thanksgiving 2 – TBD 2025

I love that we now have a slasher horror franchise for the Thanksgiving holiday. The first one was a lot of fun. And given that our villain is much like the Scream franchise in that it’s one of our characters hidden behind a mask, there’s a whodunit, mystery angle that lends itself to more sequels as another angry townsperson can just put on the mask and start the terror again instead of it being just one person terrorizing people over and over. I’m pretty sure this is planning on coming out around Thanksgiving. But it technically doesn’t have a release date as me typing this.

Frankenstein – TBD 2025

As mentioned earlier in this post, we have a remake of “The Bride of Frankenstein” coming out in September. And that’ll be paired with this movie at some point, that being Guillermo del Toro doing his own version of “Frankenstein.” And if Guillermo has decided that this is a project he wants to do, then I am going to be excited to see it. He knows how to properly do a remake and put his own spin on an old story, as he showed with his version of “Pinocchio” a couple years back. And in this version of “Frankenstein,” we have Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, with Jacob Elordi playing Frankenstein’s monster. We also have Mia Goth, Christoph Walz, Charles Dance, and Ralph Ineson in various supporting roles. So both Frankenstein movies look like a party this year! The only reason this is labeled as TBD is because it’s Netflix and they don’t exactly announce their release dates too far in advance. But I hear this is a November 2025 release. Speaking of which...

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Story – TBD 2025

Also Netflix. Also most likely coming out in Fall 2025, that according to Deadline. “Glass Onion” was released in November, so that’s my guess here. But yeah, Rian Johnson has his third movie from the Knives Out series and as far as I’m concerned, he can keep doing these as long as he wants. They’re each their own isolated story and it’s the type of mystery series that lends itself to lots of sequels. And if Rian Johnson has enough ideas and continued creativity, and Daniel Craig is still on board to continue to play Benoit Blanc, then let’s do it! This version’s cast includes Josh O’Connor, Glen Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeney, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.

Caught Stealing – TBD 2025

Darren Aronofsky is a very complicated filmmaker who rarely makes easy, simple movies. So whenever he has a new movie, you know you’re in for an experience, to say the least. And they’re typically very polarizing. I, myself, have wound up on opposite sides of the fence on multiple occasions with his movies, so there’s no guarantee as to exactly what I’ll think when he has a new movie. But I’m always curious to see what he’s up to next. When he’s on, he has movies like “Requiem for a Dream” or “Black Swan.” But when he’s off, you get things like “Noah” or “Mother!” This year’s movie, if it indeed ends up as a this year’s movie, has Austin Butler playing a burnt out former baseball star get caught in quite the messy crime situation in 1990s New York City. You can definitely see shades of Aronofsky in this premise.

Highest 2 Lowest – TBD 2025

Speaking of a director who always has something controversial and polarizing to say, the last movie I’m including in this section comes from Spike Lee. From what I’m seeing, this is A24 distributing and they plan on releasing this theatrically sometime in the Spring before it goes to Apple TV+. So maybe I should’ve put it a bit higher? Oh well. But yeah, Spike Lee doesn’t care about what you think of his movies. He’s going to make what he wants and he usually has something political or controversial to say. And regardless of which side of the fence I end up on, this also makes me curious to see what he has next. And this time he has Denzel Washington on board in a crime thriller that is described as a remake of the 1963 Japanese film “High and Low,” which is loosely based on the 1959 novel “King’s Ransom,” which is a police procedural centering on the moral dilemma faced by a wealthy man when he is forced to choose between using his wealth to fulfill a personal ambition or save the life of a kidnapped child. What exactly Spike decides to do with that premise, I don’t know. But police procedurals with moral dilemmas definitely feels like his thing.

The Bad

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera – January 10

My goal with this post is to be less negative and more positive. Which is why you noticed a lot more in the good section and the upcoming maybe section and less in the bad section. I didn’t want to force movies into the bad just to even up numbers like I’ve sometimes done in the past, but certain titles are unavoidable. And we start with a couple of January titles that have already released and were not seen by me. Maybe if I’m bored enough at some point, I’ll do a Den of Thieves double feature at some point. But a Gerard Butler action heist film released in January got the exact reaction I expected. With both of these movies, there’s some positive, but mostly mixed to negative. Best case scenario is that I wind up thinking they’re fine, but I’m in no rush.

Flight Risk – January 17

The return of Mel Gibson to the director’s chair was not met with positive response. In fact, I don’t think most people even realized it was Mel Gibson who directed this movie. It is a suspense thriller on an airplane with Mark Wahlberg playing a pilot transporting an Air Marshal and a fugitive. The tag line is “not everyone on board is who they seem.” Unless you watch the trailer, which appears to spoil most things. This looks like a movie that should’ve gone directly to Netflix instead of going to theaters. That may sound like an insult, and it is (this movie has a 26 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and opened to just $11.6 million), but also this is the exact type of movie that does really well on Netflix. Just look at last year’s “Carry On,” which got a ton of views and was also not very good.

In the Lost Lands – March 7

A sorceress travels to the Lost Lands in a search of a magical power that allows a person to transform into a werewolf. Initially seems like a fun fantasy action/adventure film, starring Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich. But then I see it’s directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. That immediately made me say, “Oh, nevermind.” The man has never made a good movie. If you don’t believe, go look at his directing credits. I don’t care that he’s adapting a 1982 short story from George R. R. Martin, author of “Game of Thrones.” Bad directors are really good at taking a good source material and turning it into a bad movie. In fact I think it’s funny that the trailer pushes George R. R. Martin’s name so hard. They don’t want you to know who actually directed this thing.

Snow White – March 21

Do yourself a favor and go to the official trailer for this on YouTube and start scrolling through the comments. You’ll be grateful that this movie exists just so you can see how hard the internet has gone to troll Disney and this movie. Let’s just say that this is another example of a trailer for a movie where the reaction has gone to levels that are beyond toxic. As the biggest fan of the original Snow White movie from the 1930s, I agree that this looks really bad. I do think Rachel Zegler is a fine choice for Snow White. So jokes at her expense are in poor taste. But this movie looks like another Disney disaster.

A Minecraft Movie – April 4

I don’t even play Minecraft and I know this movie is a bad idea. I mean, the game doesn’t lend itself to a movie. I know “The LEGO Movie” exists and somehow turned something that doesn’t lend itself to a movie into a great movie. But you watch this trailer and it’s easy to see that this ain’t gonna be no LEGO Movie. Having Jack Black and Jason Momoa goofing off together in a movie certainly doesn’t hurt things. But no one wanted this. So why is it happening? And why live action?

Until Dawn – April 25

I’m not much of a gamer, but me and a friend actually played this game last year. Several times over. It’s a really fun choose your adventure horror game with a fun mythology and a great twists. When I saw that David F. Sandberg was on board to direct a movie version of this game, I was excited. He’s a great horror director and this IS a game that lends itself to a movie. Then I watched the trailer and, uhhh… WHAT? This might be a fun horror movie from a good director if it was its own thing that was titled something else. But it looks like it has zero connections to the game and that’s disappointing.

Lilo & Stitch – May 23

NO! MAKE IT GO AWAY!!! I might have zero excitement for “Snow White” as it looks terrible. But this movie has me more angry. These Disney remakes need to stop. But they’re not going to because people keep seeing them. And when people keep seeing them, they continue to make Disney money and thus Disney doesn’t care at all what the reaction to the movies are. They got your money and they’re using it to make more things that will force you to give them their money, regardless of how much you complain. You want them to stop? Then stop giving them money for their bad remakes and go see their original movies instead. Your fault, not there’s.

Karate Kid: Legends – May 30

This movie REALLY needs to convince me as to why it exists and why we’re getting another Karate Kid movie right after the “Cobra Kai” series finishes. At least they were smart enough to delay this one until after Season 6 of “Cobra Kai” instead of right in between in, like was initially planned. We’re bringing together Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, which is a fun idea in concept. But it just seems like we’re pretending that “Cobra Kai” didn’t exist, while doing the same movie we’ve seen over and over, but with a new kid. I don’t know why this bothers me so much, but it does.

How to Train Your Dragon – June 13

Disney, you stupid company. Now you are getting DreamWorks to follow your lead. “How to Train Your Dragon” exists! And it didn’t come out that long ago. And despite my complaints about the two sequels, the original movie is great and perfect as is. What in the world can you add to a live action remake that wasn’t already done in that first movie? This movie might wind up being well-crafted from a technical standpoint, but what’s the point? Live action remakes just for the sake of being live action remakes are pointless. Do something different with a remake, with a property that lends itself to improvement. Don’t just take an animated classic and give a carbon copy remake in live action. There’s no point to that.

Jurassic World Rebirth – July 2

This franchise needs to go extinct. Let it get hit by a meteor. “But Adam… DINOSAURS!!!!!!!!!!” You know what, I don’t care. And I hate that it’s still a novelty for some people in seeing a dinosaur on screen because it’s a stupid excuse to justify a bad movie. These movies haven’t been good in nearly 30 years and that’s me being generous in that I personally enjoy “The Lost World.” But yet they still make billions because a dinosaur on screen is all some people need. Give me a good dinosaur horror film like the original and not these trashy Jurassic World movies.

I Know What You Did Last Summer – July 18

Another horror franchise that we’re bringing back for a legacy sequel. And in many cases I’ve been positive towards these. We’re in a good era for horror films, so I’m open for another surprise. But in researching this specific iteration, I’m not really convinced that this one was a good idea. It’s one that’s been stuck in developmental hell since 2014 and when you dive into all the troubles they’ve been through, there’s just a lot of red flags that go up. Maybe they’ll pull a rabbit out of their hat and wind up with something fun, but I’m not ready at this point to claim excitement.

The Smurfs Movie – July 18

Why are we doing another Smurfs movie? I’m not even angry or upset. I just see this and it causes me to roll my eyes. And why are we calling it “The Smurfs Movie” when we already made a movie in 2011 called “The Smurfs.” At least give me a subtitle or something that differentiates yourself from the other. At least I’m reading that this one is fully animated and not an attempt at a Smurfs live action.

Freakier Friday – August 8

I’m not a Disney hater like many are at this point. But when they’ve even got me on the grumpy train, you know that something has gone wrong. At least this one has Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis returning. And in 2025 that’s a fun idea as they’ve both had career resurgences of sorts. But I still don’t feel like this is a Disney movie that’s needed. Just them pumping out sequel content.

Michael – October 3

I saw a movie called “Michael” that was being released in October and I initially thought Michael Myers. Nope. Not the slasher character. Michael Jackson, the singer. Another musical biopic for me to hate and the world to love. Almost all of these are the exact same and they’re not going to stop coming. At least this one has Michael’s nephew Jaafar Jackson portraying him, which is cool. But if this is another cinematic Wikipedia article of a popular musician, then you can count me out. I’m also curious to know if they’re going to completely ignore Michael’s controversial later years in favor of just giving us an empty Michael Jackson concert. If they do ignore that part of the story, then maybe more people will be on my side?

Tron: Ares – October 10

This one I feel bad putting here. I don’t actually want to just dump every Disney movie in the bad section. And I’ve been one who has wanted a third Tron movie for a long while now, but it seems like the longer we’ve waited, the worse things have gotten. I think this could’ve been really good if it had come out shortly after “Tron: Legacy.” But now we’ve gone through several directors and landed on Joachim Rønning, director of the Maleficent sequel and the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We missed the chance to have Daft Punk return for the score because they retired. And now we also have Jared Leto in a lead role for some reason? I don’t want to chronicle every troubled issue in the last 14 years that this has had. You can go read that yourself. It just makes me feel like Disney is setting us all up for disappointment here.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – December 5

A horror sequel I’m not looking forward to because the first one was really bad. Fans of the game might be upset at me for this, but oh well. If you had to play all the games and know all the lore to love the first movie, then I think you failed as a movie because it should’ve been able to stand on its own. What could’ve been a fun, crazy slasher in an arcade setting turned into a boring, watered-down snooze fest. But it made a ton of money. So you… sequel.

Avatar: Fire and Ash – December 19

I didn’t like the first one. I didn’t like the second one. I’m not going to like the third one. Leave me alone. But I’m impressed that it didn’t take another decade to get this third one made. “Fire and Ash” is also a cool subtitle. I guess we’re going though all the elements with this franchise and fire could be cool.

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2 – TBD 2025

Kevin Costner’s epic Western saga failed so badly that they quickly removed “Chapter 2” from the schedule as it was supposed to come out just a month or two after “Chapter 1.” I honestly wish “Chapter 1” was good. I enjoy myself a good Western. And I like Kevin Costner. But “Chapter 1” was three hours of setup. In a bad way. It cost a ton of money, most of it paid by Costner himself. And it was one of the biggest flops of the year. I believe “Chapter 2” is already finished, so I’m guessing it’ll come out at some point. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Warner Bros simply just drops this one quietly on Max and shuts the door on Costner’s idea of a “Chapter 3” and a “Chapter 4.” Sorry, Kevin. This didn’t work.

The Exorcist: Deceiver – TBD 2025

Universal paid a lot of money to get the rights to make Exorcist movies. But “The Exorcist: Believer” didn’t quite work out like they had hoped. I didn’t hate it. But I also didn’t love it and mostly have forgotten about its existence. I’m assuming Universal will indeed try again and release the second movie at some point. They didn’t pay all that money to just give up after one movie. But I don’t exactly have confidence in this one if it does make it into 2025.

The Stangers: Chapter 2 – TBD 2025

And speaking of horror sequels that are up in the air. For some reason, this one was a planned trilogy before they even released the first reboot last year. Why they thought people would want this, I don’t know. It wasn’t a good franchise to begin with. And to their credit, the budget was low, so they didn’t lose money. $35.2 million on a $8.5 million budget is good for a horror movie. But it wasn’t exactly received well and I guess they weren’t quite ready with the sequel as quickly as they wanted. And if it does come out, I’m not sure people are going to notice.

Deliver Me From Nowhere – TBD 2025

The world should be aware that a Bruce Springsteen musical biopic is coming at some point this year. Jeremy Allen White is the one playing Springsteen. But I wouldn’t be excited for yet another musical biopic even if it was a good director. But this one doesn’t. Scott Cooper is the man and he doesn’t have the best track record. Nor am I convinced that he’s going to go against the grain and do something different.

The Maybe

The Unbreakable Boy – February 21

A movie that I could’ve sworn already came out a few years ago. But apparently it was pulled by Lionsgate just eight days before its release in March 2022, with no explanation and no new release date. Strange. It’s a movie about a kid with autism, starring Zachary Levi as his father. It could be a nice feel-good movie. But it does have some online that are worried that it could be a movie with good intentions that’s a bit misguided. I don’t know if I have much to say on that front. I’m mostly nervous about why they took this movie from the schedule and put it on the shelf for three years.

Last Breath – February 28

A movie based on the true story of a diving team who are attempting to rescue their crew mates trapped hundreds of feet below. In fact, not just based on a true story. But this was a documentary that came out in 2019 where the director of that documentary is also the director of this dramatized version. Interesting choices there. People don’t watch documentaries, I suppose. So you gotta do a dramatized version of them. But the same directing doing both is fairly unique. It does have Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, though.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Lonney Tunes Movie – February 28

I’m not sure why I’m a bit nervous that there’s a new Looney Tunes movie coming out. If it succeeds then that’s wonderful. We can begin a new generation of Looney Tunes movies and other things. I just think it feels a bit random and out of nowhere. But OK, let’s see how it goes!

Black Bag – March 14

The second Steven Soderbergh movie to come out this year. The first one was a small January horror film called “Presence.” I ended up not putting it on this list because I already have seen and reviewed it on my Facebook page. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. A lesser version of the 2017 movie “A Ghost Story.” Soderbergh is a fascinating director, though, because he’s always jumping around from genre to genre, experimenting with lots of things. This one seems like a more straightforward spy thriller, with a husband and wife on opposite sides of things. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. In the case of this husband, are you loyal to your marriage or to your country?

The Last Supper – March 14

I don’t have a problem with a movie coming out about the Last Supper, especially around Easter time. I’m just questioning the timing of this small Christian film, as it’s getting released two weeks before Season 5 of “The Chosen” comes out, which is also about the Last Supper. It seems like “The Chosen” is going to steal this movie’s thunder.

The Alto Knights – March 21

Robert De Niro playing a dual role as two mob bosses in a movie where the trailer makes you think it’s directed by Martin Scorsese. Nope, not Scorsese. Even though it says from the “hitmakers of ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘The Irishman.’” Just Barry Levinson, who did have a good run as a director in the 80s and 90s, but hasn’t done a whole lot of notable things recently. I guess the trailer is referring to De Niro starring in those other two Scorsese movies as “the hitmaker”? Anyways, De Niro as a mob boss is a fun piece of nostalgia. I’m just worried that this is more nostalgia that substance.

The Woman in the Yard – March 28

A horror movie about a woman who keeps mysteriously appearing in a family’s front yard. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starring Danielle Deadwyler. I’m intrigued. But this is also Blumhouse, so this could be really bad or really good and I have no idea which it’ll be.

A Working Man – March 28

A Jason Statham action film directed by David Ayer. Statham plays a guy who is leaving his old life behind and trying to blend in as a normal guy who works contruction. But then a teenage girl goes missing and he’s forced back into his old life. And based on that, this is most likely a movie that’ll give you exactly what you expect going in, for better or for worse. You decide.

The Amateur – April 11

I’ve been seeing this trailer pushed a lot recently and it has my attention. Rami Malek is playing a CIA cryptographer whose wife gets killed and he’s out for revenge. He tries to convince his agency to train him to go after her. They don’t think he’s capable of this, but they might have vastly underestimated him. Again, it looks fun. But I am sometimes skeptic of April release dates, especially from directors I don’t know much about.

The King of Kings – April 11

Did you have Oscar Isaac voicing Jesus in a small animated movie on your 2025 Bingo card? Or Mark Hamill as King Herod, Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilate, and Ben Kingsley as Caiaphas? And that’s not even the end of the list. This all has my quite amused as to how and why they all got roped into this. My biggest question is why are we getting a story about Jesus that’s narrated by Charles Dickens as he tells the story to his son Walter. This all feels quite strange. It’s Angel Studios that got the rights to this, which makes sense. But it was directed by a Korean filmmaker who had primarily worked in the visual effects department before this. I guess I answer my own question when I learn its loosely based on Dickens’ novel “The Life of Our Lord,” which was published 64 years after he died. I didn’t know he wrote that. You learn something new everyday, I suppose.

The Accountant 2 – April 25

This will give me the opportunity to finally catch up on “The Accountant,” a movie that has developed quite the following since its release in 2016. It got mixed reviews from critics and did decent at the box office, but not great. Yet I’ve heard a lot of people who really love it. And I’ve been meaning to give it a chance, but haven’t done so yet. It has Ben Affleck playing an autistic accountant who “audits financial books” for some of the most dangerous criminals in the world. They got the cast and crew back for the sequel, so I’ll watch both and let you know what I think.

Clown in a Cornfield – May 9

A slasher horror flick about a clown… in a cornfield. I hope it’s fun. It has Kevin Durand in the lead. Directed by the guy who made “Tucker and Dale vs Evil” back in 2010. But this could very easily be a really bad horror film, so we’ll see when the time for this gets a bit closer.

Final Destination: Bloodlines – May 16

Another horror franchise that I have not been caught up on. Should I be nervous or excited that they’re coming back for another one? The first one was James Wan. This recent one is… not. It’s the directing duo behind “Freaks” from 2018, a movie I’ve not heard of, and… the live action “Kim Possible” from 2019? Uhh… that doesn’t inspire confidence.

M3GAN 2.0 – June 27

“M3GAN” was a surprisingly fun movie from the other year. It seemed like it was going to be really bad, but it ended up being quite the riot. And now with the sequel they’ve graduated from January horror to summer event film because it made a good amount of money. Let’s hope 2.0 is just as fun and doesn’t suffer from being a horror sequel?

The Bad Guys 2 – August 1

I hear “The Bad Guys” was a really good animated movie from DreamWorks and I’m not sure why I missed it. I’ve been meaning to get around to it. I will at some point, especially since we have a sequel. But as good as DreamWorks has been doing lately, sequels are what they do a lot of once they find a hit and sequels have also what they have the most shaky track record for. And they also have the tendency of making sequels long after they should’ve stopped. So I think it’s natural to be nervous.

The Naked Gun – August 1

We’ve hit a string of movies in this section that I should be more familiar than I am, if you haven’t noticed. I am aware of this to a degree. It started as a series, then had three movies in the late 80s and early 90s. Maybe I should be excited? I don’t know. Maybe I should catch up. I do know comedy sequels coming years after don’t always hit. Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson in the lead roles is also an interesting combo. Also, I hear this movie might be titled “The Naked Gun 4¼: Law of Toughness,” but I’m not certain?

The Conjuring: Last Rites – September 5

The Conjuring franchise is a franchise I am quite familiar with. And of the main Conjuring films, I haven’t disliked any of them. The first one was really good. The other two got a little carried away with their “this is a true story” angle, using that to scare people rather than being a scary movie on their own. Look, it’s not a true story. It’s a really highly embellished one. But I don’t care. Just give me a fun horror movie! Anyways, they claim this fourth one will be the last one in the main saga. We’ll see about that. This one is Michael Chaves and not James Wan. Chaves did the third movie as well as “The Nun II.” I’m not sure why they’ve continued to use him as their dude, but OK.

Light of the World – September 5

Another animated film about the life of Jesus. This one told from the vantage point of the Apostle John. And no all-star voice cast, so this looks to be a small movie. I am just a bit fascinated that we’re getting two animated movies about Jesus, plus the movie about the Last Supper, in addition to Season 5 of The Chosen. So 2025 is the year of Jesus at theaters? And how many of these are actually going to be worth watching?

Downton Abbey 3 – September 12

I’m not a Downton Abbey person. I have nothing against. I just haven’t jumped into it. But I suppose I should mention to fans of the show and the movies that September will bring another Downton Abbey movie.

Roofman – October 3

Channing Tatum stars as Jeffrey Manchester, the rooftop robber, who from 1997 – 2000 robbed places by drilling a hole through the roof and dropped in. He was captured in 2000, escaped in 2004, and was captured again in 2005. He is currently serving a 40 year prison sentence, with his expected release date being in 2036. I’m not sure exactly which parts of the story the movie is focusing on, and seeing it’s from director Derek Cianfrance (“Blue Valentine,” “The Place Beyond the Pines,” “The Light Between Oceans”) doesn’t get me too terribly excited, mostly just net neutral. But I’m a fan of true crime, so the premise here, with Channing Tatum starring, has me curious.

Now You See Me 3 – November 14

I would’ve liked this movie to come out in 2019. That would’ve put three years in between each movie. As such, I’m nervous that this is about six years too late. That said, I love the first movie and I also thought the second movie was pretty fun. I’m just nervous that we missed our window of opportunity with this being relevant. And I also might be the only person still interested. Just do me a favor and keep the title as is. Don’t do the “Now You See M3” sort of thing.

David – November 21

Angel Studios is doing something with the Biblical prophet David in November. I think this is going to be an animated as well. So not Jesus this time, but a third animated Bible movie in 2025? Also, this is a fun movie to try and search for. They probably could’ve used some sort of subtitle to make it easier to find so that you don’t just pull up a list of actors named David when you try searching for the movie.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants – December 19

I’m also not much of a SpongeBob person, but I figured some people would be interested to know that another SpongeBob movie is coming out. Just do me a favor and keep with traditional animation here. None of that weird live-action/3D CGI SpongeBob stuff from one of the prior movies. That was a thing of nightmares. Also… are they going to be searching for SpongeBob himself or just his pants?

Anaconda – December 25

A remake of Anaconda? Uhhh… merry Christmas? I suppose this could work. And it’s not like the original 1997 movie is the greatest thing ever, but dumb monster movies can be fun if you’re in the right mood. I also just learned that there’s actually five Anaconda films. Only the first two went to theaters. The final three were Syfy Channel movies, which totally tracks. This new remake is from director Tom Gormican, the director of “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.” The movie stars Paul Rudd and Jack Black. I’m going to need to see more before I decide if this is going to be a fun remake or a forgettable remake, but that’s not a terrible start so far.

Marty Supreme – December 25

The Safdie Brothers are the directing duo of Benny and Josh Safdie. They are most notably known for directing “Good Time” with Robert Pattinson and “Uncut Gems” with Adam Sandler. Both of which are excellent. They have a few earlier films that I haven’t seen yet, but those two movies are what made a name for themselves. I do hear buzz that they eventually plan on coming back together to direct another movie, but for now they’ve gone off on solo adventures. “Marty Supreme” is Josh Safdie’s solo directing effort. There’s not a ton of plot details just yet, but Deadline reported this last September that the movie is a sports drama that’s inspired by legendary table tennis player Marty Reisman, with emphasis on the “inspired by” as reports also are that this is a fictionalized original rather than a biopic. It stars Timothée Chalamet as Marty, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tyler, the Creator as a supporting cast. I do have confidence in this movie. I just put it here in the maybe category because the brothers going off on solo directing adventures is a tad bit of an unknown territory, so we’ll see who does best.

The Smashing Machine – TBD 2025

And speaking of Safdie brothers, “The Smashing Machine” is the movie directed by the other Safdie brother, Benny Safdie. There’s a lot of movies that could belong in the maybe category for TBD 2025, and I decided to mostly include none of them. But I figured we just talked about Josh to close the dated list off, so it felt right to talk about Benny. Now part of the reason why the brothers may have gone solo is because Benny Safdie has done a lot of acting since 2020, so he might be wanting to focus on an acting career in addition to directing, but he does theoretically have this movie coming out at some point in 2025. It’s the story of mixed-martial arts and UFC champion Mark Kerr. And it has Dwayne Johnson playing Mark Kerr, with the real Mark Kerr getting writing credit with Benny as a consultant. Emily Blunt co-stars with Dwayne Johnson. Based on cast and premise of both brothers’ separate sports dramas, I might be slightly more excited for “Marty Supreme,” but the Dwayne Johnson factor might give this one an edge when it comes to box office. So I’m curious as to how this friendly brotherly competition plays out.