The spectacle of the best franchise superhero and action movies got to me in 2025, although I also sat through surprising misfires. I still surprised at how bad “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” – the wrap-up to my favorite movie of two years ago – was. It’s almost more surprising than the shocks from my favorite horror flicks, a genre that saw a trendy infusion of romance. The most pleasantly welcome genre return, though, is comedy. This list kicks off with a legacy sequel that suggests Hollywood is ready to laugh again. If not, the lone documentary on my list gives suggestions of old stuff to watch. These were my 10 favorite movies of 2025. Click on each title for a full review.
10. “The Naked Gun”
Director: Akiva Schaffer, Writers: Schaffer, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand
The fourth “Naked Gun” doesn’t have Leslie Nielsen or Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, but by god it is funny after all, and I’ll certainly be rewatching it more often than “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.” Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. and “Baywatch’s” Pamela Anderson adds a revelatory performance of her own as the love interest. A little too much CGI in the action sequences keeps this from elite status, but the rhythmic way Neeson and company deliver ridiculous versions of hardboiled dialog is on point.
9. “Dangerous Animals”
D: Sean Byrne, W: Nick Lepard
Shark movies aren’t always chum to be thrown into the waters of the movie schedule. By focusing heavily on the humans but ominously reminding us the maneaters are in play, this becomes a tense and sometimes horrifying thriller. It was a pretty good year for romance-horror blends: Here we get a pleasantly easy bond between surfers Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) and Moses (Josh Heuston). But it’s Jai Courtney – finally bringing it upon himself to make Jai Courtney happen – who steals the show. He chews more scenery than the sharks, in a good way.
8. “Superman”
D-W: James Gunn
In the old days, a studio would’ve let Superman cool off for a while. Nowadays, reboots happen immediately, so the DCEU morphs into the DCU, and Zack Snyder’s vision makes way for Gunn’s. In returning to the boy scout version of Supes/Clark Kent (David Corenswet) and hitting on the comic-booky colors of the 1978 classic, “Superman” ’25 is a joyful romp through a topical Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) scheme. It’s helped by perfect casting of Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), a zesty take on Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), and eyebrow-raising springboards to the rest of Gunn’s plan, including wacky anti-hero Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and a teen-terror Supergirl. And Krypto. DC is healing.
7. “Heart Eyes”
D: Josh Ruben, W: Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy
A lot of commercial horror has planted its tongue in its cheek lately, but this is a rare one to do so with genuine cleverness. The titular slasher killer stalks couples, which solidifies the film as a Valentine’s Day entry alongside “Valentine” and the “My Bloody Valentine” films. But it’s therefore not the ideal time for the budding romance to play out between Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding). Then again, it is a good time, because rarely have the incompatible genres of violent slasher and mushy rom-com so smoothly interwoven without either being compromised.
6. “Bring Her Back”
D: Danny and Michael Phillippou, W: Danny Phillippou, Bill Hinzman
There have been a lot of great calling-card horror flicks in the past decade, but many fewer sophomore efforts that back it up. The Aussie team behind 2023’s best horror film, “Talk to Me,” is an exception. As a sometimes-normal, sometimes-odd foster mother (Sally Hawkins) agrees to take in two more children, we cautiously tiptoe into a story with grief as its foundation, weirdness as its propulsive fuel and shocking revelations as its clincher. Good, small horror can still be made without egos getting in the way.
5. “28 Years Later”
D: Danny Boyle, W: Alex Garland
We didn’t have to wait quite 28 years for the second sequel to 2003’s “28 Days Later,” the British film that popularized the fast zombies we’re now accustomed to amid the 21st century explosion of undead fiction. Like M. Night Shyamalan expanding from “Unbreakable,” Boyle and Garland now have a little cinematic universe planned; another entry is set for 2026. But those ambitions don’t hurt the stark beauty of this story set well into the post-apocalypse, centering on a boy learning to become a hunter. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle artfully lenses a world reclaimed by nature (and zombies, natch) as we’re shepherded toward unorthodox thoughts about death.
4. “John Candy: I Like Me”
D: Colin Hanks
Hanks combines clips from Candy movies and home videos, along with actor and family interviews, for a documentary that can’t help but be as lovable as the comedy star himself. Joking that he’s digging deep for dirt, Bill Murray notes that Candy once ad-libbed a scene for longer than was ideal. But let’s give “I Like Me” credit for shining a light on how often Candy was asked about his weight (as shown by his uncomfortable reactions in interviews); it’s something that wouldn’t be done in today’s PC era. Also changing for the better: People now do talk about anxiety; the docu makes a case that Candy’s desire to hide this issue contributed to his early death.
3. “Jurassic World: Rebirth”
D: Gareth Edwards, W: David Koepp
Koepp returns to the franchise for the first time since 1997, and Edwards brings only his best instincts over from the “Godzilla” films, which are edging toward being the “Fast & Furious” of monster movies. The “Jurassic” films are comparatively serious, and this seventh entry is an intimate story of two groups (a poor family and a batch of mercenaries) who converge on an equatorial island to try to survive and to stick needles into massive dinos to get valuable samples, not necessarily in that order. Despite the narrowing of the scope compared to “Dominion,” we get set-ups we’ve long dreamed of, including a mosasaur attack in the ocean and the river-raft sequence from Michael Crichton’s O.G. novel.
2. “Ballerina: From the World of John Wick”
D: Len Wiseman, W: Shay Hatten
For better or worse, it’s now proven that the “John Wick” universe doesn’t require John Wick (Keanu Reeves). Granted, this spinoff taps one of today’s most versatile actresses, Ana de Armas, to play the new gun-fu heroine. We’ve known she had it in her since a brief scene-stealing role in the last “James Bond” movie in 2021. It’s a blast (sometimes literally) to watch Eve come up through the ranks of the ballet/assassin school and be shaped into someone who is mostly a killing machine but who shows glimpses of intriguing humanity. The “Wick”-ian action and one-liners remain – “Can I be Frank with you?” – but the new lead refreshes the franchise.
1. “Thunderbolts”
D: Jake Schreier, W: Eric Pearson and Joanna Callo
Great superhero product can still be made on occasion. A case in point is this ramp-up for a new group of Avengers, which (rather daringly considering how much money is at stake) is comprised of superpowered people with trauma or mental-health issues. And two of them are Russian: former Black Widow assassin Yelena (Florence Pugh, one of today’s great young actresses) and her estranged father (David Harbour). Much of Disney’s output is carefully calibrated to offend no one. But “Thunderbolts,” which uses CGI to create an emotional mood-scape rather than action bombast in the final act, somehow goes against the grain at every turn.