We are at the half way stage in what started off as a pretty slow year in cinema but has managed to step up its game with some major releases in the last couple months. I have not quite got round to seeing everything I would have liked but have seen 57 new titles so far, and have compiled a list of my Top 10 Favourite Movies that have been released so far in 2025.
The majority of these I would have predicted at the start of the year with a couple appearing on my most anticipated list, but a couple of major surprises have exceeded expectations and rocketed up in my rankings. I wonder how many can keep their place in the top ten come year’s end.
Honourable Mentions:
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
- Predator: Killer of Killers
- Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
- The Assessment
- Ballerina
- The Rule of Jenny Pen
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Deep Cover
- The Monkey
- The Ugly Stepsister
10. F1: The Movie
Dir: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem
Synopsis: In the 1990s, Sonny Hayes was Formula 1’s most promising driver until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, the owner of a struggling Formula 1 team convinces Sonny to return to racing and become the best in the world. Driving alongside the team’s hotshot rookie, Sonny soon learns that the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.
This feature length advertisement for F1 is ironically formulaic in its storytelling, but some exhilarating race sequences and a charismatic Brad Pitt make for a breath-taking cinematic experience
9. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Dir: Christopher McQuarrie
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, Tramell Tillman
Synopsis: Ethan Hunt and the IMF team race against time to find the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence that can destroy mankind.
They may be guilty of talking down to their audience, but Cruise and McQuarrie continue to up the stakes in this thrilling final instalment of the long-running action franchise
8. Thunderbolts*
Dir: Jake Schreier
Cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Synopsis: Ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker — embarks on a dangerous mission that forces them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
A captivating Florence Pugh leads a ragtag team of Marvel outcasts in this surprisingly dark and unconventional superhero flick, which may be the best MCU entry since the heady heights of “Endgame”
7. Mickey 17
Dir: Bong Joon-ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo
Synopsis: A disposable employee is sent on a human expedition to colonize the ice world Niflheim. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact.
This zany sci-fi satire from Bong Joon-ho may prove to be too wacky for some, but the visionary Korean filmmaker’s ability to seamlessly blend genres from scene-to-scene remains unrivalled
6. Presence
Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Julia Fox, Natalie Woolams-Torres
Synopsis: A family becomes convinced they are not alone after moving into their new home in the suburbs.
Steven Soderbergh’s slow but captivating supernatural drama follows a ghostly presence as it witnesses the domestic hostilities within a suburban household
5. Warfare
Dir: Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
Cast: D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Noah Centineo, Michael Gandolfini
Synopsis: A surveillance mission goes wrong for a platoon of American Navy SEALs in insurgent territory in Iraq.
Co-directed by Alex Garland and war veteran Ray Mendoza, “Warfare” tells the story of the latter’s real life experiences in Iraq by disturbingly recreating the true horrors of modern day combat
4. Companion
Dir: Drew Hancock
Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, Rupert Friend
Synopsis: A weekend getaway at a remote cabin turns to chaos when it’s revealed that one of the guests — a subservient android built for human companionship — has gone haywire.
This hilariously dark and unpredictable feminist thriller will keep you guessing ’til the very end despite revealing its biggest twist way too early
3. Black Bag
Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Rege-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan
Synopsis: When his beloved wife, Kathryn, is suspected of betraying the nation, intelligence agent George Woodhouse faces the ultimate test — loyalty to his marriage or his country.
Human lie detector Michael Fassbender is tasked with finding a traitor within British Intelligence in this slick and sexy espionage caper from Steven Soderbergh
2. 28 Years Later
Dir: Danny Boyle
Cast: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, Jack O’Connell, Ralph Fiennes
Synopsis: It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped from a biological weapons laboratory. Still living in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amid the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When one of them decides to venture into the dark heart of the mainland, he soon discovers a mutation that has spread to not only the infected, but other survivors as well.
This highly anticipated zombie sequel sees Danny Boyle and Alex Garland recapture the urgency and visceral intensity of the ground-breaking original by addressing modern social anxieties
1. Sinners
Dir: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Buddy Guy, Delroy Lindo, Li Jun Li
Synopsis: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their Mississippi hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Michael B. Jordan stars as bootlegging twin brothers in Ryan Coogler’s toe-tapping supernatural tale that boasts plenty of substance beneath its stunning blood-soaked visuals for audiences to sink their teeth into
Dan Loves Film 
10,9,8 done 👍🏻 … thanks for a great to do list 😃
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