The 25 Best Movies of 2025

Year in Review: The Best of 2025 main listing image for Best Movies of 2025 featuring images from Weapons, Superman, Sinners, and The Long Walk
(Image credit: Future)

Hollywood has never been in a more precarious position than it has of late, following the shock news that Netflix is officially set to buy Warner Bros. But even if the future of moviedom as we know it is uncertain, what is certain is that 2025 was a great year for the silver screen.

How our Best Movies list was decided

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The GR+ team came together to determine our Movies of the Year for 2025. Each member submitted a ballot of their pick of the 10 best movies of the year in order. We then took those results to help form the ranked list below. The only criteria for inclusion: we must have been able to publish a written review of the movie between Dec 1, 2024 and Nov 30, 2025.

With the ground rules in place, the GamesRadar+ team cast their votes, and the result is the ranked list you're about to read, which represents the movies we loved from across the year. Every one is worth watching, so if there are any you've yet to see, be sure to add them to your watchlist immediately, alongside all the upcoming movies heading your way in 2026. Scroll down to read our full list of the Best Movies of the Year. And before you go, be sure to share your pick for movie of the year by leaving a comment below. – Jordan Farley, Managing Editor, Entertainment

Movies of the Year 2025

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

25. The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Director: Matt Shakman

Few recent Marvel movies have had more riding on them than the MCU reboot of the twice-failed Fantastic Four movie franchise. Thankfully, The Fantastic Four: First Steps mostly delivers on its promises, including massive sci-fi spectacle, the core family dynamic of the team, and visually engrossing use of practical sets, and even a fully-realized costume for the giant, godlike villain Galactus – a character who could easily have been entirely computer generated – and of course, an embrace of the larger-than-life visual style of FF co-creator Jack Kirby.

Though not without its flaws, The Fantastic Four: First Steps pulled off a feat perhaps more compelling than solid box office numbers: crafting a film worthy of Marvel's First Family that captures both the wonder of its setting and the foibles of its all-too-human heroes. Coming off two massive strikes, the third time's the charm for the most classic comic heroes in the entire franchise. – George Marston, Staff Writer

Read our full The Fantastic Four: First Steps review to learn more.

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Emma Stone strapped to a bed with a bald head in Bugonia

(Image credit: Universal)

24. Bugonia

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

If we draw any conclusions from this year in film, it's that Emma Stone should never stop working with Yorgos Lanthimos. The actor's fifth collaboration with the Greek filmmaker is the pair's most bonkers yet: Stone plays Michelle Fuller, a big pharma CEO who's kidnapped by oddball Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) because they're convinced she's an alien responsible for the Earth's decline.

Based on Save the Green Planet!, a 20-year-old Korean movie, Lanthimos and screenwriter Will Tracy bring the story firmly into the 2020s with an effective allegory for online conspiratorial radicalization: the film veers between dark comedy that's as subtle as a sledgehammer and a more unsettling commentary on power and violence. Bugonia is punctuated by destabilizing moments that ask us, who's right? Who's wrong? Who should we sympathize with? Like with the rest of Lanthimos' movies, the answers are never straightforward. – Emily Garbutt, Entertainment Writer

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Alison Brie and Dave Franco in Together

(Image credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute.)

23. Together

Director: Michael Shanks

Writer-director Michael Shanks smuggles a tense relationship drama inside a gooey body horror in his feature-length debut Together – and what a debut it is. The relationship between teacher Millie (Alison Brie) and her aspiring musician boyfriend Tim (Dave Franco) is in trouble. In an attempt to claw back their closeness, they go hiking around their new home in the wilderness, and wind up falling into an underground cave.

Then, well, real weird stuff starts happening – and the growing distance between them becomes (physically) unbearable. Anchored by its leads' emotional, nuanced performances, the zany flick is perfectly paced, spending enough time on Millie and Tim's dwindling romance early on to ensure you're invested by its gobsmacking climax. A smart, skin-crawlingly scary look at the perils of codependency – and, perhaps more interestingly, the beauty of it. – Amy West, Entertainment Writer

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Josh O'Connor as JB in The Mastermind

(Image credit: MUBI)

22. The Mastermind

Director: Kelly Reichardt

What do you get if you cross Josh O'Connor's grave-robber-of-few-words from La Chimera with his dirtbag tennis player from Challengers? Well, that would be JB Mooney, the hapless art thief at the center of Kelly Reichardt's latest, The Mastermind. Restless, bored, and reluctant to do anything that might constitute being a good husband or father, JB decides to orchestrate a heist of four paintings by modernist Arthur Dove from his local smalltown Massachusetts gallery.

The theft is just the start of the story, though, and the rest of the film is concerned with the aftermath of the heist, a slow, ambling unravelling that takes JB across the country but no further away from his problems. Set against a backdrop of early '70s anti-war protests, Reichardt's themes of powerlessness and apathy feel timeless. They're injected with plenty of wry, deadpan humor, though, that makes sure we're always one step ahead of JB, laughing at him rather than with him. – Emily Garbutt, Entertainment Writer

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Ghost, Bob, Yelena, and John Walker peeking around a corner in Thunderbolts

(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

21. Thunderbolts*

Director: Jake Schreier

Thunderbolts* may not have been the highest profile or biggest banking superhero movie of 2025, but it may ultimately prove to be one of the year's most influential films on the future of the genre. Marketed as a return to practical filmmaking with a focus on characters and relationships, Thunderbolts* taps into a level of emotional sincerity that has rarely been reached in recent MCU movies. The strategy proved so successful that Disney CEO Bob Iger pointed to Thunderbolts* as one of the major touchstones for its future superhero output.

As it happens, Thunderbolts* is also a damn good entry in the Marvel canon, with a lovable ensemble cast, a villain who gets more development than many MCU threats, and the promised filmmaking spectacle that can be lost in the CGI-heavy environments of green screen-centric movies. It all adds up to one of the most compelling underdog blockbusters of 2025. – George Marston, Staff Writer

Read our full Thunderbolts* review to learn more.

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Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked: For Good

(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

20. Wicked: For Good

Director: Jon M. Chu

Following up Wicked: Part One, a near-perfect adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical, was a formidable task. But, while Wicked: For Good lacks some of the dazzle of its predecessor, this sequel is still a more than worthy second half. Following Elphaba's dramatic exit at the end of the first film, For Good picks up in the aftermath, with Glinda now firmly part of the Wizard's propaganda machine and Elphaba hunted across Oz.

Songs like 'No Good Deed' and, of course, the titular tearjerker 'For Good' pack a serious emotional punch, while Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande cement themselves as flawless casting for Elphaba and Glinda. This half of the tale also cleverly weaves in the events of The Wizard of Oz, putting a new spin on the story we all know and love. By the time the credits roll, you'll need an entire pack of tissues. – Molly Edwards, Acting Deputy Entertainment Editor

Read our full Wicked: For Good review to learn more.

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Lee Byung-hun as Man-su in No Other Choice

(Image credit: MUBI)

19. No Other Choice

Director: Park Chan-wook

Lee Byung-hun stars as Yoo Man-su, a dedicated worker at a paper factory who is abruptly laid off after 25 years of service. Man-su is so committed to his career, though, that when rejoining the industry the old fashioned way doesn't work out, he decides to stage a fake job opening and simply murder his competition. But Man-su is no action hero, and he's hardly mentally or physically equipped for cold-blooded homicide. That doesn't stop him from trying.

What follows is a twisty satire thriller that expertly skewers our ruthless capitalist system and the outdated belief that a man must provide, all through our deeply flawed but somehow sympathetic protagonist. In true Park Chan-wook style, the humor is pitch black and the pathos is abundant – you'll ricochet from laughing to wincing and back again – and Lee gives one of the strongest (and most effortlessly hilarious) performances of the year. – Molly Edwards, Acting Deputy Entertainment Editor

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A Predator in Predator: Killer of Killers

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

18. Predator: Killer of Killers

Directors: Dan Trachtenberg, Joshua Wassung

2025 saw Dan Trachtenberg follow up his hit Predator movie Prey with Predator: Badlands, but before the live-action movie hit the big screen, he blessed us with animated anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers. Told in three chapters, it sees some of Earth's fiercest – a Viking warrior in the 800s, a samurai in Feudal Japan, and a US fighter pilot in World War 2 – take on different titular beasties. It's a simple but effective action-thriller, as it sees the eponymous hunters inject themselves into some of the most brutal periods in history.

Brought to life by animation studio The Third Floor, it evokes Netflix's Arcane and the Spider-Verse movies with its colorful, painterly style. Some sequences are so dazzling, they look like they've been lifted right out of a video game; with Trachtenberg and Wassung making full use of the medium's freedom to create action sequences that would've been near impossible to do for real with a guy in a Yautja suit. – Amy West, Entertainment Writer

Read our full Predator: Killer of Killers review to learn more.

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Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes in a driving suit walking on a racetrack in F1: The Movie

(Image credit: Warner Bros./Apple)

17. F1: The Movie

Director: Joseph Kosinski

The surprise hit of the summer, with bigger box office returns than any of the year's superhero offerings, F1 brought a bit of Top Gun: Maverick magic to 2025. Shot largely for real on F1 racetracks around the world over the course of two years, Kosinski's Maverick follow-up utilized many of that movie's learnings to put the audience in the cockpit of a precision-engineered machine hurtling around the screen at hair-raising speed.

Outside of the race-based innovations and despite the considerable efforts of a more-than-capable cast, F1 fell short of pole position due to its more conventional underdog sports movie framework; like an F1 driver, you almost certainly anticipated every single twist and turn. Even still, watching actual Brad Pitt zip his way around the track at 200mph as fireworks lit up the night sky and Hans Zimmer's score stirred the soul was enough to restore your faith in tentpole moviemaking. – Jordan Farley, Managing Editor, Entertainment

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Tim Robinson as Craig Waterman and Paul Rudd as Austin Carmichael in Friendship.

(Image credit: Spencer Pazer / A24)

16. Friendship

Director: Andrew DeYoung

On the moral alignments chart, one would rate Tim Robinson as a chaotic good, Paul Rudd as a lawful good… and Conner O'Malley as a chaotic evil. Friendship is a laugh-out-loud funny, albeit highly stressful arthouse film about the unlikely bond that forms between a painfully awkward man and the guy that everyone generally likes. What seems like a typical buddy comedy quickly derails into a toxic tale of obsession – and the final shot of the film is one that'll be stuck in your mind for a couple of days.

While unconventional comedian O'Malley doesn't play a particularly big part in the movie, there's an entirely improvised scene involving him, Robinson, and a drumset that I find myself going back to almost weekly. If you don't end up watching Friendship in its entirety, watching O'Malley face off against Robinson – and then going back to watch the extended deleted version of the scene – is truly enough. – Lauren Milici, Senior Writer

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Chainsaw Man screaming in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

(Image credit: Sony/Crunchyroll)

15. Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

Director: Tatsuya Yoshihara

Think Chainsaw Man and you might think blood, guts, and that vomiting scene. Reze Arc dares to be different – with its opening half dedicated to the slow, sensuous blossoming of a relationship between series protagonist (and devil hunter) Denji and his new flame Reze, who is hiding a hellish secret. Anime or otherwise, it's one of the braver narrative shifts seen in cinemas this year – even if it's all fated to end in disaster.

The slice-of-life, inevitably, becomes sliced apart as Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc revs up into a cacophony of color and chaos on the streets of Tokyo. But what will really stick with you is those opening acts, a touching portrait of teenage innocence and first loves in a dangerous and confusing world that often wants Denji dead. Chainsaw Man has never had issues bringing its spectacle and comedy to life. Reze Arc was confirmation – if any was needed – that this anime's capacity to surprise is its best secret weapon. – Bradley Russell, Senior Entertainment Writer

Read our full Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc review to learn more.

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Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

(Image credit: Paramount)

14. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Mission: Impossible has worn many hats over the past three decades: paranoid thriller, big-budget blockbuster, slick spy adventure. It's Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise's latter-day maximalist approach to the iconic action franchise that has been most well-received, however. Final Reckoning is the absolute peak of that everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach, complete with several years-in-the-making callbacks. A follow-up to Dead Reckoning, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt faces a race against time to stop AI superweapon The Entity from unleashing nuclear armageddon on the world.

Is it silly? Sure. But Tom Cruise, again, takes his stuntwork very seriously – culminating in a near-series-best plummet into the creaking, cavernous structure of a stranded submarine. The mere fact Ethan Hunt later dukes it out with villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) in a Looney Tunes-style dogfight – complete with one of the year's most cathartic bone breaks – speaks volumes of Final Reckoning's occasionally unwieldy, bloated approach to having its cake, eating it, then blowing the bakery up. But that's something we chose to accept a long time ago. – Bradley Russell, Senior Entertainment Writer

Read our full Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning review to learn more.

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Liam Neeson as Frank Drebbin, Jr in The Naked Gun (2025).

(Image credit: Paramount)

13. The Naked Gun

Director: Akiva Schaffer

Somehow, Akiva Schaffer wrote and directed The Naked Gun reboot-sequel without seeing the film Jack Frost starring Michael Keaton as a distant father who dies in a car crash and is resurrected as a snowman – and I'm still not entirely sure how. Regardless, the film is a love letter to the franchise, following the classic joke-per-minute format and making as many silly choices as humanly possible – even going as far as to cast Liam Neeson because his name sounded similar enough to OG star Leslie Nielsen.

The standout scene, besides a rather touching but ridiculous sequence involving a father-son team-up via a ghost inhabiting the body of an owl (you have to see it to believe it), is an almost 10-minute romp involving an aforementioned snowman who enters into a love triangle with Neeson and Pamela Anderson before it turns deadly. If there is any scene in a film that hasn't left my brain for a singular second this year, it's the Naked Gun Jack Frost Love Triangle sequence. You're welcome. – Lauren Milici, Senior Writer

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Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc and Josh O'Connor as Jud Duplenticy in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

(Image credit: Netflix)

12. Wake Up Dead Man

Director: Rian Johnson

Daniel Craig's dapperly dressed detective Benoit Blanc is faced with his most impossible case yet in Wake Up Dead Man, the surprisingly soulful sequel to Knives Out and Glass Onion. This time, he's forced to team up with Josh O'Connor's boxer-turned-priest Jud Duplenticy, when Josh Brolin's brutish Monsignor Wicks is killed under impossible circumstances mid-sermon. Jud's obvious disdain for Wicks' way of shepherding his church-going flock doesn't do him any favors when the local police come a-knocking – but this is a Rian Johnson mystery, of course, and twists and turns are in abundance.

Craig is as fun as ever as Blanc, acting as the quick-witted, flippant atheist foil to O'Connor's open-hearted guilt-ridden clergyman – and the pair make for a wonderful double act. One second they're camping it up with a bit of physical comedy, the next? Flooring you with a genuinely profound monologue. As much about finding whodunnit as it is figuring out what faith means to you, Wake Up Dead Man is a 2025 must-see. – Amy West, Entertainment Writer

Read our full Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review to learn more.

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Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver and Sally Hawkins as Laura in Bring Her Back

(Image credit: Sony Pictures)

11. Bring Her Back

Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

Three years after filmmaking duo Michael and Danny Philippou made a name for themselves in the horror genre with hit paranormal body horror Talk to Me, the pressure was on for their next project. However, Bring Her Back not only delivered on the scares, but also, surprisingly, took viewers on a very emotional journey through the stages of grief and how it can turn someone from a loving figure into something like a monster.

When two siblings are put into foster care, they are quickly taken in by an eccentric woman whose dark past drags them into a supernatural and satanic situation. Sally Hawins plays a layered villain who viewers feel able to both hate and feel sorry for. But its not all tears and sobs, and the Talk to Me follow-up also delivers one of the most squeamish scenes in 2025 horror history. All we have to say about that is teeth, knife, table. *shivers*. – Megan Garside, Editorial Executive

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Movies of the Year 2025: The Top 10

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle

(Image credit: Koyoharu Gotoge/SHUEISHA, Aniplex, ufotable)

10. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle

Director: Haruo Sotozaki

2025 is undoubtedly the year anime came of age. At the forefront of this cultural upheaval is Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, a dazzling step forward for the shonen anime as it inches towards its endgame on the big screen. The movie, an adaptation of one of the manga's final arcs, sees Tanjiro and his Hashira allies trapped inside the sprawling, ever-shifting structure of the Infinity Castle, which houses series Big Bad Muzan Kibutsuji and his legion of fearsome Upper Rank demons.

With Ufotable's deft hand, the animation sparkles and ensures its 155-minute runtime breezes by quicker than one of Tanjiro's fire-drenched attacks as three hotly-anticipated showdowns arrive at a pulsating climax. Wisely, the adrenaline-fueled action cools down midway through to allow one of its primary villains, Akaza, the chance to shine in improbable fashion. This Superman-killer at the box office soared higher than most expected – and is proof enough that anime is officially Hollywood's Next Big Thing. – Bradley Russell, Senior Entertainment Writer

Read our full Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review to learn more.

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Jacob Elordi as the Creature and Mia Goth as Elizabeth in Frankenstein

(Image credit: Netflix)

9. Frankenstein

Director: Guillermo del Toro

When it was announced that the king of gothic horror, Guillermo del Toro, would be adapting one of the greatest novels in the genre, we knew we'd be in for a treat. It had been 10 years since the director's last venture into the subgenre, Crimson Peak, hit screens, full of the most beautiful Victorian-era set pieces and ghostly goodness. But as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has been adapted quite literally hundreds of times, many wondered just what del Toro would do differently.

Starring Oscar Isaac as the egotistical yet brilliant Victor Franketsein, whose obsession with creating life leads to the breakdown of his own, del Toro's take focuses on the emotional aspects of the classic tale. By straying away slightly from its source material, the new movie allows viewers to connect and sympathize with the creature more than ever before. Plus, with great performances from Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth, Frankenstein almost succeeds at becoming this year's Nosferatu, and that's a feat in itself. – Bradley Russell, Senior Entertainment Writer

Read our full Frankenstein review to learn more.

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Rumi, Mira, and Zoey in KPop Demon Hunters

(Image credit: Netflix)

8. KPop Demon Hunters

Directors: Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang

Nobody saw KPop Demon Hunters coming. The film launched quietly on Netflix to little fanfare, but it didn't take long for this animated extravaganza to take over the entire world. The film follows Huntr/x, a K-pop girl group who double as fearless demon hunters, protecting the world with their voice. However, a rival, demonic boy band throws a spanner in the works, especially when Rumi finds herself drawn to leading man Jinu.

With vibrant animation that pops off the screen, a soundtrack full of earworms, and a moving story about self-acceptance, KPop Demon Hunters is the most welcome surprise of the year. It's nothing short of a global phenomenon, too: Halloween was dominated by mini Rumis, "Golden" has become a mainstay on the charts, and the film is Netflix's most-watched release ever. Roll on KPop Demon Hunters 2. – Molly Edwards, Acting Deputy Entertainment Editor

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Dr. Kelson welcoming Spike and Isla to the Bone Temple in Danny Boyle's zombie horror sequel 28 Years Later

(Image credit: Sony Pictures UK)

7. 28 Years Later

Director: Danny Boyle

Time has passed but it certainly hasn't healed, as the tagline for this three-decades-later follow up to Danny Boyle's game-changing indie zombie thriller 28 Days Later promised. Boyle and original screenwriter Alex Garland returned for a film that successfully erased the bad taste left by 2007's misconceived 28 Weeks Later. Years returned the franchise's focus to a now isolated UK – consciously invoking the specters of both Brexit and COVID in the process.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Jamie was the nominal lead here, but it was newcomer Alfie Williams as Spike who stole our hearts, as a young boy getting his first taste of how cruel adult life can be. Years was as scary and violent as you'd hope, but it was also thoughtful and melancholy, a more mature film than its predecessors, and a great welcome back to this dangerous world. – Will Salmon, Streaming Editor

Read our full 28 Years Later review to learn more.

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Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi in Predator: Badlands

(Image credit: Disney)

6. Predator: Badlands

Director: Dan Trachtenberg

Dan Trachtenberg's reinvention of the once moribund action franchise continues apace. Having brought Predator back from the dead with 2021's Prey, then delivering a surprise anime anthology with this year's Killer of Killers, Badlands was the director's biggest risk yet. It's one that has paid off and then some, with a strong critical and commercial response.

It could all have gone so badly wrong, too... Badlands flips the script by giving us our first ever Predator protagonist in the outcast Yautja Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), teaming him up with a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic named Thia (Elle Fanning) on a monster hunt. This odd couple dynamic works incredibly well, the sweet-natured synth gently ribbing the taciturn-yet-empathetic hunter. The action scenes feel fresh and fun, while Trachtenberg cunningly moves things into place for a potential sequel. At times it feels a bit like a Dark Horse Comics story come to life before your eyes – but there's nothing wrong with that. – Will Salmon, Streaming Editor

Read our full Predator: Badlands review to learn more.

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Mark Hamill as the Major in The Long Walk

(Image credit: Lionsgate)

5. The Long Walk

Director: Francis Lawrence

In a year with many Stephen King adaptations, The Long Walk might have been the best. Set in the not-too-distant future, it imagined an economically and ecologically ravaged United States where an inspirational, but barbaric, annual tradition has emerged in which 50 young men must walk as far as their legs will carry them. Break the rules or fall behind, and the consequence is death.

Shot with a stark beauty by Hunger Games vet Francis Lawrence, The Long Walk's influence on the likes of Battle Royale and Squid Game was plain to see in retrospect (King wrote the book, his very first, over 50 years ago). But despite the horrifying thrill of witnessing hopeful young men literally march to their death one by one, The Long Walk worked as well as it did because of the deeply felt kinship between David Jonsson's Peter McVries and Cooper Hoffman's Ray Garraty. A gruelling, but great, watch. – Jordan Farley, Managing Editor, Entertainment

Read our full The Long Walk review to learn more.

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Julia Garner in Weapons

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

4. Weapons

Director: Zach Cregger

Seven hot dogs… a day? Weapons is a horror movie about missing kids – and much like Zach Cregger's directorial debut Barbarian, it's as funny as it is absolutely disturbing. During the film's marketing, Amy Madigan's dishevelled old lady villain character was concealed from any and all advertisements, making her appearance all the more jarring and jump scare-inducing.

It's worth noting that Weapons was born out of grief, and that Cregger began writing the film as a way to cope with the death of best friend and former comedic collaborator Trevor Moore. There's a scene involving a peculiar amount of hot dogs that the internet spent days trying to decode, but some eagle-eyed fans of Whitest Kids U Know, Cregger and Moore's comedy troupe, were quick to point out that it was a subtle reference to an old Moore sketch. Come for the horror, stay for the friendship. – Lauren Milici, Senior Writer

Read our full Weapons review to learn more.

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Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

3. One Battle After Another

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

No other film this year moves quite like One Battle After Another. Local youths skateboard across rooftops like extras in a modern-day West Side Story; despite Leonardo DiCaprio's clumsiness as deadbeat stoner and former revolutionary Bob, he and Benecio del Toro's Sensei Sergio hurry through an apartment building with balletic kineticism; cars glide up and down an undulating highway during a nail-biting car chase in a manner that's nothing short of hypnotic.

Bob's real name isn't Bob, though: he and his teenage daughter Willa have been living under false identities for over a decade after Willa's mother ratted out their revolutionary group, the French 75, to the cops. Unable to hide forever, Bob is forced back into his old ways when the terrifying Steven J. Lockjaw finally tracks them down. Chase Infiniti is a revelation as Willa, and del Toro, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor round out a phenomenal supporting cast. – Emily Garbutt, Entertainment Writer

Read our full One Battle After Another review to learn more.

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Sinners movie

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

2. Sinners

Director: Ryan Coogler

Ryan Coogler has built a reputation both as a thoughtful artisan with a unique vision and as a filmmaker with an eye for communicating complex themes through big, blockbuster entertainment, and his 2025 opus Sinners splits this difference with aplomb. With a story based in the white supremacist politics of the Jim Crow era of US history, told through the metaphor of vampirism, Sinners packs in its share of bloody thrills while also tapping into an emotional resonance that reflects the most predatory aspects of a racist society.

Sinners also includes some particularly notable filmmaking feats such as the extensive work required for star Michael B. Jordan to seamlessly play twin brothers Smoke and Stack, and its incorporation of generation-spanning music to convey its cultural commentary. For all this, Sinners is a rare film that manages to perfectly balance its message while also feeling fulfilling as populist entertainment. – George Marston, Staff Writer

Movie of the Year 2025

David Corenswet in costume Superman, with a blue GamesRadar+ Best of 2025 logo in the top right

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

1. Superman

Director: James Gunn

2025 was the year that superhero cinema was finally dethroned after more than a decade of box office domination. But there was something perfect about the fact that the original, all-American comic-book hero offered hope for the future. A movie that had to shoulder the weight of the nascent DCU as well as work on its own terms, James Gunn's high-pressure Superman reboot didn't just succeed, it soared.

Featuring a vibrant Supes for a new generation, David Corenswet's fundamentally optimistic Kryptonian embodied the film's radical and resonant ethos: "Kindness, maybe that's the real punk rock.” Gunn's fingerprints were all over it – gonzo action and misanthropic anti-heroes somehow sat comfortably alongside unashamed sentimentality – but after 11 standalone Superman movies, what impressed most was that Gunn's take on the Big Blue Boy Scout felt entirely fresh.

The Justice Gang flying in Superman
Image credit: Warner Bros.
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor in Superman
Image credit: DC Studios

Impressively juggling around a dozen significant supporting characters – including Edi Gathegi's standout, Mr. Terrific, and Rachel Brosnahan's note-perfect Lois Lane – Corenswet's Superman met his match in Nicholas Hoult's perpetually indignant braniac (without the capital 'B'), Lex Luthor. Shorn of Hackman's goofball edge, Hoult's Luthor introduced danger and stakes to a typcially bulletproof hero.

Unafraid to make provocative changes (not least, turning Superman's parents into tyrants) and fully embracing the stranger side of the comics (pocket dimensions, Baby Joey) from the jump, Superman was exactly the kind of bold, confident swing that superhero cinema had been crying out for after years of stale sequels, safe bets and failed experiments. If Superman is anything to go by, the future of the DCU is in very safe hands. – Jordan Farley, Managing Editor, Entertainment

Read our full Superman review to learn more.

Dive deeper into why Superman is our Movie of the Year for 2025 with our exploration of its "hopeful rejection of cynicism"

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Celebrate the best of 2025 with GamesRadar+

Best of 2025 hub image

(Image credit: Future)

GamesRadar+ presents Year in Review: The Best of 2025, our coverage of all the unforgettable games, movies, TV, hardware, and comics released during the last 12 months. Throughout December, we’re looking back at the very best of 2025, so be sure to check in across the month for new lists, interviews, features, and retrospectives as we guide you through the best the past year had to offer.

Jordan Farley
Managing Editor, Entertainment

I'm the Managing Editor, Entertainment here at GamesRadar+, overseeing the site's film and TV coverage. In a previous life as a print dinosaur, I was the Deputy Editor of Total Film magazine, and the news editor at SFX magazine. Fun fact: two of my favourite films released on the same day - Blade Runner and The Thing.

With contributions from

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