I think that 2025 has been a decent year for films. There have been some really good offerings which will come in the Top 10 list coming soon but like the Top 10, the 10 Worst films of the year was an easy list to compile. If I am being honest then the term ‘worst’ can only really be applied to the second half of this list.
10 - I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (2025)
Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Most reboots are considered pointless but this reboot of the franchise which began in 1997 shows that you need something more than the name to show why you are dusting this franchise off 19 years after the last installment (did you know this was the fourth?).
The film does the Scream 5 trick of bringing the established characters back and mixing them with the new ones and hoping for the best but unlike Scream, this film is so mediocre it borders on me asking why they bothered. The idea of making Ray (Freddie Prince Jr.) one of the killers was so anti-climatic that it makes you question why this was the best they could come up with. Not even bringing Sarah Michelle Gellar was enough to make this film worth seeing.
Technically it's a decent film but because of what it could have been it belongs in this list. Yes this was better than I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer although that was always going to be a low bar to clear as it's one of the worst films that I have seen this year.
9 - ELIO (2025)
Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi & Adrian Molina
Elio belongs on this list because it just seems to lack that Pixar magic. The idea of a lonely young boy abducted by aliens and is mistaken as the ambassador of Earth is something that normally would be a hit but for some reason there was something that felt underwhelming by the end of the film.
It does feel good putting an animated film on the list as they are usually aimed at a younger audience but this seemed to miss a great opportunity in giving the audience its new Inside Out or Up but this will probably be forgotten as people scroll along for something to watch on Disney Plus.
8 - M3GAN 2.0 (2025)
Directed by Gerard Johnstone
I thought that the first one was rather good if slightly stupid but given that this is a Blumhouse film it was never going to be high brow. This sequel deserves some brownie points for trying to do something different but when you strip away the horror which worked well in the first one then what you are left with is a rather soulless encounter.
The trailer should have really been a red flag when it is using a Britney Spears song and that seemed to be the tone of the film which made this a disappointing film. I am highly doubtful that there was be a third one which is probably for the best unless they bring back the horror aspect from the first one.
7 - SMURFS (2025)
Directed by Chris Miller
Another animated one but this was always going to struggle to get a good review from me. I think this was a film that I saw for morbid curiosity (more on than in the next film.
When James Corden isn’t the worst thing in the film then you know that the film has issues (see Cats as an example). This seemed to be another attempt by Hollywood to make Rihanna a movie star and yet again it doesn't work. The animation is fine but this is largely forgettable with a story that is fine for its target audience.
It seems like they are trying to make Smurfs a franchise since the early 2000’s and this one is also going to fail. It’s not been a great year for family films and attempts like Smurfs aren’t going to get families to part with their money to see rather inferior animation (especially compared to Elio).
6 - SNOW WHITE (2025)
Directed by Marc Webb
I don't know if there was a film that arrived at the cinema with as much bad feelings aimed at it than Disney’s latest attempt at remaking its animated classics. Rachel Zegler gets a lot of blame for that but it wasnt Zegler that decided to give Gal Gadot the part of the Evil Queen who is envious of Snow White’s beauty or give her TWO songs to ‘sing’. It wasn't Zegler who made the bandit so wooden and the romance between him and Snow White so void of any chemistry. The less said about the ‘magical beings’ and ‘dwarfs’ the better.
This film should be taught at film schools for all time of how not to do a film and will hopefully make Disney think twice before remaking films although with Moana coming out in 2026, time will tell if that lesson has been learnt.
5 - CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (2025)
Directed by Julius Onah
2025 has been a mixed year for Marvel. After a terrible post-Endgame era with only two films (at best) that have been anything more than terrible, this film was basically sent out to die with news coming that they had hit the reboot button with two new Avengers films coming out in 2026 and 2027.
Brave New World is boring which isn’t what you expect from a Marvel film. The Sam Wilson character is one of the most boring characters in Marvel history and Anthony Mackie seems like he is just going through the motions. Harrison Ford was the best thing in the movie although the film waits until towards the end before we see Red Hulk.
Brave New World shows that you can’t just slap the Captain America name on anyone. I’m not saying that Chris Evans was the most charismatic actor in the world but he made Steve Rogers seem like the most likeable person ever. Thankfully this will be forgotten by most people, especially Marvel.
4 - THE NAKED GUN (2025)
Directed by Akiva Schaffer
I was genuinely looking forward to this as I thought the trailer was quite good with the idea of getting a comedy performance out of Liam Neeson seemed like a slam dunk but sadly this wasn't the case. The jokes are flat and the little skit with Neeson, Pamela Anderson and the Snowman to ‘Nothing's gonna stop us now’ was the highlight.
The supposed romance between Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson seemed to be the biggest talking point leading up to the release of the film which seemed like a red flag but I can’t get past the fact that as I left the cinema after seeing this (which came after seeing Smurfs) showed that comedy is quite hard to do and even with Liam Neeson the film was going to struggle with a weak script and jokes that aren’t as funny as the writers think they are.
3 - THE SURFER (2025)
Directed by Lorcan Finnegan
This film is on the list because I was really disappointed with it. It’s not just because we don't get a typical Nic Cage performance but because there are multiple times when his character could have left the damn car park and yet doesn't. The ‘twist’ comes too late because by this point I had mentally given up on it, which is a shame because I really like Nic Cage and the cinematography looked quite interesting.
This was a film that clearly had a cheap budget but the script doesn't really know how to keep the momentum going until the final act and as a result it feels like a slog to sit through.
2 - MATERIALISTS (2025)
Directed by Celine Song
I knew there was a reason why I don't watch romcoms and Materliasts reminded me. Everyone in this film is horrible. Dakota Johnson plays Lucy who works at a dating agency where the ones looking for love don't seem to want anyone if they earn less than $250,000 and will put themselves through hell to literally grow six inches. Despite Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, the film struggles to make me care about these vacuous people.
Due to the fact that I didn’t care about anybody or whether they ended up happy then this film secured the runners up spot in the worst films of the year. I think the odds of me seeing another romcom or romantic drama anytime soon are low but I suppose time will tell.
1 - HURRY UP TOMORROW (2025)
The worst film of the year was an easy one. I was on holiday and thought I would give this a go and couldn’t believe I saw such a pretentious movie. The Weeknd plays an exaggerated version of himself and during the middle of a concert leaves with Jenna Ortega’s Anima as they have a romantic evening before Anima decides to recreate Misery and explain to The Weeknd what some of his songs mean. The fight between Anima and Barry Keoghan’s Lee was the highlight but that was about two minutes towards the end of the film it was too little too late. I think I am more annoyed that they wasted Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan and The Weeknd should have had enough modesty to withdraw and cast someone who can show more than two emotions.
This is nowhere near as bad as Megalopolis which was the worst film of 2024 if not of all time but Hurry Up Tomorrow is the only film that made me annoyed, bored and have growing resentment for people involved in the making of the film.
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