Welcome to the annual New Year's edition of 6 Flicks Picks to ring in 2025!
I still wish I had the time and resources to go back to making this a monthly feature. While I cannot promise 2025 will be a return to that, given the state of the world in many different facets (as well as my own personal struggles throughout 2024 and seemingly, how things could get more difficult in 2025), I do want to put it out there that if I can find a way to do this monthly, I will certainly try. It does make it harder to do than in previous years before COVID changed how movie release dates are announced in advance and how theatres often don't stick to their releases, and will change them frequently.
With that being said, the year-in-full edition of 6 Flicks Picks works the same way it always has. Rather than being limited to just six for this list, I'm going to be breaking down my top six as well as some supplemental groups of six for different tier lists, in a sense, of how much I want to see those movies.
Still, the general question remains: If you could only watch six movies for the entire year, which ones would those be?
Obviously, not every film that will come out this year is currently announced, and I haven't seen trailers for the vast majority of them. That is part of the fun when you can look back and see which movies you enjoyed more and which ones were surprises.
Without further ado, let's take a look at what makes my cut for 2025!
6 FLICKS PICKS FOR 2025
As far as January 1st is concerned, here are my top 30 picks.
Bottom Tier Honorable Mentions:
30. Novocaine — Just like Love Hurts, this is a movie that I immediately thought I'd want to watch, but as the trailer progressed, the less interested I became. By the end of it, I'm on the fence, as it could just be too...I don't know the word. Not "silly" or "hokey", but the type of Ryan Reynolds kind of meta wink and nod sarcasm humor that I'm frankly getting tired of. The slow motion shot of the knife going into his hand, for instance, didn't make me chuckle, and I'm starting to think this movie won't actually be all that funny. But on paper, it sounds like something I'd like.
29. Paddington in Peru — Can I put this on the list if I haven't even seen the other movies, but I'm just going on the assumption I would like them since they're so highly rated? I really do have to just sit down and watch them this year before this comes out.
28. Trey Parker & Matt Stone live action musical — No name or any information about this, so I have to put it down low. But based on their track record, I think I'll be checking it out. Book of Mormon was so much fun and South Park is just amazing, Team America is underrated, etc.
27. Companion — Stop showing me the trailer before every single movie, as I'm starting to get annoyed with this. It seems interesting not knowing what this is really about. I want to be kept in the dark.
26. Mickey 17 — Based on the premise and how Parasite was so good, they've earned enough good will to get me to see this, even if the trailer didn't wow me.
25. The Accountant 2 — I remember digging the first one enough to warrant watching a sequel, even if I'll have to watch a YouTube video to refresh my memory of what the hell even happened in the first one at this point since it's been nearly a decade.
Low Tier Honorable Mentions:
24. Saw XI — All of these movies are the same, and they're not all that great anymore, but since they're a legacy franchise, I'm sure my wife will want to see this and we might have a fun time in the theatre with people reacting to the traps.
23. Black Bag — Let's see what Michael Fassbender and Regé-Jean Page would have done as James Bond, starring alongside James Bond himself Pierce Brosnan and James Bond's Moneypenny Naomie Harris. This took me by surprise recently, as I hadn't heard anything about it, but after seeing the trailer before Nosferatu, I immediately wrote it down as an option to check out.
22. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 — The first one was pretty dumb, if I'm being honest, but it was a fun time in the theatre. That's worth seeing a second one, so long as it's with a packed house.
21. Zootopia 2 — Solid first film. They've earned the right for me to see the sequel.
20. The Black Phone 2 — As will continue to be echoed, I liked the first one enough that on the strength of that, I'll see a sequel. I'm not sure how they can do a follow-up, though.
19. The Bad Guys 2 — Echo again. The first was pretty fun.
Middle Tier Honorable Mentions:
18. How to Train Your Dragon — Three solid animated films. A live-action version of the first one, which was arguably the strongest of them? Thumbs up.
17. Nobody 2 — Let's keep that echo going. I enjoyed the first one, so I'll watch the second. There isn't much more than that. However, this is definitely going to be one that I watch at home. My wife didn't watch the first, wouldn't like it, so I'll just wait to watch this on demand at home by myself.
16. M3GAN 2.0 — This, on the other hand, will again be a theatre watch to get the fun reactions from the crowd. The first was the right type of silly for me when it comes to comedic horror films.
15. The Running Man — Can they actually take the Arnold Schwarzenegger film that had a good premise, but is mired by that style of schlocky action writing, and turn it into a Minority Report type of project? Maybe. Maybe not. This gets a midway spot until I see a trailer that convinces me to upgrade or downgrade it.
14. Happy Gilmore 2 — I used to like Billy Madison better, but I'm curious what the story is for this sequel. I hope I actually laugh, rather than feel embarrassed about the comedy.
13. Predator: Badlands — This ranks this high strictly based on me hoping they learned their lessons from Prey, which was the best Predator film since the first. I hope this is more like that and less like...well...everything else we've gotten over the years.
Top Tier Honorable Mentions:
12. Jurassic World Rebirth — Ugh. Damn it. You're going to get me in the theatre for this just because I'm a kid that was wowed by the first film.
11. Mortal Kombat 2 — While not a "good movie" by most metrics, the previous Mortal Kombat film was a fun ride and I'm down to see this.
10. 28 Years Later — The amount of times I can just repeat "well, I liked the first one/two, so I'll see this by default" is staggering, but...well...that.
9. Tron: Ares — Man, I wish this had Daft Punk on the soundtrack. I happen to think not only is that score one of the best in film history (yes, for any film, ever), but I think TRON: Legacy is underrated for a movie that massively stepped up the game from the previous film. I don't like the first TRON movie. Legacy rocks. I hope Ares is a worthwhile successor. It's a shame this doesn't seem to be following the events of Legacy in the way that I would have liked.
8. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina — As I wrote last year, when this was supposed to come out in 2024, I binged the John Wick films in early 2023 and was surprised at how much I enjoyed them. Having since also watched The Continental, I'm down for anything this world throws my way.
7. Karate Kid: Legends — In a similar vein to the John Wick series, I binged all the Karate Kid stuff in 2022 and loved it all. Well, not The Next Karate Kid, as that sucks, and I didn't watch the reboot with Jackie Chan yet, but Cobra Kai is amazing and I really hope this is more of that quality. I'm also very curious how this is going to tie into that, or if it doesn't, how they're going to explain why it doesn't.
What Made the Final Cut:
6. The Fantastic Four: First Steps — This is not at all how I want my Fantastic 4 film to be, as I wouldn't have gone with anyone in this cast except Vanessa Kirby, I wouldn't have done the 60s aesthetic, I wouldn't have set this in an alternate universe, I wouldn't have had a Silver Surfer that isn't Norrin Radd, I wouldn't have RDJ as Doctor Doom, and I wouldn't have even bothered to do any of this prior to Secret Wars, as I would have just gone with introducing F4 as the first film AFTER that...but it's Marvel, it's the MCU, and it's an important movie in the franchise, so I'm OBVIOUSLY going to be here on opening night.
5. The Naked Gun — Naked Gun is one of my top 5 favorite comedies of all time; possibly #2, behind Robin Hood: Men in Tights. The other 3 in the running, for anyone who is curious, are Not Another Teen Movie, Dumb & Dumber, and Clerks. Considering 3 of those are spoof films, that says a lot. Normally, I wouldn't be down for this type of reboot, and I'm nervous this is going to be more of a Scary Movie 4 situation rather than a Scary Movie 1 or 3 (two other spoof films I love), but Liam Neeson has great potential to have the sort of delivery that will work for this. Please just make it like the first one and not even the Naked Gun sequels, that I feel are just shit in comparison to how good the first one is. I don't want Epic Movie or Superhero Movie levels of crap. If so, this is going to be my most disappointing movie of 2025.
4. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning — These movies keep killing it. I'm excited and anxious about the grand finale, but I trust them to deliver.
3. Captain America: Brave New World — All these rewrites have me nervous, and I'm not particularly sold on this concept being the best thing going forward, but you had me at MCU.
2. Thunderbolts* — After seeing the trailers for all the MCU movies coming out this year, this one seems the best. If you count Daredevil: Born Again into the mix, though, that one wins. But that's not a film, so it doesn't go on this list. I hope we get a proper Sentry.
1. Superman —LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. They even have a perfect tagline in "Look up". While some of the choices aren't the ones I'd have made, like having the red trunks and putting Guy Gardner and such in this, the trailer was awesome, and I think James Gunn is going to knock this out of the park. I'm so down for optimistic, hopeful, inspiring Superman, especially after the shit fest that was 2024 and the impending doom of 2025 in the real world.
WHICH MOVIES ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CHECKING OUT?
TELL US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
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