Monthly Archives: January 2026

Movie Reviews

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – Review

Leave a comment

It feels like it was only yesterday that we were revisiting the post-apocalyptic world of the 28 Days Later series on the big screen, and that’s not too far off from the truth.  It took 20 years for director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland to revisit their zombie movie classic with a fresh new sequel, 28 Years Later (2025).  In that time, Danny Boyle would become an Oscar winning filmmaker with the success of Slumdog Millionaire (2008).  Also in that same time, Alex Garland would become a director of note, with movies like Ex Machina (2015) and Civil War (2024) to his name.  So, a lot of fans of the original 2002 classic were very happy to hear that both Boyle and Garland were coming back to this franchise; hoping that they would bring all the prestige that they’ve acquired over the years and bring new life into this world of the living dead.  And for the most part, the long wait was worth it.  While it was not as groundbreaking as the original film, 28 Years Later nevertheless was a strong return to form for the series, and the film received praise from audiences and critics.  But what surprised many was that there wouldn’t be a long wait for another film in this series.  In fact, we wouldn’t even have to wait a full year.  A mere 7 months after the release of the last film, we are getting another movie picking up right where the last one left off.  This was always by design, as Alex Garland conceived of this new story thread as a trilogy.  And Sony Pictures, the studio behind this series, remarkably agreed to this concept, greenlighting the two films to be shot back to back.  There was only one big difference in the development of this project; Danny Boyle would only be directing the first film.  Instead of filming one movie at a time, these two films would be getting made simultaneously, and that would require the talents of two directors.  Surprisingly, Garland did not take up the opportunity to direct the second film himself.  Instead, the team looked outside their pool and sought someone else who would be a good match for the series.

They managed to find that someone in American filmmaker Nia DaCosta. DaCosta has had experience working in the horror film genre, having directed the Candyman (2021) remake.  She also was just coming off a stint working at Marvel, directing the Captain Marvel centered The Marvels (2023), which unfortunately ran into some headwinds at the box office due to the strikes that year.  She may have been an outside the box choice for this very British production, but DaCosta was very much up to the challenge.  The only question though was if she could pick things up from where Danny Boyle left off.  Boyle is a filmmaker with a very distinct style.  He shoots his movies in almost a guerilla like way, often handheld and with something as simple as a camcorder.  The original 28 Days Later was filmed using MiniDV tapes, which gave it that very gritty, visceral look; like we were watching found footage a la Blair Witch Project.  28 Years Later did something very similar, albeit with updated technology, by shooting the movie using iPhones.  Nia DaCosta by contrast is a much more conventional filmmaker, shooting her movies with industry standard digital cameras.  While the movie may have a different overall look to it, it’s still carrying over a lot from the last film.  Alex Garland is still the writer of both movies, and much of the same crews of production designers who crafted this post-apocalyptic world have their fingerprints in both movies.  For both Garland and Boyle, they clearly saw what Nia DaCosta could bring to this series and they trusted her with telling this next chapter in their story.  But, the question remains if audiences will react to this movie in the same way.  We barely digest the last film from seven months ago, and now it’s time yet again to pick up the story.  So, does 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple maintain the momentum of the last film or is it all too much too early.

In the closing minutes of 28 Years Later, the young man at the center of that film named Spike (Alfie Williams) has chosen to leave behind the commune that he had called home and instead live out on his own in the pandemic ravaged wasteland that was once Northern England.  Out in the wild, there are still dangerous hordes of zombies, all infected with the Rage Virus that instantly turns it’s victims into mindless feral beasts.  But that’s not the only danger out there.  In the final scene of the last movie, Spike has been captured by a gang of track-suit and blonde wig wearing warriors known as the Fingers.  Their leader, Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) is a ruthless man, leading his follower with a cult like fervor, terrorizing any small civilized settlement they come upon.  He names them each Jimmy, including Jimmy Shite (Connor Newall), Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), Jimmy Jones (Maura Bird), Jimmy Snake (Ghazi Al Ruffai) Jimmy Jimmy (Robert Rhodes), Jimmy Fox (Sam Locke) and Jimmima (Emma Laird), and they look up to him like he’s the second coming.  But Jimmy Crystal is not a Christian man, instead leading his followers in worship of the Devil, or Old Nick as he likes to call him.  Spike is about to become their latest victim, but he manages to become accepted into their gang after he defeats one of them in combat.  Meanwhile, the doctor who had helped bring a human and peaceful end to Alfie’s ailing mother’s life days before, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) is conducting a new experiment with one of the zombies that has been roaming his territory.  An “alpha” zombie, which has evolved over the years to be able to command the lesser specimens, has been given the name Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) by Kelson and the doctor believes there may be something to the monster’s display of intelligence.  Using a powerful sedative, Kelson has managed to subdue and even domesticate the powerful creature, and his hope is that with a careful dosing of drugs on hand, he may have found a cure to the virus.  But Kelson’s plans may run into some interference when Jimmy Crystal and his Fingers come across the Bone Temple that Kelson has spent years erecting from the bones he’s collected.  Can Kelson and Spike manage to survive the threats they face from both zombie kind and human kind, and which one is more likely to spell their doom.

When two movies from the same franchise release in such close proximity to each other, there is inevitably going to be immediate comparisons between the two.  While 28 Years Later was a very well made movie, it was also not without some flaws.  The inconsistency of tone was a major issue, with Danny Boyle being somewhat scattershot in his approach to telling the story.  With a different filmmaker taking the reigns for the second movie, many people became interested in seeing how someone else would approach this same world in their own style.  While I do admire what Danny Boyle did with 28 Years Later, I do think that Nia DaCosta did things much better with her film The Bone Temple.  Tone wise, this film is just much more consistent and free of the abrupt shifts that Boyle included in his movie.  The Bone Temple is a much more methodical movie; allowing scenes to flow better together.  Danny Boyle has a very flashy sort of style when it comes to editing his movies together, harkening back to his Trainspotting (1996) days, which also harkens back to the original 28 Days Later.  This works well in some parts, like the harrowing montage early in the film, underscored with the haunting reading of the Kipling poem “Boots.”  But other time, it just makes the scenes where they are being hunted by killer zombies feel too disjointed and artificial.  Nia DaCosta avoids that, and instead allows for scenes to build through atmosphere, which sometimes takes it’s time to pay off.  And it’s not just with the scenes with the zombies either; there’s some very effective tension built up with the Fingers gang too.  The way that she films the scenes where the Fingers are torturing their victims brings us the audience uncomfortably close to the action and holds us there.  This allows for the moments when the chaos happens to feel all the more visceral.  But Nia DaCosta also balances things out with some beautiful natural photography as well.  The way she films the Bone Temple itself is pretty captivating, making it feel like a character onto itself.  One show near the end in particular, where the point of view is literally flipped on it’s head, gives the Temple a very otherworldly feel.

A lot of praise should also certainly go to Alex Garland as well for finding a way to avoid just telling the same story over again in the same world.  This movie in particular is very different from any other zombie movie, because it really isn’t about the threat of zombies.  28 Years Later was much more of a survivalist story, with Spike and his mother (played by Jodie Comer) having to survive out in the wild with zombies at every turn.  In this movie, the zombies are almost an afterthought, with the focus put far more on Dr. Kelson and Jimmy Crystal’s gang.  But this opens up the film to a whole lot more different opportunities.  For one thing, this is the first zombie film that I can think of that puts some hope into the fate of the zombies.  The character of Samson, who was merely an existential threat in the first movie, is actually given some character development here, as we see him actually evolve and remarkably find a way out of the nightmare that has been his existence as a monster.  While the first movie did it’s job as a fairly harrowing coming of age tale in a zombie filled apocalypse, The Bone Temple is a story that ponders how a world like this can find ways of rebuilding itself.  I get the feeling that this movie is closer to what made Alex Garland want to revisit this world again, and the first movie was just a prelude to get here.  The hope in a hopeless world angle is a far more thought provoking one, and it shows much more than the first 28 Years movie that there are fresh ideas to explore in this series.  I also appreciated the subtext of the story, where science and reason are the paths to a brighter future, and not superstition and false prophecies from flashy con artists.  While some may lament that characters like Spike take a back seat in this story compared to how they were in the first, I think that this is the aim of Alex Garland with regards to how he sees this series progressing from here out.  The way he wants to tell the story is to casually move around this world finding the different tale within it.  Some stories will intersect, but for the most part, Garland sees this world as a very broad canvas.  Spike had his story told, now it’s time to see others.

In the whole of the movie, there is now doubt that the one who stands out the most is Ralph Fiennes.  He was already great in the first film, playing the eccentric hermit Dr. Kelson.  But here he is the primary focus of the story, with his (perhaps foolhardy) pursuit of a cure being the driving force.  The way he deals with Samson in particular, gently nursing him back to health and even over time considering him a friend, is captivating to watch.  Fiennes hits just the right tone for the character, making him deeply sympathetic, but also showing that he’s got a dangerous streak within him as well.  A lot of praise should also go to Chi Lewis-Parry, who brings a surprising amount of humanity to the character of Samson.  Similarities to the development of Frankenstein are probably intentional, as Samson goes from animal-like back to being human in a surprisingly emotional way.  Some of the most surprising moments in the film come from him showing that there is indeed intelligence behind those crazed, bloodshot eyes and that he needed the help of Kelson to bring that dormant humanity back out.  On the opposite end we also have Jimmy and the Fingers.  Jack O’Connell is having a pretty good run lately playing some memorable villains in high profile horror flicks.  Just last April, he was a scene-stealing vampire in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, and through this and last year’s 28 Years Later he’s proven he can be equally as sinister a presence.  Jimmy Crystal is a truly terrifying presence in the film, lording over his cult followers like a king, espousing platitudes that sound erudite, but are in fact all hogwash.  Jack O’Connell does a fantastic job portraying the character, making him both unnerving while also funny in many ways.  The way his flashy style clashes with Fiennes very subdued performance as Kelson also makes for some of the film’s most entertaining back and forth exchanges.  When the characters are this rich and full of personality, you really forget that this is a zombie film at it’s core, and that’s a good sign that Alex Garland has managed to enrich his post-apocalyptic world with enough fascinating stories to sustain this series for years to come.

One other thing to appreciate with Nia DaCosta’s direction on this movie is just how good it all looks.  For this film, she’s working with veteran cinematographer, who among other things was the DP on films like 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Judas and the Black Messiah (2021).  He gives the movie a gritty but still naturalistic feel.  It’s very different than Danny Boyle’s handheld, guerilla style approach to shooting the movie, which was done with Anthony Dod Mantle (who also won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire).  Both styles work for their respective films, and it’s interesting to see them both work in service of showing the same world.  I for one just appreciated that we get to live within this one more without all of the Boyle flourishes that get a little distracting.  The production design across both films is exceptional, making this feel like a world being reclaimed by nature.  We’ve seen that many times before, like with the recent Planet of the Apes movies, but perhaps not with this kind of accuracy involved.  The bones of the old world are still there, and perhaps could still function if things were to improve.  As it stands, it’s the world we know, but twisted ever so slightly into a harsher reality.  Of course, the location that stand out is the titular Bone Temple itself.  We were introduced to it in 28 Years Later, but it definitely plays a more significant role in this movie, and the filmmakers knew exactly how to film it to make the place feel both foreboding and also ethereal.  The movie’s make-up and effects team also do an amazing job with this movie, and that’s not just with the work they did to create the many different zombies.  The look of Dr. Kelson is pretty iconic, with Ralph Fiennes covered in orange paint for most of the movie.  Also the costume choices for Jimmy Crystal and the Fingers bring a lot of personality to the characters, especially with the combo of track suits and platinum blonde wigs.  I also love how Jimmy Crystal’s whole get up involves him wearing all the jewelry they’ve stole off unfortunate victims, including a tiara.  And there’s a sequence towards the end of the movie that I don’t want to spoil, but it does something pretty spectacular with the Bone Temple itself with the way it’s lit up at night.

It’s not a flawless movie, but 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is still a worthy successor to the film we saw last summer, and in many ways it’s an improvement.  The first 28 Years seems much more now like a warm up for what Alex Garland and Danny Boyle really want to do with this franchise, which is to broaden the scope of their world and tell many more stories within it.  Sure it picks up where the last one left off, but after the quick reintroduction, the movie moves away from Spike’s story to tell an entirely different one.  I like that these filmmakers aren’t trying to serialize this narrative, but instead introduce the idea that the world itself has many different stories worth telling.  The next film we get in this franchise may not even have any connection to the first two at all, though the final scene in this movie (without spoiling anything) hints at more familiar character returns.  I like the fact that these movies aren’t just recycling old zombie movie cliches.  They are exploring all the quirks and odd things that may occur when society falls apart, and having that be the thrust of their storyline.  The original 28 Days Later was perhaps the most influential film to come to the zombie movie subgenre since George A. Romero’s Dead series; creating it’s own set of rules and also changing the way movie like it could be presented.  While Danny Boyle’s iPhone shot style is perfectly suited for him, I actually prefer the more traditional approach that Nia DaCosta brought to this movie.  It may be less experimental, but it at least works in the service of allowing us to absorb this world and it’s many intricate details better.  It will be interesting to see who takes the reigns next.  Does either Boyle and DaCosta make a return behind the camera, or does Alex Garland close out the trilogy himself?  Or do they find someone else outside of their circle.  Regardless, this and the movie we got last summer proves that this franchise is very much alive and well, and in many ways is getting even better.  It was a short, 7 month downtime between these movies, and usually absence makes the heart grow fonder, but that’s not an issue with Bone Temple.  It is a movie that only builds on the goodwill set by the last film, and it hopefully is a positive sign of things to come.

Rating: 8.5/10

Collecting Criterion

Collecting Criterion – It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

Leave a comment

The Criterion Collection to many seems to be the place to find what many consider to be “serious cinema.”  But that’s not Criterion solely wants to focus on.  In fact, they have done a great job of preserving and spotlighting some of the greatest comedies found in world cinema.  Of course they have put out solid releases of most of Charlie Chaplin’s movies, from the one of his earliest classics The Kid (1921, Spine #799) to one of his later masterpieces, Limelight (1952, #756).  Some of the great Hollywood screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby (1938, #1085) and His Girl Friday (1940, #849) also are a part of the Collection, as well as many of the movies of Billy Wilder like his comedic masterpiece, Some like It Hot (1959, #950).  But Criterion doesn’t just limit it to Hollywood comedies, as they have also spotlighted the works of other international comedic geniuses, like Jacques Tati.  More recent films from filmmakers working in the realm of comedy have also gotten the Criterion treatment, including John Waters, Wes Anderson, and Albert Brooks.  Shockingly enough, even Kevin Smith has made it into the Criterion Collection with his third feature, Chasing Amy (1997, #75), so yes there is a movie in the Criterion vaults with Jay and Silent Bob on the cover.  But, there’s one comedy that’s made it into the Criterion Collection that represents the intersection of comedy and big Hollywood entertainment, creating what many to believe is the grandest comedic film ever made.  Maybe not the funniest, but certainly the grandest; a big screen, star-studded extravaganza that dwarfed all other comedies in it’s time, and perhaps of all time.  It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963, #692) was the comedy of all comedies, and a movie that certainly gets the prime Criterion Collection treatment, and offers up a fascinating look at how Hollywood spectacles have held up over the years.

What is interesting about It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is that it did not come together from the mind of an established comedic genius.  No, instead it came from one of Hollywood’s most serious filmmakers, Stanley Kramer.  Kramer was seen in Hollywood as a “message film” director.  A life long ardent liberal, Kramer devoted his talents as a filmmaker towards making socially conscious movies, tackling issues as varied as racism, censorship, and the dangers of authoritarianism.  He spent many of his post-war years producing movies at Columbia Pictures, including the Oscar-winning High Noon (1952), before leaving Columbia to step behind the camera as a director.  He directed two well received films called Not as a Stranger (1955) and The Pride and the Passion (1957) before he got his big breakout hit, The Defiant Ones (1958), starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.  From that, Kramer was seen as a prestige film director, and was granted the opportunity to make bigger social issue movies with grander scope and bigger casts.  Kramer’s most ambitious film to date came in 1961, we he made the film Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), a dramatic recreation of the trials of the Nazi high command that were conducted after the end of World War II.  Nuremberg was a critical and financial success, winning multiple awards, including a Best Actor Oscar win for German actor Maximillian Schell.  But, Judgment at Nuremberg also demonstrated how well Stanley Kramer could direct a film with an all-star cast.  In addition to Schell, the film had many high profile Hollywood actors in the cast, including Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, and even Judy Garland in a rare dramatic role. After the success of Nuremberg, you would think that Kramer would seek out another serious film to make, but that was not the case.  Instead, he wanted to do the exact opposite, and make a comedy.  But, this wouldn’t be any ordinary comedy.  It would be an “epic comedy.”  Just like Nuremberg, it was going to be an all-star extravaganza, featuring many of the most well-known comedians at the time, and throwing them into a screwball scenario that would run a lengthy three hour runtime; with intermission of course.  But the question remained during it’s making; could it work?

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World starts off with a literal crash.  A criminal on the run named Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) runs his car off the road and is critically injured.  A few passers-by who witnessed the crash try to help Smiler, but it’s too late.  With his dying words, he tells them that he buried all the money he stole under a big “W” in the coastal town of Santa Rosita.  Suddenly realizing that they have been pointed to the location of a potential gold mine, the group quickly rushes back to their cars and speed away in a race to find Smiler’s hidden fortune.  Among them is Melville Crump (Sid Caesar) and his new wife Monica (Edie Adams); Ding Bell (Mickey Rooney) and “Benjy” Benjamin (Buddy Hackett), two friends taking a vacation together; businessman J. Russell Finch (Milton Berle), his wife Emmeline (Dorothy Provine) and her mother Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman) and truck driver Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters).  As they scramble down the road, more greedy interlopers get involved including motorist Otto Meyer (Phil Silvers) and vacationing British Lt. Col. J. Algeron Hawthorne (Terry-Thomas).  After getting into several mishaps, Mrs. Marcus resorts to calling her son, the free-spirited Sylvester (Dick Shawn) to come to her rescue.  Several mishaps occur, like a destroyed gas station and a flooded car swept into a river.  All the while, the Santa Rosita Police Department that was looking for Smiler takes an observational approach to the mayhem, hoping these foolish treasure seekers will stumble upon the hidden money themselves, thereby saving them the trouble of looking for it.  The operation is overseen by the Police Chief T. G. Culpeper (Spencer Tracy), who may have his own designs on capturing the treasure for himself.  All of this leads to a series of increasing screwball situations as the different factions of greedy treasure hunters look high and low for that mysterious “W” that marks the spot of the treasure.

When Stanley Kramer promised to make the biggest comedy ever, he meant it.  Not only is the main cast in the film impressively stacked, but there are numerous cameos throughout the film from many other comedy icons.  There are the briefest of glimpses of Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Buster Keaton, and many more that show up throughout the movie.  But it’s not just the cast that makes this an epic comedy.  Kramer treated this like he would with any other epic of the era; creating as Roadshow style presentation that included an overture and intermission.  But, the intermission itself would be unique for it’s time period, as speakers throughout the theater and even in the lobby would still play pre-recorded police com-chats giving updates on the characters all while the screen itself was dark.  Kramer also had the film shot on the extremely wide Ultra Panavision 70 format.  This is the same format with the extreme 2.76:1 aspect ratio that was used on epics like Ben-Hur (1959) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), as well as getting a revival many years later for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (2015).  It was an interesting experiment seeing the tools used for making historical and biblical epics being used for a what is basically a screwball comedy.  But it does work in helping to make It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World feel grandiose.  Some moments like a scene involving a plane flying way too close to a watch tower really benefit from the big screen presentation.  It’s interesting to note that the movie we know as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is not even the full version that Stanley Kramer envisioned.  The movie was the opening day attraction for the brand new Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, a state of the art facility specifically built for presenting Cinerama films.  Though World was not made in Cinerama, it’s extremely wide format still fit the dimensions of the Dome’s massive screen.  At it’s premiere, the full runtime of the movie was 192 minutes, with overture and intermission.  This itself was parred down from a director’s cut of 202 minutes.  Unfortunately that cut of the movie remained unavailable for many years, and was mostly lost, with only the full soundtrack of the longer cut surviving.  The general release that most people over the years were familiar with was a truncated 162 minute version, and it wasn’t until a careful reconstruction many years later that we finally got the full version back, kind of.

Thankfully, Criterion has included this longer version as part of their release.  When I say that it is “kind of” the fuller version, that’s because a lot of the missing footage was never found.  Only the audio survives from these lost scenes.  So, as part of the reconstruction of the movie, led by famed film archivist and restorer Robert A. Harris, the audio from the missing scenes are placed in their rightful spot within the movie, accompanied with set photos of the same scene to give us a visual representation of what the scene was supposed to look like.  It’s not ideal, but it at least helps to give us a better sense of what the original film would’ve been.  It’s very similar to the reconstruction of the cut for George Cukor’s A Star is Born (1954), with Judy Garland.  If there miraculously happens to be a more complete print of the Roadshow version of the movie that played at the Dome back in 1963 that turns up, then hopefully we’ll get to see the movie that Kramer intended, but for now this restored version with the patchwork fixes is the best we have.  As a cinematic exercise, there’s no denying that It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an impressive achievement.  Kramer did a fantastic job making this a spectacle, with some moments that still look impressive to this day (that aforementioned plane scene).  But it works much better as a spectacle than a comedy.  Not that it isn’t funny in most parts.  It’s just that no one would ever declare this movie as the funniest they had ever seen.  In many ways, I feel like the epic length is a detriment to the comedy.  You look at the movies of Mel Brooks for example, and how they pack so many jokes into such a short amount of time.  That rapid fire delivery is what is essential for most comedies, and that’s why so many great comedies know not to overstay their welcome, clocking in on average around 90-100 minutes.  There’s very funny moments in Mad World, but they are spread out over a bloated three hours and change.  After a while, the comedy becomes tiresome, because it doesn’t have that rapid fire pace that it needs.  So, while the movie does succeed in being a fun romp, it comes across as a bit lacking in truly iconic laughs.

For this Criterion release, a full 4K digital transfer was conducted of both the the theatrical (162 minute) and Roadshow (198 minute) versions of the film.  The Roadshow cut includes many of those “reconstructed” scenes I talked about as well as some additional edits to get the movie as close to Stanley Kramer’s original version.  In both cases the movie looks amazing.  The 4K scan of the surviving elements looks immaculate.  The film is very bright and colorful, benefitting from all those sun-soaked California locations.  The restoration makes good use of the large format film stock elements, and we get a movie presentation that feels as close to how the original film must have looked back when it first premiered.  As a resident of Los Angeles as I’m writing this, I have had the great fortune of visiting the Cinerama Dome in the past, and I was privileged to have seen It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World screened on that same screen it premiered on over 60 years ago.  So, I have a pretty good reference for how the film was meant to look on the big screen.  I can definitely say that Criterion has done the film justice.  Even the reconstructed scenes with their inferior elements still work as part of the whole package.  Unfortunately, a 4K disc release hasn’t been made for the film yet, so we just have the Blu-ray edition for now.  Hopefully this one gets a 4K re-issue in the future.  It’s also a good thing that they restored both the longer and shorter versions, so that fans of the film can choose their preferred cut.  Personally, I feel that the restored cut is the better version, mainly because it gives more context to the story itself.  Criterion has also done a great job with their audio mix for this film.  Like most large format movies of the era, Mad World already had a 6 track source, which Criterion was able to restore into an impressive new 5.1 master audio.  It’s not as dynamic as movies of this era, but it still does a good job of preserving the theatrical experience.  The Ernest Gold score benefits the most from the audio restoration, and there are some pretty great surround sound effects, like with the runaway plane and the film’s finale in the rundown skyscraper.  Both visually and audibly this is another solid effort from Criterion in preserving the thematic feel of this classic film.

Like with most other studio made films that have made it into the Criterion Collection, Mad World has a wealth of behind the scenes material to help fill out the bonus features found on this set.  On the first disc with the restored cut, we get a re-issue of the audio commentary from 2013, made by aficionados of the film Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo from the movie’s original Blu-ray release from MGM.  Also re-issued from that disc is a documentary about the film’s sound and visual effects, including many behind the scenes footage taken from the film’s shooting.  There’s also a fascinating short documentary about the film’s restoration.  An excerpt from AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs special discussing the film is included, with many high profile fans talking about how much they loved the movie, as well as people who were in the film like Milton Berle and Carl Reiner.  A recording of the Q and A panel from the screening of the movie at the Last 70mm Film Festival in 2012 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater is also included.  Hosted by Billy Crystal, it included interviews with many cast and crew from the movie who were still alive at the time, including Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, and Sid Cesar.  On the second disc with the theatrical cut, there are many legacy materials of the film from when it was first released.  We get a two part episode of the Canadian series Telescope, which covers both the making of the movie as well as it’s premiere at the Cinerama Dome.  There are also press interviews with Stanley Kramer and many of the films stars that have been assembled, many of them discussing what it was like working on the film and with all these other stars assembled together.  A 10 year reunion special hosted by Kramer is also included, with the director reuniting in 1974 with to people like Buddy Hackett, Sid Cesar and Jonathan Winters and talking about their experiences working on the movie.  Finally, there radio promos and trailers from both the original release as well as the 1970 reissue included on this set as well.  All in all, there is a lot to pour through in this set, and it gives us a fairly substantial look at how the movie was made and what it’s legacy has been.

Over 60 years later, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World still has left a mark on both cinema and comedy in general.  There were many other all star extravaganzas made around that time period; some with similarly absurd lengthy titles.  There was the Oscar-winning Around the World in 80 Days (1956), as well as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes (1965); which also coincidently starred Terry-Thomas.  But, few of these movies have had the same kind of staying power as Mad World.  It’s perhaps the assemblage of talent that people find impressive in this movie.  Every funny person from that era makes an appearance in the movie.  Even the Three Stooges show up for a brief cameo.  And while not all of them are at their funniest, it’s still quite an achievement for Stanley Kramer to have found enough room for them all.  Of the cast, the ones who shine the most are Jonathan Winters, whose destruction of the gas station is an inspired moment of physical comedy, and Dick Shawn’s truly manic performance as Sylvester.  What really helps to make this movie stand out the most though is it’s spectacle.  This stands right up there will all the other big screen extravaganzas of the time period.  And with Criterion’s excellent restoration work, we get a beautiful recreation of the movie it’s very wide screen glory.  While the movie is something that Stanley Kramer could be proud of as a filmmaker, it’s also not that surprising that he left comedy behind thereafter, instead choosing to go back to his comfort zone of “message films” which included the classic Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967).  Still, the movie stuck with him, and he appreciated more and more in his retirement years.  In 1997, he published his memoir, which he affectionately titled A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: A Life in Hollywood.  For those who are experiencing the film for the first time, this Criterion Collection edition gives you a faithful re-creation of the film both in it’s original cut as well as the one that most people had been familiar with over the years.  Hopefully Criterion will revisit this with a 4K re-issue, and hopefully before then a more in-tact cut of the movie may resurface.  Until then, this will be the best presentation we can hope for.  It may not have the biggest laughs, but the laughs have never come in a bigger package than this one.

Criterion Collection – It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 

Top Ten Lists

Top Ten Movies of 2025

2025 was definitely a year of an industry in flux.  A lot of the things that seemed like sure things over the last few years didn’t exactly go as planned this year.  Super Hero movie fatigue seems to have really set it, with Marvel especially seeing diminishing returns on their franchise films, despite movies like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps getting positive critical reception.  We’re also seeing the fact that a movie franchise cannot sustain on just star power alone, as Tom Cruise’s latest and possibly final Mission: Impossible movie struggled at the box office, even after Top Gun: Maverick (2022) broke records only a couple short years ago.  But, as we also saw, areas where movies have failed in the past suddenly showed signs of life again.  Comedy saw an unexpected return with the surprisingly successful relaunch of The Naked Gun series with Liam Neeson.  Also, horror films had perhaps their greatest year ever, led by massive hits like Sinners, Weapons, Final Destinations: Bloodlines, and The Conjuring: Last Rites.  But, it’s a year where uncertainty about the future, especially with regards to the role AI is going to play in it, has cast a cloud over Hollywood.  Couple this with mega-mergers creating less competition and it’s creating a lot of anxiety with creatives across the spectrum of Hollywood.  Some of the movies this year seemed to strangely reflect the mood of the world and the business in their stories and it was interesting to see how storytellers dealt with a world that is rapidly changing.  The mood of the industry certainly started to become a lot more dour, given that the year began with a devastating fire in Los Angeles that left many people, including a lot of movie industry professionals, without a home.  A lot of bad things went down over the last year, and it especially seemed to hit close to home for Hollywood.  And yet, even still, the show must go on and the industry that has helped the world heal through terrible times with their ability to uplift through storytelling is proving to itself why it’s important to keep creating.

Just like every year I will be sharing my picks for the Top Ten Movies of the Year, as well as sharing what I think are the bottom 5 (aka the worst).  I once again bested my number from the previous year and saw a total of 132 films total in a theater setting, which has given me the widest pool possible to make my choices for the list.  Some were easy choices, while a couple proved to be tough choices.  Below are a few of the films that didn’t make my Top Ten, but I still feel are worth recommending, in alphabetical order:  28 Years Later, A House of Dynamite, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Black Bag, Blue Moon, Die My Love, Eephus, Freaky Tales, Hamnet, It Was Just an Accident, Kpop Demon Hunters, The Long Walk, Marty Supreme, Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning, The Naked Gun, The Phoenician Scheme, Sentimental Value, Thunderbolts*, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Warfare, and Zootopia 2.  All very good movies worth checking out, but the Top Ten I’ve selected below are the ones that struck a cord with me the most.  So, with all that said, let’s dive into my picks for the Top Ten Movies of 2025.

10.

FRANKENSTEIN

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro

You’ve got to hand it to Guillermo Del Toro; the man never misses when it comes to creating a lavish visual feast for the eyes.  But, here he managed to undertake a particularly difficult challenge, which was to bring something fresh and new to one of the most often retold stories in cinema.  We have seen so many filmmakers bring their own voice to the classic story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein over the years, dating back to the early days of cinema with James Whale’s 1931 original starring Boris Karloff; a movie that Del Toro cites as one of the films that inspired him to become a filmmaker.  So, how was Del Toro going to tell this 200 year old story differently than everyone else?  It turns out his method was to go all the way back to the beginning and bring to life Shelley’s original text, with his own sense of style of course.  For the first time, we actually get the story the way Mary Shelley had written it, with the original novel split into two parts, one telling the story from the point of view of Victor Frankenstein, and the other from the view of the Creature he created.  The duality of these two stories told together particularly brings out the overall theme of Shelley’s novel much better, talking about the nature of creation itself and in particular the role me must take in the nurturing that which create.  This movie was a passion project for Del Toro for many years, and it shows.  It has all of his trademark gothic style, much of it striking, but it’s all in service of a compelling story about these two characters.  Oscar Isaac is of course brilliant as Victor, but the movie really belongs to Jacob Elordi’s remarkably soulful performance as the Creature, creating one of the most interesting versions of this iconic character we’ve ever seen on the big screen.  The only thing that’s keeping this movie from being higher than 10 is the fact that it does feel a bit too long and indulgent at times.  But Guillermo’s incredible eye for design and texture, and the standout performances from Isaac and Elordi, help to elevate the film past it’s shortcomings, and the movie is without a doubt the most visually stunning accomplishment of the year.

9.

SOVEREIGN

Directed by Christian Swegal

Moving to something on the grittier end of the scale, writer/director Christian Swegal created a harrowing portrait of extremism in America with a few of the year’s most poignant performances from some unlikely players.  The movie tells the story of a young man, played by Jacob Tremblay, who is caught up in the actions of his extremist father, played by an incredible Nick Offerman, who is a leader in the Sovereign Citizen movement in America.  Their journey together, which is a harrowing look at the effect intergenerational trauma has on male adolescence, leads them down some very dark roads and towards a fateful confrontation with the law, personified by a local sheriff played by Denis Quaid.  The great thing that Swegal does with his story is to not throw judgment on his characters from any side.  The movie of course doesn’t condone the actions of Offerman’s character, nor supports his movement.  But the movie still treats him like a human being, and shows how the actions he takes are a part of a bigger problem systemic in American society, namely the toxic masculine social pressure that is pushing young and old men into radicalization.  Tremblay’s character in particular perfectly demonstrates the way that extremism is tearing people like him apart and denying them a happy and fulfilling life.  The film does a great job of delivering that message, while at the same time telling a compelling story that feels true to the nature of rural American life.  And it is really neat seeing an actor like Nick Offerman, whose mostly been known as a comedic performer, showing off his dramatic chops here, delivering one of the year’s most grounded and emotionally raw performances.  Even though the movie hits some dark places, it is a story that absolutely needed to be told in this current social climate, and given the fact that actors from opposite ends of the political spectrum like Offerman and Quaid felt that it was a story worth telling gives me hope that we can all find some common ground.

8.

WEAPONS

Directed by Zach Cregger

One of the surprise hits of the Summer, this horror film had one of the year’s best mystery box storylines with a killer (literally) payoff.  Cregger got some strong notice for his 2022 film Barbarian, but Weapons really illustrated his ability to tell a story in a truly unconventional way.  It’s a horror movie that doesn’t leave anything up to the imagination, and yet still manages to leave us surprised with things we never expected.  I don’t want to spoil much of what happens in the movie, since the twists and turns are part of what makes the experience so fun.  But, I will say that it makes great use of non-linear storytelling; breaking up the story between multiple point of view characters, and allowing the story to piece together as it unfolds with each new character.  The movie even manages to darkly comic at times, with some of the best laughs you may likely have watching a movie this year.  Cregger certainly had to have been mapping out this story and it’s many different layers for years, because it all remarkably comes together in the end, with perhaps the year’s greatest and most cathartic ending scene.  The film does have some great performances too, particularly from Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, and also from a great debut performance from young actor Cary Christopher.  But of course it’s veteran actress Amy Madigan who is getting the most attention for her villainous role in the film, which is all well deserved.  It’s a movie like this that is making a lot of people believe that we are currently in a Golden Era for horror filmmaking.  A lot of that is because audiences are choosing to flock to movies that feel original and unlike anything we have ever seen, and currently the freshest and most original stuff is coming out of the horror genre these days, including Weapons.  If it weren’t for another entry you’ll see on this list later, I would say that Weapons was easily the best horror film of the year, but even as a runner up it is already a film that I can see being a classic for many years to come.

7.

TWINLESS

Directed by James Sweeney

Without a doubt the year’s most original comedy.  This sophomore feature film from writer, director and co-star James Sweeney tells a richly funny story about male companionship built out of loss that also includes some unexpected turns.  Two men meet at a support group for twins who have lost their twin brother or sister, and they become fast friends through their shared grief.  But, of course, not all is as it seems, as one has ulterior motives for creating this friendship.  Sweeny has a lot to balance in this story with regards to tone, particularly with his own character who could have really come across as unlikable if handled poorly in the story.  But, he manages to carry the movie through with a lot of creative ideas, and his performance perfectly captures the underlying angst that would drive someone like him to take such drastic measures.  But as strong as Sweeney’s performance is, the biggest standout in this film is Dylan O’Brien, giving a truly raw and emotional performance as this tragic and fragile young man who lost his gay twin brother (who O’Brien also plays in a flashback).  Dylan O’Brien is an actor who is really starting to come into his own as a performer, and Twinless is his best work yet.  It’s impressive to see him play two twin brothers with very divergent personalities (one confidently gay and the other uncomfortably straight), but it’s also astounding to see him really give the surviving brother such a soulful presence, especially when that grief bubbles up to the top.  Sweeney makes great use of his co-star’s truly Awards level performance, and does an excellent job of telling a story about a lot of things all at once; about grief, about how twins interact, about being a gay millennial, and so much more.  And he manages to make it all thoroughly funny and clever as well, showing that he’s a comedic voice worth following in the years to come.

6.

SUPERMAN

Directed by James Gunn

DC Comics struggled to define itself in the Snyderverse years when they were in direct competition with the MCU.  With the DCEU finally put to rest, it was time to start anew, and it called for a movie that would set the right tone for what they planned to do in the future.  James Gunn, who had already found success at Marvel with his Guardians of the Galaxy series, would be the man who was now calling the shots and it was up to him to take the first step in DC’s new era.   Naturally, he would choose to launch the new DCU with it’s most iconic character, the “man of steel” himself, Superman.  But, bringing the last son of Krypton faithfully to the big screen has been a challenge over the years.  Christopher Reeve’s pitch perfect performance in the original Richard Donner classic has just cast too much of a shadow.  Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill gave it their best shots, but the movies they were featured in just never really got the character and what he represents right.  But James Gunn managed to figure it out.  With the ideal casting of David Corenswet as Superman, Gunn and company managed to bring the character back to what he truly was meant to be in the first place, not just as a guy who punches really hard but also as a guy who actually cares about being good.  Gone is the Christ-allegory of the Snyder films and in it’s place is a Superman who is relatable and sympathetic, and likes punk rock.  Corenswet is easily the best to wear the cape since Reeve, and he puts his own unique stamp on the character, making him both funny and sincere in that typical James Gunn fashion.  We also get Nicholas Hoult creating the greatest version of Lex Luthor ever put on screen, finally bringing to life the truly menacing and loathsome nature of the character from the comic book page.  And as with all other James Gunn projects, it is the weird and obscure outsider characters that really shine, especially Edi Gathegi who immediately turned Mr. Terrific into a fan favorite.  It was a smart choice on James Gunn’s part to build the foundation of this new cinematic universe on the shoulders of it’s most famous but often mishandled character.  And it brings to DC something it has been deeply lacking for a long time, which is a lot of heart.  Easily the best blockbuster film of the year, and hopefully a good sign of things to come from DC Films under the guidance of James Gunn.

5.

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

Directed by Mona Fastvold

It’s surprising to think that the year’s best screen musical wasn’t in the land of Oz, but rather was set in the backdrop of the American Revolution.  Last year my pick for the movie of the year was The Brutalist (2024), directed by Brady Corbet.  He co-wrote the movie with his wife Mona Fastvold, who herself is also an accomplished filmmaker.  Right on the heels of their Oscar-winning success with The Brutalist, the husband and wife team of filmmakers got funding for another one of the scripts they co-wrote; this one about the founder of the “Shaking Quakers” religious movement that rose to prominence in revolution era America.  This time, it would be Mona who would call the shots behind the camera, and she gets to show off her own impressive vision with this lavishly crafted movie.  The movie is hauntingly beautiful, but it also is an incredible exercise in staging.  The film may not have the traditional characteristics of a musical; all the musical performances are portrayed as natural, grounded moments in reality.  But Mona Fastvold allows the camera to capture some incredible moments of movement around all of these people whose expression of worship is through dance and song.  And the songs are performed in full, so you can still say it’s a musical in that sense.  The standout of course is Amanda Seyfried as the titular Ann Lee.  She is no stranger to singing on screen, having appeared in traditional musicals like Mamma Mia (2008) and Les Misérables (2012), but this is a very different kind of musical performance, and she delivers an incredible, raw portrayal of this real life religious leader while at the same time showing off those impressive pipes.  She gives perhaps the most multifaceted performance of the year for any actress, and it’s great to see her emerge as a performer capable of this style of acting.  The film is also incredibly well crafted, effectively bringing us back into that time period, and doing so on a limited budget, similar to what we saw with The Brutalist.  As a team, both Corbet and Fastvold are on a roll, and it’s great to see them both reminding us all of what epic filmmaking can be.

4.

NO OTHER CHOICE

Directed by Park Chan-wook

Korean cinema has really taken the world by storm in the last several years, and one of the filmmakers who has been instrumental in making that possible is Park Chan-wook.  He first made his name known around the world with his ground-breaking Oldboy (2003), and since then he’s continued to create a steady stream of iconoclastic, genre-bending masterpieces, both in Korea and also in western cinema as well.  His newest film, No Other Choice is an especially poignant film that feels especially prescient with today’s current events.  The story involves a man who must find work after being let go from his job of over 20 years.  But, in order to get his desired job, he must eliminate the competition of equally qualified men who could beat him to it.  The movie is the darkest of dark comedies, as the main character bungles his way through not very well thought out assassination attempts.  And Park Chan-wook is not afraid of taking this story down some dark paths, even while pointing out how ridiculous the whole plan is.  And as we see in the film, it’s for a prize that is not all that deserving of all the effort and may not even be a permanent solution to the main character’s problems.  That’s the brilliance of Park Chan-wook’s satire, showing how our hyper-capitalistic society is pushing those in the middle class to take on such dehumanizing efforts just in order to hold onto what little that they have.  It definitely feels very akin to the film Parasite (2019), made by Park’s friend and frequent collaborator Bong Jong-ho, and No Other Choice would make a great double feature with that film.  The movie also has a great standout performance from Squid Game alum Lee Byung-hun, who does a great job of balancing the humor of his character’s predicament with a very real portrayal of man panicking about his future.  Another accomplished achievement from one of the most unique filmmakers of world cinema.

3.

BUGONIA

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

I don’t think I have ever turned around on a filmmaker as much as I have with Yorgos Lanthimos.  I first became aware of him after watching a movie that I deeply despised called The Lobster (2015).  But since then, he has made some of my favorite movies of the last decade.  Two things have made this possible.  One is he stopped writing his own movies and instead directed screenplays from other writers.  And secondly, he started working with Emma Stone, who has become his muse in the last decade.  The duo are now on their fourth collaboration together, after The Favourite (2018), Poor Things (2023), and Kinds of Kindness (2024), and remarkably they have struck gold again.  I was worried about this new film Bugonia because Yorgos wasn’t working with the same writer of the other two films that I loved, Favorite and Poor Things.  Instead of Tony McNamara, this film is written by Will Tracy, who also recently wrote the thriller The Menu (2022).  Thankfully, Tracy’s script is just as twisted and unexpected as McNamara’s, and perfectly fits with Lanthimos’ oddball style.  The movie is a simple but intriguing character study that explores the twisted world of unchecked conspiracy theory delusions.  Jesse Plemons, whose already built a impressive career up to now, gives perhaps his best performance to date as a conspiracy nut who kidnaps a pharmaceutical company CEO (played perfectly by Emma Stone), believing that she is an alien sent to conquer the world.  Stone and Plemons are electrifying in their performances, and the movie is a deranged and hilarious delight while we watch these two spar off each other, while things get increasingly more off the wall.  Yorgos takes some pretty hefty swings with this movie, especially in it’s finale, but it all feels in line with the demented world that these characters live in.  And the cat and mouse game that evolves over the course of the movie also helps to make it thrilling to see unfold.  Again, I’m happy to have come around on Yorgos Lanthimos as a filmmaker because he is really one of the most daring storytellers out there right now, and I am anxious to see what he’s going to do next.

2.

SINNERS

Directed by Ryan Coogler

Ryan Coogler has been one of the most fortunate filmmakers to have emerged in his still young career.  His debut, Fruitvale Station (2013) helped to bring him to the Rocky franchise, which he delivered a phenomenal reboot to the long lasting series with the movie Creed (2015).  He then followed that up with a move over to Marvel where he soon set records with his adaptation of Black Panther (2018).  While working on the second Black Panther film, he was also pitching his idea for a vampire movie set in the Deep South during the Great Depression.  A lot of studios passed on the idea, until Warner Brothers gave it the greenlight.  And with it, not only did Ryan Coogler show that he was more than just another franchise filmmaker; he was a auteur capable of even wowing some of the greats.  Sinners is Ryan Coogler really showing us what he’s capable of as a filmmaker, which is something given the resume he has had already.  The film is a harrowing portrayal of the Deep South under Jim Crow that also is a celebration of black culture not just of it’s time but throughout all of history, and it even manages to find a way to bring vampires into the mix.  It’s a combination of elements that shouldn’t work, and yet Coogler masterfully ties it all together into an unforgettable experience.  It’s also great to see him playing around with the mechanics of cinema as well.  This is very much a big screen spectacle, utilizing two different large film formats in the process; the extremely wide Ultra Panavision 70 and the enormous 15 perf IMAX 70.  Both make this a movie that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.  One particular scene in the movie, where the central night club location is captured in a breathtaking oner that moves throughout the set and includes musicians and dancers from multiple eras, is perhaps the single most impressive cinematic moment of the year; a scene that even left Christopher Nolan impressed.  The movie also has Coogler’s longtime friend and frequent leading man Michael B. Jordan delivering his best performance yet as the Smoke Stack Twins.  Coogler has delivered his greatest cinematic effort yet with Sinners, and showed us that he is indeed one of the best filmmakers working right now.

And my choice for the Best Movie of 2025 is…

1.

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

There is really no other filmmaker that tells stories quite like Paul Thomas Anderson.  One Battle After Another is his most expensive movie to date, with a budget north of $100 million, but he doesn’t put any of that money to waste.  This is an incredible feat of filmmaking that keeps on surprising the further it goes.  It’s also a film that feels very prescient to out point in time, with spirited revolutionaries pushing back against authoritarian regimes.  But Anderson doesn’t just tell his story in any conventional way.  The fascist villains of his story are as absurd as they can be, especially when you have a white supremacist organization of elites that call themselves the Christmas Adventurers Club.  It’s that sly bit of satirical edge that makes this a distinctively P. T. Anderson story.  But even with all of the weirdness going on in the world, there is this poignant story at it’s heart about a father who will go through hell and back just to bring his child safely home.  The movie manages to become transcendent thanks to the performances of Chase Infiniti as the girl caught up in all the madness of the world around her, and Leonardo DiCaprio as the long out of practice revolutionary who has devoted himself to being her father.  Infiniti really shines in her big screen debut, making her character Willa this one pure thing in a crazy backward world.  And DiCaprio gives yet another brilliant performance, and perhaps one of his funniest as well.  His whole bit arguing with the customer service rep of their secret revolutionary network is probably the funniest thing you’ll see all year.  Sean Penn also delivers a knockout performance as the villainous Col. Lockjaw, which can also be side-splittingly hilarious.  And for the second straight year, a movie shot in the Vistavision format tops my list for the year, showing how well that long dormant format has come back into fashion in Hollywood circles.  Anderson uses the format in particularly spectacular fashion with the climatic chase scene at the end; one of my favorite screen experiences of the year.  It’s great to see a filmmaker with an already impressive body of work like Anderson hit a home run once again and even surprisingly exceed expectations.

So with having gone through all the best that the year had to offer, it’s time to quickly run through the very worst movies that I had to sit through in the last year.  I usually try to avoid watching movies that I know are going to be bad when I go to the movies, but there are some that either peaked my curiosity with regards to how bad they would be, or ended up sneaking up on me.  So, let’s take a look at my choices for the Bottom Five Movies of 2025:

5.  JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH – Perhaps there was a thought that moving away from the increasingly bad storyline of the last couple Jurassic World movies that centered around stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard would be a good thing.  Boy was I wrong, as the movie just got even dumber.  Sadly, good actors like Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali are wasted trying to bring new life into this franchise that clearly has run out of new ideas.  And to make it even worse, the movie clearly tries to rip off scenes wholesale from the other films in the franchise just to earn some nostalgia points.  The shameless use of John Williams’s iconic score to elevate a scene that ultimately means nothing felt especially insulting.  Please just lay this franchise to rest so that it doesn’t disgrace the memory of the original classic anymore.  Sadly, given how much this movie made again at the box office, we’re likely going to go back to Jurassic Park again soon for even more nostalgia baiting.

4. THE SMASHING MACHINE –  Mark this as my Oscar bait that missed the mark for me this year.  The Safdie Brothers team that delivered one of the most remarkable thrillers of the last decade with the Adam Sandler starring Uncut Gems (2019) split up in the six years since, with both pursuing their own solo directorial efforts.  Of the two brothers, Josh Safdie was the one who actually created a movie that felt like it belonged in the same category with Uncut Gems; Marty Supreme, starring Timothee Chalamet.  The other brother, Benny Safdie (who has also been making his mark as an actor) made a different kind of movie; a biopic about pioneering MMA fighter Mark Kerr, starring Dwayne Johnson.  Unfortunately, it became the kind of biopic that I don’t like, which is all about the transformation of the actor, and offering no actual insight into the actual subject himself.  I also found it to be a bit self-indulgent and emotionally manipulative as well.  In the end, it just ringed hollow, which is too bad given the talent in front and behind the camera.  Can Benny Safdie deliver as a solo filmmaker? Of course, but this movie was not the one to convince me of that.  And I don’t quite know if it was him, or Dwayne Johnson’s influence that ended up making the movie not work.  Credit Dwayne Johnson for trying to be more of a dramatic actor.  I feel like we’re going to actually get a better realization of that when his upcoming Scorsese film premieres.

3. THE ELECTRIC STATE – Probably the year’s most pointlessly bloated and wasteful cinematic spectacle, and it didn’t even play on the big screen.  This movie is one of the brightest examples of why Netflix’s business model doesn’t make much sense, since they spent $300 million on this Russo Brothers directed fiasco, more than most blockbusters that still play in theaters, and they just let it run unceremoniously on their platform where it quickly got buried by the algorithm.  Maybe they knew this thing was a turkey a long time ago, and their reluctance to screen it in theaters was to spare them the embarrassment of flopping at the box office.  Regardless, it’s perhaps the clearest example of wasteful spending from Netflix.  Starring Chris Pratt and Netflix “golden girl” Millie Bobby Brown, this movie is ugly and unimaginative, and certianly a failed attempt at world-building.  Given that this movie is the one that is preceding the Russo Brother’s return to Marvel, where they are directing the massive new Avengers films Doomsday (2026) and Secret Wars (2027), doesn’t fill me with a whole lot of confidence.  It’s also another reason to worry about the acquisition of Warner Brothers that Netflix is attempting, given that they waste so much money on movies like these and just let it be forgotten in the glut of streaming options. Hopefully they learn the right things from Warner Brothers, and that Warner Brothers doesn’t take on the worst of Netflix.

2.  ELLA MCCAY – It’s sad when you see one of the great veterans of cinema try to make a return to filmmaking in their twilight years after many years out of practice and just show us how out of touch they are.  Last year, we saw Francis Ford Coppola fall flat on his face with his long in the making flop Megalopolis (2024).  This year, 85 year old James L. Brooks makes his first film in 15 years, and suffered the same embarrassing fate.  At least with Coppola, Megalopolis turned into a fascinating failure of a movie.  I can’t say the same about Brook’s Ella McCay.  There is nothing that works about the film, not even on the WTF kind of way that Megalopolis did.  Brooks, who once crafted some of the smartest screenplays in the world like Broadcast News (1987) or As Good as it Gets (1997), just lays on nothing but schmaltz and self-important non-sense on this would be political satire.  None of the characters talk or act like real people, which would have worked if this was a more heightened world, but Brooks just makes this world as bland as possible, while also dragging some really talented people into this mess, including working with his Broadcast News star Albert Brooks again.  Just ignore Brooks’ late career attempt at recapturing the magic and just stick with the classics.

And the Worst Movie of 2025 is…

1. LOVE HURTS – It wasn’t a particularly strong year for John Wick style action movies.  Two franchise films like Wick spinoff Ballerina and the sequel Nobody 2 failed to live up to the success of their predecessors.  But at least those movies had some creative moments that stood out.  Nothing like that can be said about the movie Love Hurts, which not only was an action movie that lacked any substance at all, but it even made me start to get bored with the whole John Wick style action beats as well.  This should’ve been an easy sell.  The movie stars Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, who himself at one time was a stunt coordinator before he decided to make a come back into acting.  You have a star who is naturally charismatic and is a capable stunt fighter as well, and yet the movie doesn’t capitalize on any of that.  Quan’s character is a hollow void of character cliches and the movie’s fight choreography is so poorly shot that none of it ever looks impressive.  Not only that, but the movie also wastes the talents of another Oscar winner, Ariana DeBose, here trying to be a sort of femme fatale figure from the main character’s shady past.  The story is insultingly dumb, and it wasted so much potential.  I really hope that the John Wick formula is not fully played out, because the Wick movies really did prove that action movies could be fun again.  Hopefully, the Wick franchise is saving their A-game for the next chapter, because these spinoffs and rip offs are starting to make the formula fall apart.

And there you have my choices for the Best and Worst of 2025.  It was a year of change and anxiety for the industry, but there was still good entertainment in there as well.  Though not much of it ended up on my best of the year list, I actually thought we had one of the most consistently strong Summer seasons this year, with most of the films from week to week actually getting good reviews from audiences and critics; the only rotten score going to Jurassic World: Rebirth in fact.  But the ones who really need some help are the movie theaters.  2025 was supposed to be a big recovery year, but sadly that recovery didn’t manifest the way people hoped it would.  Only two Hollywood productions managed to cross the billion dollar mark at the box office (Disney’s Lilo and Stitch remake and Zootopia 2) last year with maybe a third (Avatar: Fire and Ash), which is the best since the pandemic, but still down from pre-pandemic levels.  Hollywood and the movie theater chains are going to need some heavy hitters in the next year.  We will be getting Christopher Nolan’s ambitious adaptation of The Odyssey next summer, a movie so hotly anticipated that it managed to sell out IMAX screens a year ahead of release.  We’re also getting Denis Villeneuve’s next chapter in the Dune series, another sci-fi blockbuster from Steven Spielberg, a Tom Cruise/ Alejandro G. Iñárritu collaboration, Toy Story 5, another Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, and we’re going to close out the year of 2026 with Avengers: Doomsday.  Can the next year turn things around?  We’ll have to wait and see and hope for the best.  Things in our world are changing rapidly and not always for the better.  Let’s hope that movie theaters, which have already had to suffer through the pandemic and strikes, don’t have to deal with yet another disruption.  Movies on the big screen is still a cherished past time and my hope is that this year shows us a lot more reasons why we should still keep going to the movies.  So, have a great 2026 and let’s hope that better days are ahead.