By Dan Skip Allen

Honorable Mentions: Lilo & Stitch (Live-Action), How to Train Your Dragon (Live-Action), Thunderbolts*, Elio, Magazine Dreams, Sacramento, Ballerina, Black Bag, and Presence. 

10: The Legend of Ochi

3/5 Letterboxd 77% Rotten Tomatoes

A young girl learns to never go outside after dark because of reclusive forest creatures known as the ochi. However, when a baby ochi is left behind by its pack, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to reunite it with its family.

I’m a big fan of E.T., Extra-Terrestrial. It was one of the seminal moments in my life as a film aficionado. It means a lot to me still today. The Legend of Ochi reminded me of that film from my childhood so much. The performances from Helena Zengel to Willem Dafoe were all terrific. The CGI on the creature was pretty cool, giving it an interesting look and reminding me of Gremlins, another favorite movie of mine. There was a heartwarming element to this story that I couldn’t help but get behind with the father-daughter aspect, and the combination of those stories made me love this film. In a difficult world that we all live in, it’s nice to see a foreign film director who finds inspiration in one of the best movies of my childhood and overall lifetime. 

9: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

7.4/10 IMDB 80% Rotten Tomatoes

Ethan Hunt and the IMF team race against time to find the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence that can destroy mankind.

I’ve been a fan of the Mission: Impossible franchise for many years now, and the last handful of films in the franchise have all been great. Tom Cruise has aligned himself with writer/director Christopher McQuarrie in the last few movies, with the previous film being part one of a two-parter. The Final Reckoning is the conclusion to a series that is part of the best action movies I’ve ever seen. Cruise does some amazing stunts, from the underwater submarine sequence to hanging on the side of a double-winged by-plane. He constantly amazes me with every new film he makes in this franchise. Sure, the plot is a little wonky, but AI is a hot-button topic, and I’m glad to see writers using it as a plot device now in recent films. This is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, bar none. It’s as exciting as F1, but doesn’t have the story that movie had. 

8: F1: The Movie

8.9/10 IMDB  8.3% Rotten Tomatoes

In the 1990s, Sonny Hayes was Formula 1’s most promising driver until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, the owner of a struggling Formula 1 team convinces Sonny to return to racing and become the best in the world. Driving alongside the team’s hotshot rookie, Sonny soon learns that the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.

Joseph Kosinski did a great job on his last film, Top Gun: Maverick. This time around, he’s working with another big-screen icon, Brad Pitt, and tackling another fast-paced vehicle: Formula 1 race cars. Even though this movie follows a lot of the popular sports film tropes, I found it very exciting. The racing scenes were filmed with many IMAX cameras and gave the film an amazing feel that you wouldn’t have with other racing films, putting yourself in the car with the drivers. This movie was one of the most exciting I’ve watched this year thus far. Brad Pitt is his usual entertaining self, and that’s enough for me to consider it one of my favorite films of the year halfway through.

7: Materialists

67% Fandango 82% Rotten Tomatoes

A young New York City matchmaker’s lucrative business gets complicated as she finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.

I’ve seen a lot of rom-coms in my day. Most of the good ones were in the 70s – 90s. Lately, there haven’t been a lot of great ones, but this film is one of those that is great. Coming off Past Lives, Celine Song knocks it out of the park once again. The three stars, Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, are all terrific in this film. Evans gives the performance of his career as Song allows him to perform in a role where he could be somebody different from his past roles. This is the best film I’ve seen in a long time that deals with dating, marriage, and romance. It’s a very realistic portrayal of these things, and it’s a rarity that a writer/director can capture a subject matter like Song does in this film. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this movie. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of more solid rom-coms in the future.

6: Dangerous Animals

74% Fandando 85% Rotten Tomatoes

A shark-obsessed serial killer holds Zephyr, a rebellious surfer, captive on his boat. Racing against time, she must figure out a way to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.

Jai Courtney is an actor whom I’ve lost a lot of faith in over the years, but I very much enjoyed his over-the-top performance in this film. He’s in love with sharks and kidnaps people to feed them, and also records the killings. This is a crazy plot for a horror film. In a horror movie tradition, though, the protagonist, played by Hassie Harrison, is fighting for her life against this psychopath. She was a revelation in this film, and I was completely impressed by her. She surpassed all of my expectations of what this character was all about. As a whole, the movie was a lot of fun as far as horror films go.

5: 28 Years Later

7.2/10 IMDB 90% Rotten Tomatoes

It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped from a biological weapons laboratory. Still living in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amid the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When one of them decides to venture into the dark heart of the mainland, he soon discovers a mutation that has spread to not only the infected, but other survivors as well.

I’m a big fan of 28 Days Later. It’s one of the better films I’ve seen in the infected/zombie genre, with the way Danny Boyle filmed it. He returns for the latest film in the franchise with a different look and feel from the other movies in this trilogy. It is a very vibrant-looking movie with a fresh, new story featuring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, and Ralph Fiennes in another odd yet fulfilling role for him. The surprising performance is from young Alfie Williams; I can’t wait to see him in other movies. Boyle, writer Alex Garland, and company have made another solid movie in this trilogy, thus far, that is one of the best in this genre. I loved almost every aspect of this film, and I’m excited for future installations in this franchise, especially if they are as good as this film was.

4: Thr Ballad of Wallis Island

7.4/10 IMDB 97% Rotten Tomatoes

Old tensions resurface when former bandmates who were former lovers reunite for a private show at the island home of an eccentric millionaire.

As someone who watches as many movies as I do, I rarely see something that genuinely touches me like The Ballad of Wallis Island did. It has a main character played by Tim Key, whom I didn’t know if I was going to like or not, but by the end of the film, I loved him and his odd sense of being. He came into a pile of money from winning the lottery years before and decided to pay to have his favorite folk music singer, played by Tom Basden, come play a concert on his island. He even invites his old singing partner, played by Carey Mulligan, to the island to see if they can rekindle their past magic as a singing duo. The problem is that money can’t buy you everything in life, including friendship. This is a sad movie at times, but it’s also funny and endearing. Loneliness can be hard for people, and I can see them trying to buy friendship. Using music, though, these characters find a happy medium. It’s one of the best comedies I’ve seen in a while.

3: Eephus

6.8/10 IMDB 100% Rotten Tomatoes

A group of middle-aged men plays their last recreational baseball game before their field gets torn down to build a school.

I’ve been a fan of baseball my entire life. Growing up as a Boston Red Sox fan wasn’t always easy, but the struggles reinforced my love for my team and the game as a whole. I’ve seen my share of baseball movies in my day. Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, and The Natural are among my favorites, but none of them captured the game of baseball like Eephus did, even though it’s not about major league baseball or some famous story from the past, or fictional for that matter. It showed me that the game of baseball can be depicted intelligently and funnily, showing how a bunch of normal guys play a game at their local field, which is about to be destroyed. They have a genuine relationship with each other on and off the field, and the banter and gamesmanship with each other was terrific. It could be anybody in any state and town in America, and the film just so happened to be in southern New Hampshire, where I lived for a while. Any fan of baseball or sports films should seek this film out.

2: The Life of Chuck

3.7/5 Letterboxd 82% Rotten Tomatoes

From childhood to adulthood, Charles “Chuck” Krantz experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.

The Life of Chuck reinforced a mantra I’ve been thinking about for a while now, but I’m glad I got to experience what Stephen King was saying, written and directed impeccably by Mike Flanagan. Chasing your dream, even if people are discouraging towards you, is the way to go as far as I’m concerned. Tom Hiddleston is phenomenal, Mark Hamill is great, but the standout in the cast was Benjamin Pajjak as middle school-aged Chuck. The particular three-act structure was an interesting one, but very effective. In a world where some of these events aren’t far off, this story reinforced how bad things are getting in the world and this country. Having a passion in life can help you not think about the bad things going on all around you. I can see why this movie won the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. It’s a very important film for everyone to see.

1:Warfare

7.3/10 IMDB 93% Rotten Tomatoes

Surveillance mission goes wrong for a platoon of American Navy SEALs in insurgent territory in Iraq.

I’ve seen a lot of war films, but rarely have I seen one that brought me into the fight like this one did. Right from the very beginning, based on the true events written and directed by former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza with Alex Garland, I felt like I was thrown into the s!+h as they say. I was looking over my shoulder for explosions and gunfire on the IMAX screen; that’s how real it felt. The cast of young, astonishing actors like D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn, and Charles Melton were all fantastic in their various performances, all based on real people from Mendoza’s time. This is the most realistic war movie I’ve seen in years, with Saving Private Ryan and Apocalypse Now being the most comparable to this. I’ve even discussed this film with Gulf/Iraq War veterans, and they have agreed it’s as realistic as any movie on the subject they’ve seen. That is some great praise as far as I’m concerned. This is the only movie I’ve seen this year so far that is completely immersed in the place, time, and location the story takes place, and that’s why it is the best movie I’ve seen thus far in 2025.