Going through school, I couldn’t wait for the April to September movie slate. Didn’t matter what type either: a dinosaur movie. An Apatow Comedy. Barbenheimer. Challengers/Hit Man. There’s always something exciting each summer to get excited for.
2025’s movie slate has really gotten bad, as most of my most anticipated movies from this time moved to the fall. But there’s still some gems in there to keep an eye out for.
Here are the Honorable Mentions, covering the gamut of filmmaking:
My prediction is coming true! The faith based films go into the realm of animation to tell Jesus’s story for Easter Season. It’s a big step for Angel Studios, and they’ve pulled out all the stops with terrific looking CGI and a great voice cast. If this is great, you’ll start to see bigger and better versions of these stories in theatres for the years ahead.
DC Comics pulled Marvel into its superhero dregs for the last few years. Let’s see if James Gunn can put a little sheen on the OG superhero. Superman has never been the most interesting character, but hopefully Gunn can find something modern and exciting to root for with this latest iteration.
Right before summer ends Darren Aronofsky is back with one of my favorite movie premises of the year so far. Austin Butler’s on board, playing a baseball player pulled into the NYC underworld. I hope Aronofsky rises to the occasion and delivers with this one, cause when he goes for it and it works, it’s truly something special.
Runaway winner for trailer of the year. Underneath that Rudyard Kipling poem, hopefully Danny Boyle and his cast has something new and fresh to put on this beloved zombie movie series. Based on the hints in the trailer, it’ll at least be fascinating and darkly gorgeous, but the anticipation is sky high thinking about where we could go with years of creative stewing from really talented people.
Stephen King seems like a pretty big fan of Mike Flanagan. That’s because Flanagan has deep reverence for King’s works, spending ample time to understand and distill them to their honest essences like Dr. Sleep. This one looks like a non horror King, but let’s see if that Flanagan/King connection remains strong as we change genres a bit. Early buzz is good, and Flanagan’s consistently won me over with his great movies.
Joseph Kosinski dominated the air with Tom Cruise, and now he’s set to dominate the ground with Brad Pitt. The trailer should get your adrenaline pumping, as we follow formula one drivers on epic races across the planet. Everything you want in a big fun summer movie as far as I’m concerned.
No, this is not the aggressively mediocre Brad Pitt movie. It’s actually a remake of a movie that inspired 1994’s Speed. That means we have a shinkansen (high speed Japanese train) that can’t go below 100 km/hr. Hell Yeah! Speed’s premise is so good it’s more than enough time to give it another go, and with the Shin Godzilla director behind it? The movie will also double as an incisive satire of government policy and action. Bombs with a point. Double win for me!
2 years ago and some Past Lives ago, Celine Song delivered a modern romance for the ages. I’m generally wary of a 2nd feature of a masterpiece, but I believe in Celine. And Dakota Johnson. And a Pedro Pascal/Chris Evans triangle of modern love. I’m ready to swoon again in the summer Celine, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve got for a follow up!
What a wonderfully demented comedy this is going to be. Reviews are sky high, and we’ve got two of the funniest people bridging comedy generations. An ageless stalwart Paul Rudd elevates one of the funniest people today, Tim Robinson, into the movie big leagues, in a film that is paving it’s own unique road into hopefully a template for a new modern type of comedy we’ll see for years to come.
This is the big one. Ryan Coogler fully extracted himself from Marvel’s clutches. This is his latest: a sweaty, exciting, genre movie. Michael B. Jordan is onboard pulling double duty, Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, I can’t wait to see what Coogler does uninhibited by studio interference, letting his freak flag fly in hopefully as many gross, weird, fun, captivating ways as possible.
