By Joshua Tyler
| Printed 15 seconds in the past

After years of summer season disappointments, summer season 2025 will nearly actually go down as probably the greatest film summers of the last decade. Now that youngsters are heading again to high school, it’s time to take inventory of simply how good it was.

If there was a constant theme that made this summer season’s crop of movies so watchable, it was a dedication to getting again to fundamentals. The greatest films targeted on telling easy tales and telling them completely. 

These have been the perfect films of 2025’s golden summer season. 

1. F1 Was Summer 2025’s Best Film

F1 is gorgeous in its simplicity. It tells a simple story a couple of easy character, and does it completely, pushed by a incredible soundtrack, with out losing a single movie body.

It stars Brad Pitt as a washed-up race automotive driver named Sonny Hayes. He’s assured, good, and proper about all the pieces. Folks mock him, assault him, and blame him for his or her issues. Sonny Hayes doesn’t care. He is aware of he’s proper, so he smiles and retains doing that. It really works. He wins. That’s the film. 

2. The Bare Gun Is The Funniest Film Of The Decade

The Bare Gun is the primary big-budget comedy launched since Daddy’s House 2 in 2017. Laughter is again in a giant method, and seeing this franchise revival in a giant theater with a cackling viewers was price any value.

Right here’s my favourite bit: Frank is studying a felony’s rap sheet and says, “It says right here you’re doing 25 years for Man’s Laughter.” Insert dramatic Liam Neeson pause right here. “It will need to have been one hell of a joke.”

The Bare Gun is one hell of a joke. It’s the funniest film of the last decade.

3. Superman Was The Summer’s Best Journey

At its core, Superman is a back-to-basics method to superhero storytelling. It’s been dressed up with a few of director James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy idiosyncratic model, however a stripped-down core drives it.

Like F1, Superman is the story of a hero who is aware of he’s proper and refuses to pay attention when everybody tells him he’s fallacious. Finally, his steadfastness pays off. Superman saves the lives of innocents, and his girlfriend respects him for sticking to his convictions.

Alongside the way in which, some issues want punching; there’s a black gap and a flying canine. That’s plenty of enjoyable. However the core of the film, and what made it really feel refreshing after years of bloated storytelling gone mad, was that simple, sensible method to standing up for what’s proper. 

4. The Lifetime of Chuck Was The Summer’s Best Small Film

Not all the pieces launched in summer season is a giant, noisy blockbuster, and this film, based mostly on a Stephen King story, was summer season 2025’s greatest quieter entry.

The Lifetime of Chuck was directed by Mike Flanagan, the thoughts behind the Netflix restricted collection Midnight Mass. Nobody watched Midnight Mass, however it’s nonetheless the perfect factor Netflix has ever produced.

The Lifetime of Chuck tells three related tales. In a single, the world appears to be slowly operating down, and nobody is certain why. In one other, a person dances. Within the third, there’s a mysterious room.

I’ve most likely mentioned an excessive amount of already. The much less you recognize stepping into, the higher. Simply make it some extent to look at The Lifetime of Chuck with somebody who gained’t thoughts you crying. 

5. The Unhealthy Guys 2 Was Summer 2025’s Best Youngsters Film

Unhealthy Guys 2 is healthier than the primary Unhealthy Guys in almost each method. It’s a wild animated journey with its personal sense of fashion and nonstop momentum, set to probably the greatest movement image soundtracks of the yr.

Each film body is filled with one thing thrilling and enjoyable. It by no means stops transferring and creating. Not one of the viewers’s time is wasted. 

I’m not suggesting right here that that is the type of film adults ought to hunt down, with out youngsters. You’d want somebody beneath the age of 12 together with you to take pleasure in what The Unhealthy Guys 2 has to supply. However should you noticed it, irrespective of your age, you needed to take pleasure in this turbo-charged cartoon experience.

6. The Incredible 4: First Steps Is The Yr’s Best Marvel Film

Incredible 4: First Steps was made by Marvel, however it isn’t a Marvel film. It’s a Incredible 4 film, and that seemingly minor distinction is an important factor about it. Incredible 4 was a recent method to superhero films, free from the standard Marvel system.

One of many film’s largest nice surprises was how good the choice to gender swap the Silver Surfer was. It generated controversy, however it was a change made for good story causes, and never political ones. 

Like the opposite nice summer season blockbusters on this checklist, First Steps made good, commonsense narrative choices and instructed a easy story in addition to it might be instructed. The end result was a enjoyable, fascinating superhero movie with no fats left untrimmed.

What’s Lacking From This Checklist

I screened almost each movie launched this summer season, from Mission: Not possible – The Remaining Reckoning to Elio to The Phoenician Scheme. Some, like F1 and The Bare Gun, I noticed twice.  In a stunning twist, almost each film launched this summer season, besides the one with dinosaurs in it, was good. 

The solely 2025 summer season movie I missed that may have been a contender for this best-of-the-best rating is Weapons, a horror film launched at Summer’s finish. Most appear to agree it’s incredible, together with GFR’s personal Drew Dietsch. It nearly actually belongs on this checklist as Summer 2025’s greatest horror film. I hope to see it quickly.