Hello, folks! What you’re about to read is what we’ll call a compromise that I didn’t exactly want to have to come to for this post but, given the circumstances of how long it took to have this specific project finished, I wanted to ensure its completion so that the pressure of having to finish it wouldn’t be hanging over my head for the next few months. As longtime visitors to this site know, I hold an annual poll every year where I invite you all to vote for your favorite films from that year’s summer. After the two to three weeks of polling conclude, I tally up all the results and produce an extensive write-up piece that includes every film that earned a vote, so that I can acknowledge my overall intent with this ‘End of Summer Fan Poll’ to honor every voice that participated in it regardless of their favorite film’s quality.
However, as you’re probably
aware, my overall output for this site has been slower these past few years for
various reasons, whether it’s the usual pressures of a full-time job taking up
a good chunk of my time to the fact that I simply don’t want to spend the rest
of that time stuck behind a computer. This has very much affected the release of
these annual End of Summer Results Posts, with me not publishing the 2023 post until
that year’s end in December and 2024’s post coming slightly earlier by comparison, but still quite late for that stretch of time that November. This brings us to the
2025 End of Summer Fan Poll Results Post, which I’m publishing… at the tail-end
of May the following year. To be clear, it’s not that I wasn’t working on a
proper Results Post, but as you can guess, it ended up taking way longer than anticipated,
mainly for all those reasons I brought up earlier. And yes, this was then
further complicated by the recent posts that I’ve done (my big tribute to my recently closed hometown theater and the retrospective on the Mortal Kombat Legends films), but eventually I realized that at the rate I was going, it
would’ve taken me way too long to have that version of this post completed in a
reasonable timeframe. In the Cinemaworld tribute, I stated that I hoped to have
it done by, at the very least, the time when I’d kick off this year’s edition
of the End of Summer Fan Poll.
To put it bluntly, it
got to the point where I realized that this deadline wouldn’t be met. And so,
while it pains me to have to nix the traditionally lengthy and in-depth style
of write-ups that I do for these Results Posts, I decided to instead do a more
simplified version of this year’s post to ensure that it would finally see the
light of day. This year, we had 74 voters cast their votes for 21 different
films. And so, without further ado, Rhode Island Movie Corner is proud to
present the most popular films of the summer of 2025 as voted by you, the
readers!
THE FOLLOWING EIGHT FILMS EACH EARNED ONE VOTE APIECE
F1: THE MOVIE
One could say that
after their work on 2022’s big summer juggernaut (and that year’s End of Summer
Fan Poll winner) Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski,
screenwriter Ehren Kruger, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer looked to repeat that
winning formula of a high-octane summer blockbuster revolving around an
industry that requires considerable technical prowess from those who partake in
it with a plot where an aging veteran is recruited to mentor young and cocky
recruits with their latest film, based around one of the most famous sporting
leagues in the world, Formula One. And while F1: The Movie is certainly
not the kind of film to look to for a layered plot and deep bits of character
depth, it works around its simplistic narrative by delivering the exact same
kind of incredibly satisfying kinetic action sequences that Kosinski
masterfully crafted in Top Gun: Maverick while being fully bolstered by
the always charismatic Brad Pitt in the lead role of renegade Formula One
driver Sonny Hayes. As a result, this big-budget blockbuster ended up being one
of the Top 10 highest-grossing films of the year and even managed to garner a
few Oscar nominations, with a win for Best Sound and, most notably of all, a
somewhat unexpected nomination for Best Picture.
I KNOW WHAT YOU
DID LAST SUMMER
Following in the
footsteps of the hugely successful relaunch of the Scream franchise,
another famous 90’s horror franchise launched by screenwriter Kevin Williamson,
I Know What You Did Last Summer, returned to theaters with a full-on
legacy sequel that presented a new cast of characters being hunted by a
raincoat-wearing hook-wielding killer who haunts them with the memories of a deadly
incident that they played a direct part in. But unlike the Radio Silence-directed
installments of the Scream franchise, the revival of I Know What You
Did Last Summer was ultimately a dud with most critics who felt that it was
a bit too reverent of a legacy sequel with some questionable methods of trying
to continue the franchise.
28 YEARS LATER
After years of attempts
of trying to do a sequel to their 2002 hit 28 Days Later being consistently
thwarted by copyright issues (hence why 28 Days Later spent many years
being one of the most infamous examples of a hard to find film on physical
media), director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland were finally able to relaunch
their modern spin on the zombie genre with 28 Years Later, a new story
set in a universe where much of the United Kingdom has been decimated by a
virus that turns its victims into rage-inducing psychopaths. And while it
ultimately garnered a polarizing reaction amongst some audiences who were
thrown off by the film ultimately being more of a coming-of-age story in which
a young boy from an isolated island community travels onto the infected-ridden British
mainland to try and find a doctor who can cure his ill mother, those who did
like it appreciated its deeply emotional storyline, gorgeous visuals, and thoroughly
modern interpretation of a post-apocalyptic world in the post-COVID-19 landscape
the same way that the original 28 Days Later captured that exact same essence
in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. It’s since gone on to spawn an equally
acclaimed sequel, this year’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed
by Nia DaCosta, but due to that film’s underperformance at the box-office (which
I’m referring to as the second straight case of the internet screwing over
DaCosta after her 2023 MCU outing The Marvels was a wholly underserved
flop (a rarity for the superhero genre franchise juggernaut)), the plans for a
finale to this prospective trilogy are now currently up in the air.
THE LIFE OF CHUCK
Having already found
much success in adapting the works of legendary author Stephen King with acclaimed
works like 2017’s ‘once deemed unfilmable’ Gerald’s Game and 2019’s The
Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan took on a much different kind
of King story with The Life of Chuck, one of the four novellas in King’s
2020 short story collection If It Bleeds. Rather than being one of King’s
trademark horror stories, The Life of Chuck is a slice-of-life drama
focusing on the turbulent life of its titular protagonist, Chuck. What follows
is one of King’s more light-hearted stories that still presents the strong bits
of emotional pathos that he is well-known for which, sure enough, is something
that Flanagan has managed to convey in many of his projects as well. As a
result, The Life of Chuck was seen as another successful outing for the
revered horror director even if it wasn’t the kind of film that he’s known for.
THE PHOENICIAN
SCHEME
Wes Anderson’s latest
cinematic outing, in which an arms-dealing industrialist deals with various
plots to undermine his financial empire while trying to appoint his daughter as
the sole heir to his estate, is full of the director’s well-established
filmmaking trademarks, from his quirky sense of humor to his immaculate visual
style. As such, while some critics have argued that Anderson is starting to play
it safe at this point in his career, they were still generally positive toward The
Phoenician Scheme, further cementing Anderson’s status as one of the
industry’s most revered directors.
HURRY UP TOMORROW
Having steadily grown
into being one of the biggest icons in the world of alternative R&B music, Abel
Makkonen Tsefaye, AKA The Weeknd, has now made the jump to the big screen in Hurry
Up Tomorrow. Inspired by a real-life incident in which he lost his voice
during a concert, the film sees Tsefaye play a fictionalized version of himself
who embarks on a surreal journey when he meets a mysterious devoted fan of his.
But while the accompanying album may have been another success for The Weeknd
from a musical standpoint, the same cannot be said for his onscreen aspirations
as the film was largely derided as a self-indulgent ego trip that felt more
like a marketing ploy to try and boost its soundtrack.
FRIENDSHIP
(*WRITE-IN SECTION
HONOREE*)
Bolstered by the all-star
duo of Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, Friendship, a dark comedy in which a
socially awkward marketing executive (Robinson) becomes overly obsessed with
his newfound friendship with his weatherman neighbor (Rudd), proved to be a hit
amongst critics who found it to be a perfect representation of the kind of
cringe comedy that has made Tim Robinson a modern icon in the world of comedy.
KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
(*WRITE-IN SECTION
HONOREE: TECHNICALLY A NETFLIX RELEASE BUT ONE THAT WAS GRANTED ELIGIBILITY DUE
TO IT BEING GIVEN A LIMITED THEATRICAL RELEASE*)
Calling KPop Demon
Hunters one of the biggest cultural phenomena of 2025 would be a massive
understatement. The Sony Animation-produced musical fantasy promptly broke all
sorts of records upon its release, from becoming the most-viewed release in
Netflix history to its double platinum soundtrack making history as the first
K-Pop soundtrack to win both a Grammy and an Academy Award. And simply put, when
the film in question boasts visually stunning animation, an iconic
soundtrack, and three of the most naturally endearing heroines in recent
history in the trio of demon-hunting pop stars Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, it’s easy
to see why this film became the golden
juggernaut that it is.
THE FOLLOWING
FOUR FILMS EACH EARNED TWO VOTES
HAPPY GILMORE 2
(*WRITE-IN SECTION
HONOREE: GRANTED ELIGIBILITY DESPITE NOT HAVING A PROPER THEATRICAL RELEASE AS
A SHOWING OF APPRECIATION TO RHODE ISLAND MOVIE CORNER READERS FOR ENSURING
THAT THIS YEAR’S POLL WOULD END UP HAVING A RESPECTABLE TURNOUT*)
Nearly three whole
decades after he first stepped onto the golf course as the brash yet ultimately
good-natured hockey player turned golfer Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler returns to
one of the most iconic roles of his career in a legacy sequel that’s one big
love letter to its hugely popular predecessor but one that also feels like an
earnest callback to the early days of Sandler’s career when there was some
genuine heart to his trademark lowbrow sense of humor.
THE BAD GUYS 2
Thanks to the success
of the 2022 film adaptation of the children’s graphic novel series The Bad
Guys, DreamWorks Animation has very much found its latest hit franchise
to join the likes of Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train
Your Dragon. And in true DreamWorks fashion, this has now resulted in an
equally successful follow-up in The Bad Guys 2, which sees the titular
group continue their efforts to try and atone for their criminal pasts while
being forced into working alongside a rival gang on the biggest heist of their
careers.
Speaking of How to
Train Your Dragon…
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR
DRAGON
To the surprise of
many, DreamWorks took a page out of Disney’s playbook by producing a
live-action remake of one of their animated classics; in this case, their
universally acclaimed 2010 smash hit How to Train Your Dragon. What
ultimately came out of this is a remake that is almost entirely a 1:1 redo of
its animated counterpart (save for some incredibly minor additions) which, I’ll
admit, is something that I find rather ironic due to several folks seemingly
giving this film a pass for all this while simultaneously being harshly
critical of Disney’s live-action remakes, even though most of them have never
been THIS identical to their animated counterparts. Despite this,
however, that doesn’t mean that I ‘dislike’ the remake of How to Train Your
Dragon as it’s bolstered by the original’s wonderful story and is ultimately
a well-made live-action interpretation under the solid direction of Dean
DeBlois, director of the original animated trilogy, thanks to its largely practical
production design and excellent cast headlined by the duo of Mason Thames and
Nico Parker as series protagonists Hiccup and Astrid. That said, though, I do
hope that the impending sequel that’s slated for next summer will at least try to
not just be a 1:1 redo of 2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2.
SUPERMAN
With the DC Extended
Universe ultimately being a failed attempt at trying to match the level of critical
and commercial success that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has accomplished, it
was clear that a new creative direction was desperately needed for the
cinematic potential of some of the most iconic comic book superheroes of
all-time; enter Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy director James Gunn (and
director of the DCEU’s best installment, 2021’s The Suicide Squad) to do
just that alongside producing partner Peter Safran as the new heads of DC
Comics’ film division. And to kickstart their new cinematic universe on the big-screen,
Gunn personally helmed a new interpretation of Superman that, after years of us
all being forced to deal with the toxic fanbase of director Zack Snyder acting
like Snyder’s visually impressive yet narratively soulless take on Superman for
the DCEU was the only way to properly portray the character on the big-screen,
promptly reminded us all of how it’s supposed to be done in a film that wisely focuses
more on Clark Kent’s humanity rather than his powers.
THE FOLLOWING
THREE FILMS EACH EARNED, FITTINGLY ENOUGH, THREE VOTES
THE FANTASTIC
FOUR: FIRST STEPS
Despite being some of
the most prominent characters within the Marvel Universe, the Fantastic Four have
infamously had some of the worst luck out of any of their in-universe peers with
their cinematic outings as various attempts at launching the Fantastic Four film
franchise ended up faring poorly amongst critics and audiences. There was the
infamously unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four film produced by B-movie king
Roger Corman, the commercially successful yet largely panned pair of Fantastic
Four films from the early 2000’s that were mostly seen as byproducts of an
age where the genre was guided more by studio mandates than actual creative
intent, and the disastrous 2015 reboot Fan4stic that, for lack of a
better term, was practically doomed from the start and basically served as the
death knell for 20th Century Fox’s Marvel films. Simply put, it’s
truly saying something when, for many years, many considered a completely unrelated
film, Brad Bird’s 2004 Pixar flick The Incredibles, as the best Fantastic
Four film ever made.
But, now under the direction
of Kevin Feige and company at Marvel Studios, Marvel’s First Family were
finally given the Grade-A film adaptation that they’ve long deserved in The
Fantastic Four: First Steps, a film that celebrates their comic roots with
its delightfully whimsical retro aesthetic. But, at the same time, the film
also does a great job in conveying the ominous suspense that is the threat of
the world-devouring Galactus (portrayed PROPERLY this time rather than being a
giant space cloud like he was in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver
Surfer) while also providing arguably the best interpretations of its
titular quartet yet with the pitch-perfect casting of Pedro Pascal as Mr.
Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as the Human
Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing.
FINAL DESTINATION:
BLOODLINES
Nearly one and a half
decades after its last installment in 2011, one of the most prominent horror
franchises of the 2000’s returned with a vengeance and delivered arguably its
best installment yet with Final Destination: Bloodlines. Not only does Bloodlines
continue to deliver on everything that folks have come to expect from the Final
Destination franchise (namely, its over-the-top gory kills), but it also
does so without being hindered by any of the issues that plagued some of Final
Destination’s latter sequels. Instead of being dominated by a collection of
one-note, unlikable characters who are just there to be killed off, Bloodlines’
focus on a family threatened by the series’ signature death curse gives us its
most likable protagonists to date. And whereas something like the franchise’s
worst outing, 2009’s The Final Destination, delved way too far into
campy territory, Bloodlines manages the series’ trademark twisted sense
of humor better than practically any other film in the series. In short, Bloodlines
proved that Final Destination still has quite a lot of bite to it
even more than two and a half decades since its inception.
THE NAKED GUN
It’s a tall order to
try and continue one of the most iconic comedy franchises of the 1980’s, The
Naked Gun, without the involvement of the series’ creators (Jim Abrahams
and brothers David and Jerry Zucker) or series lead Leslie Nielsen, but against
all odds, the filmmaking team of director Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island
and Family Guy creator and producer Seth MacFarlane managed to pull it
off with their star-studded revival. Liam Neeson proves to be the perfect successor
to Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin’s son, Frank Jr., while being joined by the
equally great Pamela Anderson as his love interest, Beth, in a film that
respects its satirical roots in a modern setting to deliver something that filmgoers
have been wanting to see for quite some time: a good old-fashioned comedy.
THE FOLLOWING
THREE FILMS EACH EARNED FOUR VOTES
MISSION
IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING
Three decades after
first choosing to accept his mission as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise sent
Ethan on his final adventure with the second half of the series’ big finale
after 2023’s Dead Reckoning, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.
And while some have argued that the series hit its peak in 2018 with Mission
Impossible: Fallout, some of the more questionable narrative routes taken
in the two Reckoning films did not stop this series from going out on a largely
successful note, all bolstered by the consistently strong direction of
Christopher McQuarrie, who’s been the franchise’s director since 2015’s Mission
Impossible: Rogue Nation.
JURASSIC WORLD:
REBIRTH
While 2022’s Jurassic
World: Dominion was originally presented as the grand finale to everything
that the Jurassic Park franchise had set up since the 1993 original, series
producer Steven Spielberg teamed up with the original’s co-writer and 1997’s The
Lost World’s writer David Koepp to keep the franchise going with a new
installment, Rebirth, that would, under the direction of Gareth Edwards
(Godzilla (2014), Rogue One), aim to harken back to the series’
roots with a more suspenseful story of survival. And yet, at this point in the franchise’s
run, most of Rebirth’s dinosaur action feels disappointingly routine in
this sluggishly paced dino thriller that feels like it was a Jurassic
Park/World film that was ‘made by committee’, a phrase that I wouldn’t
apply to any of the series’ previous outings. Nevertheless, with the film
nearly matching the previous trilogy’s consistent $1 billion turnout at the box office, it’s safe to say that the Jurassic Park/World franchise
continues to be one of pop culture’s biggest juggernauts despite fans’ largely
mixed reactions to its follow-ups.
THUNDERBOLTS* AKA
*THE NEW AVENGERS
Yes, in a year where
much of the attention was focused on the MCU’s take on the Fantastic Four and
James Gunn’s relaunch of the DC Cinematic Universe, arguably the most acclaimed
superhero film of 2025 was the MCU’s annual ‘first week of May’ release, Thunderbolts*.
For some people, this was a genuine surprise as the film’s announcement faced
tons of online skepticism, with some arguing that it was just the MCU’s attempt
at trying to cash in on DC’s Suicide Squad concept, especially given
that it would be headlined by some of the most polarizing characters to come
out of the MCU’s post-Endgame era. And yet, the film managed to defy all
expectations by delivering one of the MCU’s most character-driven installments
in what was also one of its most narratively darkest outings up there with the
likes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Daring to tackle such serious
topics as the daily struggles of one’s mental health, Thunderbolts* manages
to balance its emotionally devastating plot-threads with the franchise’s
trademark knack for a grand spectacle.
(And yes, for those
who are wondering, the use of an asterisk in the film’s title was to tease its
ultimate reveal in which the titular squad is renamed The New Avengers)
THIS YEAR’S
THIRD PLACE WINNER, WITH 5 VOTES
WEAPONS
After making an impressive
debut as a horror director with his 2022 feature Barbarian, sketch
comedian turned filmmaker Zach Cregger’s acclaim extended even further with his
follow-up, Weapons, a multi-layered horror-thriller in which a quiet
town is rocked by the sudden disappearance of multiple children from their
homes. Carried by its captivating mystery plot and strong performances from its
cast (headlined by Amy Madigan as the film’s standout character, the enigmatic
Aunt Gladys, which earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), Weapons’
success with both critics and audiences has very much given Cregger some
major carte blanche as a filmmaker, which he will be using to full effect this fall
with his unique spin on the Resident Evil franchise.
THIS YEAR’S RUNNER
UP, WITH 12 VOTES
FREAKIER FRIDAY
Disney’s 2003 remake
of their 1976 film Freaky Friday, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay
Lohan as a dysfunctional mother-daughter duo who suddenly find themselves
swapped into each other’s bodies, has very much been a beloved classic in the eyes
of the generation that grew up with it. This, to me, helps to explain why its hotly
anticipated sequel, Freakier Friday, ended up being the sleeper hit of
this year’s poll. With Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis continuing to be a
delightfully hilarious comedic duo as their characters Anna and Tess find
themselves swapping places with Anna’s daughter Harper and Anna’s fiancé Eric’s
daughter Lily, respectively, Freakier Friday delivers another hilarious
body swap comedy on par with its predecessor that, even if it’s arguably just a
modern redo of the previous film, also beautifully maintains the original’s emotional
poignancy. And because this all-around crowd pleaser managed to do quite well
for itself at the box office during the traditionally crowded summer
blockbuster season, I feel like this could lead to a well-earned career revival
for Lohan after all the scandals that she had to endure in the 2000’s.
AND FINALLY, THE
GRAND CHAMPION OF RHODE ISLAND MOVIE CORNER’S 2025 END OF SUMMER FAN POLL, WITH
20 VOTES
LILO & STITCH
Unlike a lot of the
recent live-action Disney remakes, the live-action adaptation of Disney Animation’s
beloved 2002 hit Lilo & Stitch dared to not just be a
straightforward retelling of its animated counterpart by making a few alterations
to its plot of a destructive alien crash-landing on Earth and becoming the
adopted pet of a young and rebellious Hawaiian girl. That said, though, some fans
of the original were quite pissed about its significant changes, from turning franchise
regular Jumba into the film’s main antagonist to the film’s revamped ending
that, as they argued, went against the franchise’s well-established theme of
finding one’s ohana, which, of course, means that “no one gets left behind or
forgotten”. But if you ask me, at least when it comes to the remake’s altered
ending, the backlash towards it is mainly the result of a grossly inaccurate
interpretation of it because, ultimately, it makes enough of an effort to
ensure that it doesn’t end on a depressingly somber note for its main protagonists.
As a result, while I know that it won’t be saying much in the eyes of those who
are highly critical of Disney’s run of live-action remakes, the live-action
remake of Lilo & Stitch may just be the best one of the bunch as it
manages to both respect its beloved source material without being a 1:1 repeat
of it.
And there you have it!
As always, I want to express my utmost gratitude to everyone who participated
in this year’s event, from the 74 voters to those who helped to spread it
around on social media. Your annual contributions to this little event of ours help
make this one of my favorite projects to do here on Rhode Island Movie Corner
and are quite frankly the main reason why I have continued to do this every
year. And again, my sincerest apologies for taking THIS DAMN LONG to
finish it. Hopefully, this won’t happen again in a few months when we kickstart
the 2026 edition of our annual End of Summer Fan Poll which, as always, will
have quite an eclectic collection of films vying for the crown. This is a
summer where some classic franchises will be making their triumphant return to the big screen for the first time in years while other big-name franchises are
set to unleash their latest surefire hit upon us. This, of course, includes the
likes of Marvel and DC, with the former seeing their favorite webslinger leap headfirst into a new era of his cinematic adventures and the latter taking us on a wild ride with the Man of Steel’s intrepid cousin. Aside from that, we’ll also
have some of the biggest names in the film industry bringing us their latest,
including a certain filmmaker who’s gone two-for-two at our annual event. Will
this year’s event see said filmmaker pull off a threepeat?
