Favorite Films of the Summer of 2025 - As Voted by You!!

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 20^th 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?