As we approach the final chapters of our 2025 archive, Page 6 takes you back to the films that started it all. This penultimat page focuses on the releases from the beginning of the year—the early winter blockbusters and the spring festival discoveries that set the tone for the months to follow. Revisit the foundation of 2025’s cinematic landscape and discover the underrated projects that first captured our attention at MovieDoors.
"How to Train Your Dragon" (2025) Movie Review
The story follows Hiccup, a teenage Viking on the Isle of Berk, where dragons are seen as mortal enemies and raiding the village is a routine threat. Hiccup, the lanky and inventive son of the tribe’s chief Stoick, is a misfit in a culture that prizes brute strength. During a dragon attack, Hiccup wounds a rare Night Fury, but...
"Elio" (2025) Movie Review
To everyone’s shock—but especially Elio’s—the message is received. He’s abducted by a mysterious alien vessel and transported to the Communiverse, a council of extraterrestrial species dedicated to peaceful cooperation. Mistaken for Earth’s ambassador because he made contact, Elio suddenly finds...
"28 Years Later" (2025) Movie Review
The world of 28 Years Later is not the burned-out London of 2002. It's a post-Rage-virus Britain, fully quarantined and cut off from the rest of the globe, where generations have grown up without firsthand memory of the outbreak. Our story centers on Spike (played with quiet brilliance by newcomer Alfie Williams), a 12-year-old boy raised in the isolation of...
"The Ritual" (2025) Movie Review
From its opening scenes, The Ritual wears its influences on its sleeve. A crumbling convent. An ailing young woman. A priest who’s lost his faith, paired with one who’s clinging to it with his last breath. It’s the blueprint of countless exorcism films—and yet, thanks to a firm commitment to historical accuracy and grounded character work, The Ritual feels more...
"Deep Cover" (2025) Movie Review
When Kat (Howard), desperate for money and relevance, is offered a quick payday by Billings to take part in a minor sting, she says yes. With her best students unavailable, she turns to Marlon—who thinks he’s Daniel Day-Lewis reincarnated—and Hugh—who thinks improv means quoting the rule “Yes, and…” out loud. What starts as a low-stakes sting at a...
"Straw" (2025) Movie Review
From its first moments, Straw sets the stage for a day that begins with hardship and ends in near tragedy. Janiyah (Henson), exhausted and quietly determined, wakes to a broken-down apartment, overdue rent, and a sick daughter with mounting medical needs. As the day unfolds, a series of crushing setbacks—a heartless landlord, a degrading job, a...
"Predator: Killer of Killers" (2025) Movie Review
At first glance, Predator: Killer of Killers may seem like a nostalgic throwback or a stylized experiment, but make no mistake—this film fully understands what makes the franchise tick. From the moment it begins with a stormy Viking raid, it becomes clear that Trachtenberg and Wassung aren’t here to simply...
"Echo Valley" (2025) Movie Review
When we first meet Kate Garretson (Moore), her world is already shrouded in sorrow. Nine months have passed since the death of her wife Patty, and she’s been left to maintain their horse ranch alone in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Pearce sets the tone early with a moody, muted palette and slow, contemplative...
"Ballerina" (2025) Movie Review
The plot is straightforward but effective: Eve Macarro, orphaned as a child when her father is murdered by members of a mysterious death cult, is raised and trained by the Ruska Roma—the same brutal organization that once molded John Wick. Now a deadly assassin in pointe shoes, Eve uncovers evidence linking her latest target to the same killers who shattered her...
"Tornado" (2025) Movie Review
Tornado opens in media res, with our heroine already running. Drenched in cold light and battered by Jed Kurzel’s brooding, percussion-heavy score, the film immediately sets a tone of dread and grit. Tornado (Kōki) dashes across the blustery Scottish moors with a young pickpocket in tow, pursued by Sugarman (Tim Roth) and his band of...
"The Amateur" (2025) Movie Review
Rami Malek’s performance as Charlie Heller is, without a doubt, the linchpin of "The Amateur." He masterfully embodies the "introverted and quiet" nature of a CIA decoder, yet conveys a simmering intensity beneath the surface. Charlie is no hardened field agent; he's a "gun-shy" computer nerd, and Malek sells this fish-out-of-water scenario with a remarkable degree of...
"Mickey 17" (2025) Movie Review
The heart of Mickey 17 lies in the concept of the Expendable: workers who are sent on suicide missions and resurrected via cloning and memory restoration. This literalization of labor exploitation becomes both the film’s central sci-fi conceit and a brutal metaphor for modern working-class disposability. Pattinson plays Mickey 17 — and later...
"Lilo & Stitch" (2025) Movie Review
The emotional core of "Lilo & Stitch" is undoubtedly its central trio. Maia Kealoha's performance as Lilo is genuinely charming. She embodies the childlike exasperation and the deep-seated need for friendship that defines the character, acting very much like a real six-year-old. Sydney Agudong delivers a grounded and strong performance as Nani, vividly...
"Fountain of Youth" (2025) Movie Review
The film kicks off with the kind of high-octane energy synonymous with Guy Ritchie, throwing viewers into a frantic car and bike chase through Bangkok, swiftly followed by a train sequence and a London heist. This relentless pacing is both a strength and, at times, a detriment. It ensures that the "action" rarely lets up, with "fisticuffs or gunplay" unleashed...
"The Phoenician Scheme" (2025) Movie Review
From the moment the film begins, it’s unmistakably a Wes Anderson movie. His signature trademarks are not merely present; they are the very essence of the experience. The precise perpendicular framing, the obsessive symmetry, and the almost fetishistic meticulous attention to detail in every prop and set piece create the sensation of stepping into a...
"Hot Milk" (2025) Movie Review
"Hot Milk" unfolds as a somber narrative, set against a desolate European coastal landscape where the relentless sea mirrors the characters' internal struggles. The environment itself becomes a character, communicating through muted tones, barren shores, and overcast skies that silently observe a life defined by care and limitation. Lenkiewicz's adaptation explores...
"Havoc" (2025) Movie Review
From its opening moments, "Havoc" sets a grim tone, pulling no punches as it throws audiences into a chaotic world where a stolen cocaine shipment hidden in washing machines sparks a deadly chain reaction. This initial drug deal gone wrong quickly escalates, drawing Walker into a labyrinthine conspiracy involving a local Triad leader, Tsui, whose murder sets the stage for a...
"Bring Her Back" (2025) Movie Review
"Bring Her Back" boldly steps into the crowded subgenre of grief-based horror, but it does so with an unflinching ferocity that sets it apart. While many contemporary horror films use grief as a mere metaphorical backdrop, the Philippou brothers make it the raw, bleeding heart of their narrative, channeling the existential nihilism reminiscent of...
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