Top 10 Movies of 2025 + Movie Review: Marty Supreme + Top 5 Worst Movies of 2025 + Stranger Things Finale Review

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the first official new episode of movie Mike's Movie Podcast in twenty twenty six. I am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to share with you my top ten movies of the last year in twenty twenty five and where to watch them. In the movie review, I'll be talking about Marty Supreme and Timothy Chalomay's incredible performance that I wonder how much of his real personality did he put into this very over the top, overly confident character. Also, instead of the trailer park, I'll give you my top five worst movies of the year. These are movies I think you should avoid at all costs. And then finally I will wrap up this episode. Per listener request, I will give my thoughts on the Stranger Things finale. There will be a spoiler warning at the end of the episode because since it was such a massive event. So if you haven't watched Stranger Things yet and you are wanting to, I'll give you that warning, but it'll be towards the very end of the episode in case you don't want to hear that. So thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed. Here we go for another year, and now let's talk movies from the Nashville podcast network. This is Movie Mike Movie Podcasts. Gonna hop right into this list. But all I want to say, twenty twenty five was the best year in film since twenty nineteen. We had so many original movies, which if you are still complaining that we don't have original movies coming out in theaters or on streaming anymore, I really think twenty twenty five proved you wrong. Were they all successful? No, But just because the movie doesn't make a whole lot of money does not mean that that movie is not good. So original stories are getting a shot now. I think we are craving that more than ever. But obviously the big titles are still gonna get a lot of the attention. So all the lists you are seeing now, which I will have next week my top ten most anticipated movies of twenty twenty six, you're gonna see all the franchises on those lists, because those are the ones that just get more clicks and get more people talking. But there are a lot of original stories being made, and I think my list does represent that pretty well. There's a pretty good balance here from beginning, and so let's hop right into it. At Number ten is an original movie F one from Apple which if you want to watch it, it is available now on that streaming service. But it came out in theaters over the summer, and I didn't realize how much I needed, just a classic racing blockbuster in the summer with a big A list star Brad Pitt, jo said Harvey er Bardem in this, and it really felt like I was right there in the driver's seat at times because of the way this movie was shot. The same director who did Top Gun, Maverick really puts you like you are a character in the movie. With the big sound and the big soundtrack. There were so many great things. You have Brad Pitt as the older guy who comes back to the sport of F one racing. The new guy doesn't like him because he thinks, oh, this is just some NASCAR guy from America. He has no place here. So they are butting heads. The team is struggling and if they don't win this championship, it's all gonna go underwater. So there are a lot of steaks there. But obviously the thing that itself so well to a movie format is the fact that it all has to do with racing and you want to be first. The race itself is just exciting from beginning to end, in every single race that takes place. The movie cost about two hundred to three hundred million dollars to make, ended up making about six hundred and thirty million worldwide at the box office, making it Apple's biggest theatrical hit. So if you're a fan of movies that just generate a lot of intensity, a lot of great action, and you don't have to think so much about the plot pretty basic, I think F one is a fantastic movie. It really caught me by surprise, and that is why I put it at number ten. At number nine, I went with Hamnet, which came out in theaters towards the end of last year. It will be on Peacock. It is not yet, probably in the next couple of months it will be. And I really wish they put all of the Oscar contenders out on streaming sooner, but that's the way it goes. It stars Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskal. It is a fictionalized a William Shakespeare's life and the tragic passing of his son, and how that passing of his son inspired him to write Hamlet. This is a really emotional movie from beginning to end with top tier acting. And if you're somebody who thinks I can't tell good acting from bad acting, if you watch Hamnett, you will notice every single actor in this film give an amazing performance. This will show you what great acting is because from the adults in this movie to the child actors in this movie, who are on an entirely different level where you're like, man, where do you even draw that inspiration from? You've barely lived any life? How do you have so much emotional range? How are you able to make yourself cry? It is a fantastic accomplishment. I think the other big thing for me is it is really hard for me to get into period pieces, and just by watching the trailer before going to see this movie, I thought it was going to be I thought it was going to be really slow, which it is kind of a slow burned throughout. It is a big emotional buildup and it is one that you really have to focus in and watch and pay attention to. I think it's one of those movies I would have a much different viewing experience if I just watched it at home, where I could easily just pick up my phone or go do something else, or hit pause and come back to it. I think there was something about being in a theater completely dark and just focusing all my attention on it that allowed me to really sync into the story. Because there are a lot of emotional moments, but they're not necessarily these big intense action moments or anything over the top that is really going to suck you in. It's just as the story progresses more and more, you find yourself so emotionally invested, and by the end of it, you're like a little bit exhausted. You're like, man, I just went through so much. And I think it's probably one of the front runners for Best Picture easily. I think Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskull could both win Best Actor for each of the performances, more so Jesse Buckley because I think her character was just incredible in this movie. So if you are wanting to watch something that is going to maybe make you cry a little bit, and even if you're hesitant of watching a period piece where they speak a little bit differently, where it is a slow burn, I still think you will enjoy it. So at number nine, I have Hamnet and Number eight. I'm just realizing that these two movies are a little bit similar. It is called Train Dreams on Netflix. It is about a guy who works on the railroad, set in the early nineteen hundreds, and it covers his entire life from those early nineteen hundred years to the mid nineteen sixties, and you see different eras of his life, from starting a family all the way to when he retires from the railroad. Also a movie that is just a really slow burn because it's not really about this big, crazy plot. It is just seeing a snapshot into one person's life. And I think the fact that it's set in the nineteen hundreds and feel so old, and I thought, how could they make a movie about a guy working on the railroad living out on the countryside in the Idaho Panhandle. How could that be interesting? But this movie is so compelling it sucks you in and visually it is my favorite of the year. The cinematography is off the charts. It is shot in an entirely different way in a four to three aspect ratio, which if you are somebody who gets annoyed when a movie doesn't take up your entire screen, I get that you spend a lot of money on a big screen TV fifty plus sixty plus inches, you want all of that screen utilize. I used to be that person, but now a four to three format is my favorite, and it is essentially a square, so like Instagram used to be, it used to just be a square. That is how this entire movie is, which makes it look different, and it makes it look like every shot is perfectly framed. And I think the reason that the four to three format is now my favorite is because anything shot that way is done so with a big artistic purpose and it is going to be something that you haven't seen before. You don't put a generic comedy in a four to three format or a bad action movie. You put something that has a visual style to it and something that it is trying to achieve. And I think that is the perfect way to tell this story. And the colors are so rich and vibrant. Also has some really intense moments that will make you cry, and it also just kind of changed my perspective on time. Where this movie starts out where he is living out on this farm in the middle of nowhere, and it seems like so long ago, the early nineteen hundreds and by the end of his life you start to see more of a modern look at the world. And it kind of struck me that, man, there are some people who have experienced so much changes in technology and changes in the world in their life. If you just talk about transportation alone, you see horse and carriage to railroads, to airplanes. There are people who experienced all that, And I think that, as basic as it sounds, never really registered with me. And thinking of kids now who just are board into having all this technology with iPads and airplanes and AI to think now, how much technology is going to change and their lifetime is going to be crazy. I mean when I get old, I wonder how much different things are going to be. So the movie also just made me think about life a little bit. So at number eight, I have train dreams. At number seven, I have another Netflix movie, Frankenstein, from director Gimo de Toro, who has been wanting to make this movie for about fifty years. That says a lot to me. It is a lifelong obsession of his that started when he was just a kid. He crafted this story in a way that I have not seen a Frankenstein story told before, where I think before this movie, people were still confused as to who is Frankenstein. Frankenstein is the scientist, the actual monster is Frankenstein's monster, which I think this movie did a really good job and making the distinction between those two people. I love the way the movie was broken up into chapters and how it starts with the end. I think that was a really great way to build a lot of mystery in the beginning and also showed you that it wasn't so much about getting to that final scene. It was about giving you all the backstory on all these characters involved and showing you their perspective and fleshing out Frankenstein's monster in a way I've never seen done before. I have never felt so much attachment and feeling towards a monster of this caliber, where you think, man, could you give this treatment to other historical horror figures, like could you imagine having an emotional backstory on Michael Myers or Godzilla where you feel so much more for them as a person, seeing him try to communicate and feeling like a freak himself and having these amazing poignant lines about life that he was just dropping bombs on knowledge. When it came to how he felt as a monster, and I think that is what this movie opened my eyes to, is how we treat the monsters of the world, or at least people we perceive to be monsters. Because Frankenstein's monster is just a misunderstood person. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to be created, and suddenly he exists in this world that doesn't accept him. This story sets so much the transformation of Victor and who he became at the end of the movie, the regrets he had. There is so much emotional depth in this movie that I think some people just saw it on Netflix and about Frankenstein. I don't want to watch a horror movie. It is so much more than that you don't like horror movies. It doesn't really feel like that. I love that the horror genre evolves so much in twenty twenty five and what we think about it. I know I always lean towards it because I just have been fascinated with horror since I was very young, since I watched that first movie that gave me nightmares. That you will always see a lot of horror movies on my list every year, because one they do lend themselves to having some of the best original stories, but I think there is just so much more craft that has to go in to making a great horror movie. So at number seven I have Frankenstein. At number six, I have Superman, which is on HBO Max if you missed it in theaters over the summer, from director James Gunn. It stars David Cornsweat as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Holt as Lex Luthor, who I believe was the villain of twenty twenty five. Superman I also think was the superhero of twenty twenty five, where really only three big major superhero films came out that year, and this is the only one to make my list. Thunderbolts was really close to making it. It was teetering there on my number ten slot. I think that movie had a lot more impact on me as a Marvel fan and kind of surprised me of how good the action was in that movie. I think the fact that it didn't perform as well as Disney Marvel We're Hoping led a lot of people to believe that it wasn't a good movie. But honestly, it is one of the best Marvel movies of the last five years in the twenty twenties, it really stands out and set up for Fantastic Four. But Superman really changed the overall sentiment I believe with superhero movies moving forward. It was bright, it was colorful. I think some people had a problem with how Superman was portrayed in this movie. He's a lot more hopeful, he sees the good in people, which I think with Supergirl this year, she's gonna see the bad in people, So we're going to see the contrast there. I think some people who hated on this movie wanted to see more of the Henry Calvill Superman, who is a little bit more hardcore, a little bit darker. But I think getting away from that, making him a beacon of hope again and somebody who was always going to do the right thing is the direction we need to go with Superman. I think James Gunn's fun, colorful nature and unique big monsters and big fun moments and needle drop moments is what made this movie exciting and one of my favorite in theater experiences of the year went to Superman, where if I would have rated this movie immediately after leaving the theater, I would have given it a five out of five. The more I thought about it and the more it sat with me, and the more I had time to digest, it still rinks in that four point five out of five rating, which I think everything above this is all in that four point five out of five. I also think it did a good job of setting up DC for success moving forward in trying to get people to forget everything basically that has come out before this. So at number six, I have Superman getting into the top five. Now at number five, I have Bugonia, which is available now on Peacock, from director Yorgos Lantimos, who is really interesting dude, and I just love his work and I can understand if his movies and Bogonia specifically is just a type of movie that I'm going to love but will be a hard sell to some. But this movie is about two men who are obsessed with conspiracy theories and they are convinced that this CEO is an alien and she has been sent down to Earth to destroy it, and they decide that the only way to save the planet is to kidnap her and get her to admit that she is an alien. And just that premise alone sucked me in as somebody who I don't fully believe a lot of conspiracy theories. I think some people want to believe in them because it's kind of fun and exciting. I think some people find pleasure in thinking that the entire world is out to get us and wants to lie to us, and they're always lying to us, which I think we do get tricked a lot. But I try not to buy too much into conspiracy theories because I think it would allow my brain to never slow down. I would always question everything. But I do like to dabble in the idea of conspiracy theories, but I take them for what it is. I'm not like these two characters Jesse Plemons in this movie, who get totally obsessed with it and is going to do something as crazy as what they did in this But I love the way that this movie was shot. I thought it was exciting from beginning to end. There were so many great, in tense moments between Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. It was dark, it was surreal. It had an overall really strong voice all the way throughout that I feel like yorgos Landimo said exactly what he wanted to say. And it was a rare time when I went to the movies and felt like I left this earth. But I felt like I was so into the movie that I was able to not think about anything else in my life, not think about the runtime. I was fully there. I think a great movie is one that allows you to do that, to escape reality. That is what movies are supposed to do. They are supposed to be a way for us to disconnect from the real world and go into somebody else's world, almost like experience and watching somebody else's dream. That is how I felt watching Pagonia. At number four, I have Marty Supreme, which is still out in theaters now, came out over Christmas. If you won't get a chance to see it in theaters, it will be on HBO Max eventually. It is from director Josh Safti, starring Timothy Shallowmey, about a guy named Marty Mauser who is a hustler and plays table tennis. And I'm going to do a full movie review, so that is all I'm going to say about it right now. But at number four, I have Marty Supreme. You will hear more about that later. At number three, Sinners, which is available on HBO Max if you haven't seen this one from director Ryan Coogler, who has done movies like Black Panther, movies like Creed. It is about twin brothers who returned to their hometown in Mississippi. Takes place in the nineteen thirties, and then they encounter a supernatural evil. There's violence, there's music, and probably when it comes to music, has the best musical scene out of the entire year, and that is including Wicked for Good. I think that scene alone should earn some kind of oscar, which they should just create an oscar for the best scene of the year. But the way this movie blends reality and supernatural events, and at the core of it is a horror movie, like we've been talking about on this episode, I think Ryan Coogler is one of those people who can change how you feel about a horror movie and make it more mainstream. It has an entirely different atmosphere than any other horror movie. It was shot on film, so that alone sets it apart in a world where everything is shot digitally. And I know that feels like such an old school thing to do and thing to still be invested in. But if we start to look at all these movies that come out all the time. You get on Netflix, you get on HBO Max, you get on Hulu, you get on Disney Plus, everything starts to look the same. Movies now don't look the way that they looked back in the nineties when they were all still shot on film before everything went to digital, and it just changed the way that movies look that If you look at a movie back that came out in like nineteen ninety five, for example, it just looks more like a movie. There's more detail on that screen than movies shot now and come out and just kind of have the same palette to it. They lack a little bit of depth. So having a director like Ryan Kugler who still wants to make movies on film, just the way that this movie looks is gonna stand out from anything else that you watch. It's still going to feel like a movie. And maybe I'm one of the only people who still feel like that adds a lot to my viewing experience when it doesn't just feel like something that needs to be formatted in a way that looks good on a laptop, that looks good on your phone, or that can be cut into vertical clips. I think it ultimately has to look good on the big screen. So Ryan Kugler does that with a horror movie, gives it this entirely different look. Visually has some of the best shots of the year. The story is also great. It has some awesome villains. It also reminds me of one of my favorite movies of all time, from Dust Till Dawn. So maybe to some people who haven't seen that movie, this is now they're from Dust Till Dawn and I am good with that. At number three, I Have Sinners and number two is another horror movie also on HBO Max from director Zach Creiger. I Have Weapons. This was a movie I was trying to figure out from the very beginning because it is about an entire classroom of kids who all disappear on the same night at the same time two seventeen am. It gives you multiple perspectives and you, as the viewer, are trying to figure out. I love the way this movie was broken down by giving you character by character point of view, and I think that was the perfect way to tell this story, to keep you wanting more, to keep you invested in the story, and to really keep that action just kind of moving and pounding along where it just naturally made you want to keep going and in a way that made you want to rush to the end just to figure it out. And it is a story that you are not going to figure out. You're just not going to a movie that can still give me a surprise like that but also feel satisfying and not feel cornball to me. It also shifts your perspective on the horror genre where it leans a little bit more into suspense, does give you some jump scares here and there, but overall, this movie is a story about grief where director Zach Kreiger was dealing with that in his personal life. Lost his best friend. In this movie was a result of him coping with that, and if you rewatch it from that perspective, you can really see that play out more. You can see how much of his own life he put into this of somebody dealing with those really sad feelings and then just giving you something crazy. It also gave us a new way to run, which I'm still trying to perfect because I did it on my Instagram story and somebody said you gotta hold your arms out a little bit more so, even after months after watching this movie. I'm still working on my Weapons run, but I think overall it was one of the biggest surprises of twenty twenty five as far as how much of an impact it had on pop culture. And I think I feel that because if you look at the cast, it's not like there's one big A list star who sticks out. The premise alone wasn't something that was getting a lot of people talking before it came out. But I think word of mouth really helped this movie to give a really big moment that made it number one two weeks at the box office and made it one of the biggest movies of the year. So at number two, I have Weapons at number one. The movie I did talk a lot about during the Mikey Awards. It Goes to One Battle after Another, which is available now on HBO Max, from director Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Chase Infinity. It is about a former revolutionary who gets forced back into action dealing with these corrupt military figures, so now he and his daughter are on the run. If you have never seen a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, who has also done movies like There Will Be Blood, Punch, Drunk Love, Boogie Knights. I think this is a great place to start because it is his most action forward movie, also has a great deal of comedy, but also shows you how he sets himself apart from every other director and how he creates these big cinematic movies that are going to live on forever. And it is the only movie on this list that I think will have the greatest amount of longevity if you think about those movies that they put into the Library of Congress that serve as these national monuments of movies that really set themselves apart. I think, out of every movie on this list, One Battle after Another is the only one that could be in consideration for that, because while the movie is politically charged, at the core of it, it is a story about a father and daughter and their relationship, how it's not always the easiest, the sacrifices each of them have made, and then you have all these other layers resting on top of that. But also has one of the best third acts and also one of the greatest chase scenes of all time. So at number one, my number one movie of twenty twenty five I have one battle after another. Some honorable mentions I'll run through here. K Pop Demon Hunters, which I do believe is the animated movie of the year, should easily win the Oscar in that category, was very close to making my list. Like I mentioned earlier, Thunderbolts was really close there as well. Roof Man, which I also really enjoyed with Channing Tatum, which is the real story about the guy who robbed a bunch of McDonald's by cutting a hole into the roof and then later in his life lived inside of Toys r Us for months. I also really wanted to include the live action Lee Low and Stitch because I am a huge fan of the original animated movie. Was also one of the only movies I saw twice in theaters last year because I loved it so much. Also ended up seeing Zutopia twice in theater, so Disney really got her money with our nostalgia there. But when I had all the together and had a really hard time narrowing it down to ten, couldn't quite includely Low and Stitch on the list. I also really loved Warfare, which I feel like people didn't talk about enough, but that is available on HBO Max I feel like a really gritty war movie that takes place during the Iraq War in two thousand and six. Also almost include twin List, which I talked about in the Mikey Awards episode and why I believe that to be one of the big standouts of original movies last year. Wicked for Good I also really enjoyed. Also the new Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man, I ended up really enjoying and would rank it right after the original movie. So that is my list. I'll come back and give my spoiler free thoughts on Marty Supreme. Let's get into it now. A Sports Supreme movie review of Marty Supreme. I just banged my Marty Supreme ping pong ball popcorn bucket. That's kind of hard to say on the microphone here because I do want to talk about, not to start, but later in this review, the amazing marketing behind this movie. Even though this movie costs a lot of money to make, I feel like so much of the marketing was so innovative and probably one of the best campaigns I've seen this year. Because this movie, I think is a hard sell, because if you just look at this movie on paper, it sounds a little bit ridiculous a movie loosely based on a real life person about table tennis. And I think the way a lot of people feel about this movie going into it is how Marty Supreme in the movie felt about his sport, where he had to convince people that he was an athlete, because at that time when this movie takes place, wasn't really seen as a real thing. Even now, if you were to say you were a professional ping pong player, it would still be a wild thing to say, we're just now accepting pick a ball. I don't think we ever fully embraced ping pong, at least in America. But I do want to get back to the fantastic marketing job that I think they did with making this movie a vibe. More so than you need to go see this movie because who was in it, but you do have one of the biggest actors working right now, Timothy Challamey, who was the driving force behind this movie and making me want to see it him saying that this movie is next level. How much time he spent practicing table tennis for this movie way back in like twenty nineteen, after I think the French Dispatch he was already practicing table tennis in between filming all of his movies. While he was doing Wonka, he was also going and practicing table tennis, and I think that added a lot to his performance in this movie, where I thought, man, when does it cut away to his stunt double? When do they do a little bit of CGI to get his performance in there? And it turns out he had been training for so long. There's this one sequence where he does all these different types of trick shots. That was one of my favorite parts of the movie, and that really allowed me to zone into how hard he worked to play table tennis. And Timothy Schallomy is that type of guy. It comes down to how intense do you want your actor to be. Now, I don't want a method actor who is going to ruin the lives of his co stars, but I do want somebody who is that passionate about one role and making it the biggest thing ever, especially a movie about table tennis. And Timothy Schallomy is that guy. Whether he's playing Bob Dylan, whether he's playing Willy Wanka, whether he's playing Marty Supreme, he embraces every aspect of those characters because he knows that these are the stories that are going to live on forever. He didn't even want to stunt double in this movie. He said, if there is going to be a bear butt in Marty Supreme, it is going to be my bare butt. So when watching this movie, I found that it was his performance that was so intoxicating that drew me into every scene, every action sequence. It was him. So what this movie is about. It's about a man, Marty Supreme, who is obsessed with table tennis. He wants to be not only the best in the United States, but the best in the world, and he is so close. He feels like he just needs that one big victory and he is going to be the face of the sport. He is going to be on the weedies box and everybody. It's not so much that they don't believe him. It's that they don't believe that table tennis is a real sport and a real thing, even though it is huge overseas, which is where he's trying to go compete. They just see him as a guy who really doesn't have a job because being a professional ping pong player is not a real thing. At the start of the movie, he is working as a shoe salesman, just trying to get enough money to pay for his ticket to go and compete in the finals. That is what he is trying to do. Every single decision that he makes is to have enough money to play table tennis at all costs. Any moment he just sees this opportunity to earn any amount of cash to put towards his goal, he is going to take it, and he makes some really awful, terrible decisions on the way, which I think when you look at a Josh Safty movie, that is what he does best, pulling out these characters who you, as the viewer, almost hate because you're not really rooting for Marti Supreme because he is kind of a bad guy. He is so obsessed with his idea of being the best in the world that it impedes him on just being a good human. And while watching this movie, I found it interesting that at times I did not want him to succeed because he was burning all these relationships, these people who have helped them out and probably genuinely want the best for him, but he is so obsessed with being the best failure does not enter his mind that he is willing to push them all to the side because he almost doesn't even see these humans as humans. He just sees them as these people in his way, and if they can't get him to where he wants to be, he wants nothing to do with you. He will push you aside as soon as you are not an asset to him. He doesn't care about you. So there are a lot of flaws in his personality. He is overly confident, which I think is something that Timothy shallow May plays really well, and I think that is the thing we forget about him, of how confident he is as a person and as an actor that he is the best. So I wonder if some of his real life personality came out a little bit in his character in showing how relentless he is, because I think that is what the message of this movie is, of how relentless you need to be in order to achieve greatness. And at what price are you willing to pay? Are you willing to give up your entire life, your entire existence to be the best in the world. And if you are, you're going to have to realize that you're gonna make a lot of people mad, you are going to ruin some relationships so even though you are willing to make those sacrifices, oh man, it's not a great life. And he is overly confident, smug, so condescending to people, but it's that driving force that allows him to even get in the realm and the conversation of being the best at table tennis. This movie is paired with a fantastic score that really brings it all together and adds to that level of anxiety that you feel as the viewer, because I think that is what I love about Josh Saffi movies like Good Time, like Uncut Gems. It's that feeling of being uncomfortable, of feeling like at any moment, crap is gonna hit the fan, somebody is going to end up incapacitated, or something irreversible is going to happen, and you're gonna be traumatized, because it is that foundation underneath all these scenes, this score. They're just kind of driving making things feel so much more intense than maybe they really are, which is really this entire movie because you have these really big moments, because it is a sports drama of people playing table tennis, and there's just this odd level of intensity that Josh Safti is able to create because if you were just to look at this as a spectator, if you were inside this movie, it wouldn't feel that intense. You're just witnessing two people playing table tennis. But in this movie, it feels like the biggest thing in the world, like all eyes are turned on this moment, like it has a whole lot of impact. But even though this would just be a minor story in everybody else's life, that is it Marty Supreme or the small circle around him. This would just be somebody on a Saturday, Hey, you want to go watch a ping pong championship. Sure I'll go with you, just a way to kill an afternoon. But to him it is everything. And I love that juxtaposition, that contrast of having somebody obsessed with something that is their entire world, but to other people it is just something very minor in your life, which I think is something that we all experience now. Things on the internet, people on YouTube, people on TikTok, Instagram. We all have these really specialized interests. For me, it's movies. For other people it could be gardening. Maybe to some it is running in fitness. All these little areas of expertise that you can have, and passions and interests that to you, those are your entire life. You probably have celebrities within all those interests that are just celebrities to you. The biggest YouTubers in the world and streamers might mean everything to you but mean nothing to somebody else. And I think that is why this movie resonates today. He is fighting for something that he is the only one who really cares about, and in the grand scheme of things, in the whole scope of the world, it really doesn't mean anything. And I think that is what makes this movie even more impactful, is that it takes something as trivial as table tennis and makes it feel massive, like it should be filling stadiums. That is the sign of creating a compelling story, where if you look at his brother's movie from earlier this year in twenty twenty five, Ben Safty with The Smashing Machine also felt like it was taking somebody's story in a specialized field in that world being UFC, but the story wasn't there. There was nothing compelling about Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine like there was about Marty Supreme, two people who kind of had the same personalities in both of their minds. They could not see failure, They only saw winning. But it was the ability to create a compelling story that sets Marty Supreme not only apart from The Smashing Machine, but making Josh Safti the superior Safty brother and to me saying, that's where the talent is because my favorite film of both of theirs was Uncut Gems and it was that level of anxiety that that movie created, and I felt that again in Marty Supreme, but did not even come close to feeling that in The Smashing Machine. Another thing that Josh Saftie does well is not only giving you the big A list stars with Timothy Shallomey and Gwyneth Paltrow, but also putting in these other pieces to make the movie feel authentic, but giving you these cameos of like, why is this person even in this movie? Why is Shark Tanks Kevin O'Leary the jerk rich husband in this movie? But somehow it makes perfect sense. But when you put all these pieces together, having Gwyneth Paltrow act alongside Kevin O'Leary, it creates a great contrast and creates these moments that you don't feel or see anywhere else. Tyler the Creator is in this movie one of my favorite rappers of all time. If you are watching on YouTube and have been subscribed to the channel, you have seen his album in the background of my studio here call me if you get lost for I don't know, probably a year and a half, two years, as long as I've had this YouTube channel. Seeing him in this movie making his big screen debut was exciting to me, but also that he did a really good job. Him and Marty Supreme's friendship in this movie was something that I could have just watched that story unfold. My only real big beef with his character was that he was not in the movie more because I really saw anytime those two were together on screen it felt like a really great buddy comedy, which the entire Marty Supreme movie had a lot of different elements throughout it, a big drama, some comedy, some crime, a little bit of thriller. Overall, just a really fun, entertaining experience from beginning to end. Even though it did feel a little bit long at almost two and a half hours long, it really wasn't until that two hour mark that I was even aware of the runtime that is usually my signal in my brain whenever I think, Okay, when's this movie gonna end? And I check my clock because I start my timer at the beginning of every single movie I go see in theaters. And it was right around two hours where I thought, when's this movie going to wrap up? So I did feel the runtime a little bit. But before we hop out of this review, let's talk about the marketing where I got this for free at Regal. If you bought your tickets on the app, you got a free Marty Supreme popcorn bucket, which this is pretty simple. It's just a big orange, pink punk ball with a flattened bottom so it can sit on a shelf or if you're watching in the theater, which the guy next to me also had one, it was sit in your lap and not roll off. But if you look at all the marketing surrounding Marty Supreme, that is how you create a vibe for a movie. Where I think some movies have gotten it wrong. It's not so much about telling people how great your movie is, who is in it an amazing performance, they're going to be nominated for Oscars. I think people don't care about that. Again, going back to The Smashing Machine, just because these two movies kind of have a lot of parallels. To me. The Smashing Machine, that's what all the marketing was. The rock is in it, one of the most famous people in the world, giving his Rawlis performance. He's going to get nominated for all of the awards for this. People don't care about that. People want to feel like they are a part of something. They want a movie to have a vibe. Much like if you were just going to follow somebody on social media, you want to follow them because they're cool, because they have a vibe to them. That is what the marketing of Marty Supreme did. Giving all those celebrities that warm up windbreaker jacket that I now am searching out. I was looking on stock x but it's like ten thousand dollars fifteen thousand dollars, crazy amount. That just had me interested in the movie from a fashion standpoint. Seeing Tom Brady, Kid, Cuddy Kardashians, all these people wearing this Marty Supreme jacket and obviously Timothy Shalomey wearing it as well, got my interest. It started to create this vibe that, hey, this movie is something that cool people are also a part of I want to be a part of that too. Instead of doing traditional billboards that every single movie does, they said, nah, forget that, We're gonna put orange blimps all up throughout the country, and not just in a big city every single time. We're going to put them in random cities across the so that people see these, they take videos of them, and they post them on the Internet because that gets people talking. So probably that same amount of money they could have spent on just billboards, make that three D, you put it out in the real world, put it on a blimp. I loved it. They committed to a color palette too, with this bright orange that sticks out everywhere. And if you're just going which I know people don't really do this, just walk down like the halls of a movie theater or outside a movie theater where all the posters, this bright orange is going to stick out to you in posters, but also on social media. You see this color when you're scrolling through, you're probably gonna stop on it. And not only that, but they also did a fake over fifteen minute zoom call that went viral, which was Timothy Schallomey throwing out all these ridiculous promotional ideas for Marty Supreme, like painting the statue of Liberty Orange. They put that out in its entirety, which is a crazy thing to do, especially now with the concern of anything that you put out on social media has to be so people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. But you put out a fifteen plus minute, almost seventeen minute zoom call that's essentially a piece of promotional content. But people didn't know is this real? Was this fake? Is this something that wasn't supposed to be uploaded online? And it was that creates a moment. So there were all these little things that they did that were just a little bit different, nothing too crazy, Not all those were even that expensive, but it created these moments that made you feel like you wanted to be a part of this just because it was generating interest. And I think that is a lesson in movie marketing that other films need to learn from. It's not just about putting out a really slick trailer and paying for all these TikTok ads. It's about creating a vibe and energy and building a brand for your movie that people want to be a part of. I will also say, as I wrap up this review, Ted Williams, the cameo he had in Marty Supreme was probably my favorite out of every buddy. If you remember Ted Williams from a viral video from the twenty tens, he was the man with the golden voice who was out on the street just asking people for money. A guy took a video of him and say, hey, I'll give you some money, but hey, do that thing with your voice. And he was a broadcaster back in the day, and you see him standing there on the street corner and suddenly you hear this amazing, booming voice that sounds like it should be on radio stations across America. He went viral, that video changed his life, and seeing him in Marty's Supreme just brought this sense of joy to my face because he is one of those people that went viral when going viral still meant something, where it meant that everybody in the country knew who you were after getting millions of views. And to see him and all of the ups and downs in his life of getting off the street, having success again, having money, losing it all again, and now to be in a movie where you look so genuinely happy to be there, happy to be on screen, and his cameo'll fit in perfect with all these other people who aren't really actors but got their shan to be in a movie of this level. The Ted Williams cameo just made me happy. So when it comes to Marty Supreme, I give it four point five out of five Ping Pong balls my top five worst movies of the year. These were movies I found to be unbearable. But my one role that I have is I have to complete a movie in order to review it and include it in this section every single year, because if I only watch half a movie and can't get through it because it's so bad, I don't count it. Because I didn't officially finish it, I cannot put it towards this list. Or if I walk out of a movie, which I did not walk out of one single movie in twenty twenty five. I got close, but never walked out of a movie. So all of these I watched to completion. In some cases, I hate watch some of these movies because I knew about my role and if I didn't finish it, I couldn't include it. So I powered through and was petty enough to finish the movie just so I could included on this list and count it towards my worst of the year. So these are movies I think you should avoid because sometimes they repopulate on streaming services like maybe you should watch this movie. Do not waste your time on these, and if you did and enjoyed them, more power to you. But this is my top five list of the worst movies of twenty twenty five, starting at number five. The Old Guard. I do not know why I hate this franchise so much, why they are really trying to force this action franchise on Netflix, but I cannot get into it whatsoever. I thought the first one was so generic. I was surprised they made The Old Guard too, which at least their own and I like her as an actor, but this movie is not it. The action in this is so nineteen eighties and does not fit in twenty twenty five. There's nothing interesting about it. I mean, how do you take a movie about immortal warriors and make it boring? These people who have been fighting for centuries trying to protect the world, and somehow you focus on this story that is so unbearable and the ending was tear rub bowl at number five, I had the old guard to do not waste your time on this one. We're gonna see a theme here, because I think the hardest genre right now to make good is action movies, even more so than comedy movies. I can find some redeeming qualities in any comedy movie. Those also get made less. But for some reason, action movies just feel so bad right now if you do not have a great director. Because at number four, I have Back in Action with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Fox, which was another Netflix action movie, and this was one that came out towards the beginning of last year. And you see Cameron Diaz and Jamie Fox's face together on a thumbnail and you want to click that because of their star power. Also, Cameron Diaz came out of retirement for this movie. They paid her a lot of money, but to see her in a new movie in such a long time should have been unevent, but it was not. They played two former CIA agents who are now living in a suburban life, which is almost the premise to every single action movie that stars two actors who are bigger in the nineties and two thousands. That's kind of the Okay, what can we do with them now because they're a bit older. Well, let's have them in a family setting. Nobody knows their secret agents. But then their pass is going to come crawling back and suddenly they have to do CIA and Assassin things again, but now they're doing it like a minivan. There was no chemistry whatsoever in this movie between Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, so many cliches, bad cgi and no surprises. There was no fun to be had. And back in action, I have that one at number four. At number three is another action movie, Bridehard with Rebel Wilson, which is essentially die Hard, but at a wedding. She plays a secret agent who has had an interesting relationship with her friends because she is always gone because her job requires her to go places and be a secret agent, and she can't tell anybody, so it causes a strain on their friendship because she has to leave a lot without any explanation, And obviously, if you are friends with somebody and they keep ditching you, not telling you where they are going, you start to see them as a bad friend. But nonetheless, she is a part of her friend's wedding and then it gets taken over all the wedding guests get held hostage, and then you find out more details why it happened, but she has to step into secret agent mode and take down the criminals. Speaking of bad CGI and bad action movies, a lot of bad CGI. But it also tried to work in some comedy, and when the comedy's not working and the action wasn't exciting, the whole movie just feels like a mess. It tries to be a wedding rom com but then also obviously tries to be a diehard parody. It wasn't over the top enough to be ridiculous funny and not serious enough to feel like, oh man, this is kind of a crazy situation when if you think about it, if you went to a wedding and suddenly it was taken over by a bunch of hardcore dudes with guns and tattoos and big muscles, that would be a terrifying situation, And in any other tone, this movie would be a lot more serious. There would be more consequences. If somebody got shot at a wedding, that would be a really big deal. But here everybody kind of shrugs it off. It feels normal to a lot of people, so again, the tone just was not right for this movie to create any kind of sense of realism, and it wasn't wacky enough to feel like a slapstick comedy. So at number three, I have Brideheart at number two again the same premise pretty much as back in Action The Family Planned too. How did this movie get a sequel on Apple TV as Mark Wahlberg who is essentially playing the same person he's played in every single movie in the last three years, which Mark Wahlberg has kind of just turned into a streaming actor where I don't remember the last time I paid money to go to the theater to see a Mark Wahlberg movie. And I have to imagine he is doing pretty well doing all these movies on Apple and Amazon Prime, but he's not really at that level anymore where he is even trying to put out a movie in theaters. Maybe he doesn't really care about that aspect anymore and he just wants to see the check clear. He wants to go around and promote these movies, post them on Instagram, and he likes that lifestyle without them having to have a theatrical release. But much like the movies we were talking about on this list, he plays somebody who used to be a secret agent and now he is trying to live a normal family life. But obviously in the sequel, his family has now figured out about his past and they're a little bit more okay with it, and I almost think that makes this sequel worse them knowing and him not having to keep it a secret about his past. Kit Harrington from Game of Thrones is in this movie who plays one of the worst villains of all time, where not worse than that he is a bad person and a good villain, just a really terrible villain all the way around. I hate a villain who is so flimsy that it feels like, why is this person even a threat? Why is anybody even caring about taking this guy down? Because his entire plan made no sense. It just felt really lazy. The jokes were atrocious, to the point that I don't even think they were trying to make this movie funny for its audience, which is trying to be like a family friendly action movie. But this entire movie felt like a waste of time. And the only reason I finished it is because I knew if I didn't, I couldn't include it on this list. But this is awful, and they also kind of tried to make it a Christmas movie and there was very little Christmas in it. So after this one, I'm out. If they make the Family Plan three, I am not going to torture myself through that. I'll still give Mark Wahlberg a chance. He's put out some okay streaming movies in the last couple of years, but this franchise is not it. I'm ready for it to be done. But at number one the worst movie of twenty twenty five, War of the World's on Prime Video with ice Cube Eva Longoria. This movie was never supposed to see the light of day. They made it during the pandemic. The only reason I watched this is because TikTok convinced me that it was so bad, the worst movie ever made. And it was almost to the point that I was like, I don't even want to spend my time watching something so bad. But I had to know for myself, because sometimes when things get beaten so much online, it's kind of a snowball effect of everybody hyping up how bad a movie is. That maybe sometimes I think it can't be that bad. War of the World is that bad? The entire movie takes place over Microsoft teams, not even Zoom or Sky Microsoft teams. It is so ridiculous in the way that ice Cube is essentially sitting in an office trying to prevent an alien invasion and the entire world crumbling around him from a chair in his laptop, and he's hacking into phones, hacking into security cams, sending people Amazon gift cards. It really felt like a big Amazon commercial because they incorporate all these things of like, oh, we got to get him something quick, let's get on Amazon dot com. We'll send it via drone. The entire thing was wild. The movie is also literally unfinished. There are parts where you can see the green screen reflection in ice Cube's eyes. I think his worst performance ever because the director wasn't even in the room with him. It sounds entirely like ice Cube just has his script sitting a little bit off camera and he is just reading it like, oh man, the world is really going going down here. Let me hump on my computer and see if I can take these guys down. Click. There is some crazy reactions that he has to really serious things, and I don't want to ruin at all. If you decide to go watch this movie, but there are moments where he should be a lot more sad or shocked, and he has just such a flat delivery. And I can't believe they put this together and actually put it out into the world. But the only redeeming quality this movie had is I now have a go to answer whenever somebody asked me what is the worst movie I have ever watched? So not only the worst movie of the last year, but now goes down on my list of the worst movie of all time. I can't believe this movie was even made. Some of my honorable mentions include The Accountant two, which I think just because I had higher expectations for it. Because The Accountant one is a good movie, does action pretty well, has some intense moments. Nefflex character in that movie just felt more like a unique person, and in the account At too, he felt more like a cartoon character. So I don't think it's one of the worst movies ever. It's just a huge decline from one to two that it surprised me and disappointed me. I will also put in my honorable mentions, I know what you did last summer Again, it was more so that I was disappointed in this requel. Happy Gilmore Too was also a big disappointment. Although I didn't really expect that movie to be good. From the moment that the trailer dropped and I saw how much they were focusing on all the cameos, I knew there was no way it was going to live up to expectations or be anything close to the original Happy Gilmore, and I have to kind of just accept that that was just supposed to be a fun movie, turn your brain off, have some nostalgia, but I really wish that that entire thing would have been handled differently, because the first maybe twenty minutes of the movie had potential, and then it just quickly said, Okay, we're just gonna do whatever we want. Throw in bad Bunny and Travis Kelce also an honorable mentioned Good Fortune with Aziz I'm sorry, Seth Rogan and Keanu Reeves. Again, I think this movie was just the fact that I had higher expectations because I love all three of those actors, and the movie just did not deliver. Was not that funny, was not that interesting, and felt like it should have come out probably fifteen years ago. But that is the list. Before I go, I got to get my listeners shout out of the week. This week, I'm going over to my Instagram dms and shouting out Kendra, who actually asked me a question. She said, I need to know your thoughts on this season of Stranger Things. I know it's not a movie, but please do a review in an episode. I do want to talk about it because I have been watching Stranger Things since twenty sixteen along with a lot of people, and it's crazy to me that this is only the fifth season in nine years, because twenty twenty six would have been the tenth anniversary of Stranger Things ended in twenty twenty five, so in the almost ten years this show is ex that we've only got five seasons. I think about forty episodes, and I have been invested in it for so long, and I think every season has been great. It is rare that a show maintains the level of quality that I believe Stranger Things has maintained over the years. I love season one, Season two was okay, love season three. Season four was my favorite by far. I really really enjoyed season five. I was so close to it being my favorite season out of all of them. And if you want to hop out of this right now, I will get a little bit into spoiler territory. But I also feel like it was such a huge moment in pop culture. I could not get away from seeing stranger things on my feed. If for some reason, you haven't watched the finale yet, or if you haven't started the show at all, and it wouldn't take you that long to start from the very beginning to the end. Now, I will get into spoiler territory here now, so thank you for listening. You won't get the full sign off, but I will get my thoughts. Now you have been warned. All right, spoiler territory here now. I thought that season five lacks some intensity where season four was so building up to this amazing moment. Vecna. In season four, I thought, was this unstoppable force. He became my favorite villain. I thought, how are they going to get out of this? How are they going to defeat Vecna? There were so many great moments with Max and all the characters in season four just shined Eddie all the things that season four is still my favorite of all time because I feel like that was where all the best action was the best fighting. It was an impossible task to finish this show with all the things that happened with COVID and all the things getting spread out, the kids getting older, which I also think was a big factor, Millie Bobby Brown becoming such a huge star, everybody starting to branch out that I am surprised and just grateful we got this conclusion that I feel closed out the series in a really good way. But it was possible task. My expectations were so high because of how big the action got in season four, and I felt like the intensity just wasn't there in season five. It was more a way of closing out their story, and he became less about Vecna and more about all the characters saying goodbye to their childhood. Because I did not like the way Vecna went out. It was too easy. He became so little of a threat, and the actual last fight between him and the entire crew of Stranger Things just felt really quick and rushed, and they were focusing so much on all the side characters that I thought, are they trying to make a spinoff series here? But they're not going to do that. There is a spinoff series coming, but it's not going to be set in the same town with the same characters. I really thought that's why they were spending so much time building up all these side characters and not focusing on the main cast. And it just felt like I wanted more bloodshed, which maybe that's cynic in me. I wanted to see more of the main characters die. I am in the camp of I believe that Eleven actually died. I think the story that Mike told himself was just to make himself feel better, and that's what he told all the other kids. That she survived and she is out there living somewhere peacefully in a countryside somewhere, and that was the only way that they could move on. I do love the sentiment there, though, because, like I said, I think the reason some people are upset the way it went out. And even though I don't like how easy it was to defeat Vekna, it wasn't a story about that. It wasn't a story about the upside down. The real story was about people growing up and saying goodbye to their childhood, and in order for them to move on into this next phase of life, that is what had to happen. And I do believe that she actually died, not initially though Initially I was like ah, she's still alive. And I think that's also what I didn't want to happen. I wanted things to feel final. I didn't want this kind of door open and at the end, if she was going to die, I wanted her to actually die, because then it felt like nothing was ever on the line. But I do love the way they wrapped it up with that final campaign. I thought it was a great sendoff. I got emotional during that scene with Elle and Mike. I didn't fully cry, but I got a little teary eye just because that was the moment that was them saying goodbye. Although whenever it was like still an hour left and they'd already defeated VECDA, I'm like, where are we going to go from here? I just felt like things started to get a little bit too convenient. Even when Steve was going down, I wanted him to really die. So again, I think it was a little bit the synic in me that wanted to see all these fires just go out and there'd be some real turmoil in order to feel like, Okay, this was an ending. I didn't really want a twist of any kind. I just wanted people to go and it have a little bit more emotional weight, but instead it ended as a service to the fans. It ended in a way that I think made the most people happy. I do really love that they really emphasized how big the fan base was and how much they tried to give back to everybody. So I think to those people who are on an entirely different level of fandom when it comes to stranger things, which I don't think I'm at that top ten level, I think those people got what they really wanted for me, where it's not my tier, one of the things I'm a fan of. I felt like it was really good. I would give it when it comes to season five as a whole four out of five Vecna's and I still believe that season four was a five out of five. Overall. I still think it is one of the best TV shows of all time, easily the best Netflix show of all time. But it makes me excited that we can still get this in the streaming era, because I think that long running shows like this are gonna go away. Even though there were only five seasons, it did span over ten years, and in a world where we're getting so many just quick limited releases, it is hard to have a show have success over seasons like this, I feel like a Stranger Things taking place over ten years, where you get to see these actors grow up so much, might be a relic of the past. So to me, it was also kind of staying good behind at that because you can't really go and see that many long running shows anymore, just because people get famous and then they want to go do other big things, which I hope all these people have success outside of Stranger Things. Obviously, Millie Bobby Brown is probably the biggest breakout star, but then you have Maya Hawk, you have beIN Wolfhart. I think I would like to see them all have success, even though a lot of them are probably set up for life now after this. I think Millie Bobby Brown made the most in season five, making one point two to five million dollars per episode, and then you had like Hopper making one point two million, and all the other casts still made pretty good money. I think it was like eight seventy five. The next tier was like seven hundred thousand, and then like half a mil per episode, So they're doing all right. But that was my thoughts on the finale. Kelsey and I are now going to start it from the very beginning because she has never seen it. But I think we can get through it pretty quick because there are that many seasons when you look at it. So thank you for joining me in twenty twenty six. I hope you stick around a while. Tell a friend if you want to go subscribe to the YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro And until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later