Every year has its share of hits and misses at the theater, and while I try to see everything Hollywood sends to audiences, sometimes there’s a few that slip through the cracks.
Wanting to make sure I give 2025 a fair shake, I’ve decided to go back and look at some of the less-than-well received flicks of the year. I figure I’ll give everything their shot before the end of the year. So here are Hollywood misses in 2025 that I missed.
Bride Hard
I want to start off by saying I think Rebel Wilson can be good in the right role, with the right filmmaker. I thought her energy fit in the likes of “Pitch Perfect,” “Jojo Rabbit” and “Isn’t it Romantic.”
I’ll also say that the premise here isn’t a bad one. I’m a fan of taking the “Die Hard” concept and tinkering with it for more movies. For example, I’m a big fan of both “Air Force One” and “Olympus Has Fallen.” I think it can work in a comedy, too. Unfortunately, the execution here is way off.
Noticeably, the quality of the movie is exceptionally low. Director Simon West, who’s really only made two enjoyable movies in “Con Air” and “The Mechanic” over the years, delivers what’s basically a made-for-TV feature to viewers. The look of the movie is flat, lacking a cinematic feel and scope.
What’s worse is it’s not really that funny. Every attempt at humor is bland and surface level. When a comedy isn’t particularly funny, it suffers, and makes the hour and 45-minute runtime feel longer. Much of the acting feels lackadaisical, too, no one really seems to be giving a committed performance.
It’s like a group of friends got together to play dress-up for the day. Maybe that was fun for them, but it wasn’t for the audience. 1.5 out of 5.
The Electric State
When I saw the leader of the robot civil rights movement early in this flick was a human-sized Mr. Peanut, top hat and all, I became worried. My fears were justified.
This film, which shows a world after a human Vs. robot war, where the former won, is laughable in its approach to the subject matter. First off, we never know if this war was just in the United States, or worldwide, but it seems like it was only in America because all the robots are now in a holding camp in the states.
Regardless, what follows after the prologue is a hodgepodge of sci-fi ideas that any viewer has seen in the last 20 years. “I, Robot?” Sure. “Ready Player One?” Yep, definitely that one. Even 2009’s “Surrogates?” You bet. Of course even those movies, like them or not, dealt with the prospect with more nuance than this.
In the film, we see most of the population basically hooked into virtual reality machines. What are they doing in there? What is the experience like? I don’t know, because the movie never shows it. We know that some use it to control robots to enforce laws. But for the average person? Nope.
Also, why did the robots rebel? Was it AI evolution? Are some newer robots more adept at learning? Again, we don’t know, the film doesn’t tell us. It’s also unknown why this needed to take place in the 90s, other than maybe some needle drops.
The actual meat of the movie, the adventure with the protagonists, isn’t much better sadly. We follow a teenage girl played by Millie Bobbie Brown who doesn’t quite pass as a high schooler, and doesn’t bring a lot of charisma, either.
She’s teamed up with a robot, which her brother has uploaded his conscious to. As the robot, the brother can only speak with the installed voice box that has pre-recorded lines. It’s pretty much just the same thing that was done with Bumblebee in the “Transformers” movies.
Chris Pratt, meanwhile, just plays an amalgamation of past roles, from “Jurassic World” to “Guardians of the Galaxy.” He does have screen presence, sure, but the character is just so generically forgettable. Also, his hair looks absurd.
What’s a shame is there’s a much more interesting character Brown’s could have partnered with. See, there’s an antagonist, Marshall, played by Giancarlo Esposito, who has a bit of a character arc in the film when it comes to the robots. It would have been maybe interesting to see him stuck with Brown’s character Michelle and her brother and have him evolve more than what’s shown in the film.
It’s possible that a lot of this whole thing doesn’t work because it’s somewhat unsure of who it’s target audience should be. The flick feels too dark for a kids movie, but not mature enough for an adult movie, yet there are times it’s trying to do both, causing it to stumble. 1.5 out of 5.
Hurry Up Tomorrow
I didn’t particularly love “Waves” from 2019, but there were certainly admirable aspects, and director/writer Trey Edward Shults deserved credit for it. Actors Barry Keoghan has also turned in fantastic performances, especially with “Banshees of Inisherin,” while Jenna Ortega has proven herself an impressive thespian in her own right.
Unfortunately, the latest film involving the effort of this trio is a total let down. The movie centers on Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weekend, who plays a fictionalized version of himself. Not necessarily a bad idea. Something like 2022’s “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” with Nicolas Cage showed such a premise can be quite entertaining while still introspective.
That’s not the case with “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” A clunky, messy, self-indulgent, incoherent and pretentious piece of cinema that takes itself way too seriously.
The film is immensely poorly plotted. That’s not to say it needs to adhere to the traditional three act format, but there is almost no structure here. Instead, we get a convoluted picture with a lot of stiff dialogue and sensory overload from rotating camera movements and a nauseating mix of lights and colors.
It feels more like a self-serving, overlong music video at times. And that’s not to say artists shouldn’t be able to explore their emotions or struggles through their work. Tesfaye co-writing the film to explore some demons isn’t inherently a problem. The issue is the disastrous execution.
Perhaps the worst part of the whole experience is how inhuman everything feels. There’s not an ounce of humor or charm to be seen here. The characters are paper thin, the interactions and relationships hold no weight and the writing has no heart or life. The audience sees so many things unfold, and it feels like there’s no real humanity behind it.
The final 20 minutes or so especially comes across like a group of ideas that weren’t particularly well put together. What could have been interesting or thrilling ends up being laughable with how things play out, and honestly, with how the acting is. It’s pretty poor across the board, honestly.
Tesfaye is rough, not surprising since he’s not an actor, but the experienced folks aren’t that much better here. 1 out of 5.
War of the Worlds
I had heard about this film. I had read about this film. Still, nothing could prepare me. First of all, you detractors all owe that 2005 “War of the Worlds” a damn apology.
I’m fairly convinced there was some money exchanging scheme with this picture. Something had to be going on, like a tax write-off or a shelved Amazon commercial project that was cancelled. Because, how could writers, a director and producers honestly look at this thing and say, “sure, put it out there to the masses.”
For those unaware, this is an adaptation of the classic alien invasion story, but told entirely from the desktop computer screen of a worker at the Department of Homeland Security, played by Ice Cube. Now, this is a format that has worked before. A prime example is the 2018 mystery flick “Searching.” It’s not the most robust film format, but with the right idea and inspiration, it’s fine.
Had this movie been completely about a military response through the modern digital landscape the armed forces run through, that could have worked. Keep things zeroed in. Instead, we’re treated to a generic, predictable family drama where Ice Cube gets to also mug at the camera as the angry dad who has a strained relationship with his kids.
Now, there was a similar scenario in the 2005 film. But that movie had the advantage of being able to spend direct time with the family unit in different scenarios, not just a guy sitting behind a computer for an hour and a half. So, we get Mr. Cube bantering with his children through this invasion via Facetime.
But there’s so much beyond the lackluster family back-and-forth that has to be addressed. How about a major attack taking place, where a character is trying to escape on a highway in a car, and they’re passing traffic moving like normal. Or, the president saying, out loud, in a motion picture, that humanity has to wage a “War of the Worlds.”
If that’s not dumb enough, around that time, a news outlet states that NATO, China and the United States are responding to the alien invasion. Guys, the U.S. is in NATO. Did anyone read the script?
Later, in response, the aliens use a cyber-attack to cripple the military’s capabilities. Now for some reason, Ice Cube can still operate from his chair, but whatever. However, what can’t function are things like planes, which start falling from the sky because of their computers going haywire. Which is kind of funny in hindsight, because basically 30 minutes later, the film shows bombers taking off for another strike. So, is everything back online?
So what are the aliens after, anyways? It’s data. It’s literally data. And the aliens have been coming for a while, because the film shows alien sighting reports back to Roswell. Yeah in the movie, those are real. So, tell me, why were the aliens coming to Earth in the 1940s when the most advanced computer we had took up an entire room to solve math equations? What was the data there?
Well, OK, what do they want with our data, which includes things like Facebook pages? They want to use it to get smarter. So, they know space travel and how to build gigantic mechanical robots, but they’re not smart enough. Well, what are they going to do after they get smarter? Oh, the movie never tells us.
Things get even more absurd when the climax to the movie involves having to deliver an Amazon package. Yeah, this film, on Amazon Prime, is that blatant. Then we get to the end of the film with social media posts from Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan talking about the invasion.
Wow, what a conclusion. That’s what we get to cap off Ice Cube giving the most lackluster, ridiculous reactions to a webcam for an hour and a half. 0.5 out of 5. And that’s generous.
Wolf Man
Leigh Whannel impressed with the last Universal-based monster movie, “The Invisible Man” in 2020, and his latest boasted actors who’ve done solid work. Julia Garner has been impressive, especially in 2019’s “The Assistant,” while Christopher Abbott has appeared in several good flicks, including 2018’s “First Man,” 2020’s “Black Bear” and 2023’s “Poor Things.”
On paper, it gives a person a bit of confidence going into the project knowing who’s in front of and behind the camera. Sadly, the latest movie to play with the werewolf mythos is not that good. “Wolf Man” suffers from quite a few things, with maybe the biggest issue is it being largely dull.
The film has an extensive set-up, with very little werewolf mayhem through the first 45 minutes. Having a good exploration of the lore is fine, but the audience gets less insight into the fanged canine creatures and a lot more exploration of family drama.
That’s doesn’t immediately shoot down a film, but what’s taking place here is simply boring. Seeing this family go through their own strained relationships, and having that compounded by Abbott’s character having grown distant from his father, just isn’t made to be that compelling. It doesn’t help that Garner and Abbott don’t show much chemistry, either.
As the film gets into the section where Abbott’s character Blake begins becoming a werewolf, there are some clever moments, such as his eyesight changing, with the viewer able to see how his POV differs from that of his wife and daughter.
However, there are some body horror elements that, while interesting, just feel like they’re repurposing ideas from other transformation-based movies like “The Fly” and “District 9.” As a result, it feels like more of the movie is centered around Blake’s body changing to that of a werewolf, than a werewolf being the main threat and cause of the thrills.
The actual look of the fully formed werewolf isn’t that great, either. In fact, it’s somewhat disappointing, especially considering today’s special effects and make-up artistry.
There are some bits one can appreciate here, such as a sort of push-and-pull with Blake as he still shows some determination to protect his family and fight his feral side. Yet for the most part, this one is forgettable. 2 out of 5.
Matthew Liedke on Film 