Continuing off the metaphor of some movies being like old pizza, there’s no better version than the surprisingly good. The best films stick with you but you just can’t beat a good old surprise. You think you know what you’re in for or something you think is going to fit nice and neatly on your plate but then it turns out the pizza is like twice as big as what you thought you paid for and came with all the toppings. On top of being hot and fresh, that pizza may not have been the best, but it certainly is far from forgettable. That’s the same feeling a surprisingly good movie can do when it pulls off its spontaneous triple flip and then nails the landing.

Who doesn’t love a surprise?

This is mxdwn’s most surprising films of 2025.

10. Weapons

Weapons- I was not a fan of Cregger’s Barbarian, but just about every part of Weapons clicked with me. Very tense but also very smart in the way it carried itself. It kept you thinking the whole time, and didn’t fool around with the scares or the story.

– Raymond Adams

9. Superman

Superman: I didn’t think it would be “bad,” but I also did not expect to leave the theater with a sense of hope that I did not have when the film started. Superman is the true embodiment of hope and goodness, and David Corenswet’s performance really helps you feel that way and believe it too.

– Amani Sanders

8. Final Destination Bloodlines

Final Destination Bloodlines surprised me the most out of any film this year. It was a big year for horror, and the fifth installment of what could be a tired premise still provides shocks, laughs, and catharsis!

– Dempson Juvenal

7. Splitsville

Produced by Dakota Johnson and written by Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin, all of whom star in the film, Splitville completely surprised me with how under-the-radar it was. One lengthy fight sequence was so well-coordinated that the audience couldn’t stop laughing. The film grapples with complex issues in a novel way while nailing a difficult tone. It is definitely worth checking out.

– Samantha Breslauer

6. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere was a worthy film to be made and largely succeeds because of the unusual choices made in making it. Ordinarily, biopics like last year’s Deliver Me From Nowhere try to paint a large story of an artist’s growth, success, rise, fall and rise again. But Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere hits the pause button and focuses in on one period of legendary singer’s Bruce Springsteen’s life and the making of his album Nebraska. It’s largely a dissection of generational trauma and a compassionate viewport of one coping with depression. But all in all, it is a cohesive story, rendered well by star Jeremy Allen White.

– Raymond Flotat

5. Thunderbolts*

Thunderbolts*: I wasn’t expecting another Marvel ensemble movie to reel me in as much as it did since Avengers: Endgame. While it hasn’t brought my Marvel obsession back full force, it has given me reason to believe that there is still something worth watch in the MCU.

– Mallery McKay

4. The Threesome

‘The Threesome surprised me by being a film with genuine heart and intentionality behind it. With a title like that, one could assume it is a raunchy sex comedy akin to something you might see in the mid-2000s, but that could not be further from the case. The film takes a silly premise springboards into having real, serious conversations about love and responsibility. All three lead performances from Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King and Ruby Cruz are excellent, and the film just goes to places I did not expect it to be confident enough to.

– Justin Brayer

3. Sinners

Sinners because I like a lot of older vampire films that is very Victorian era or super 80’s hair metal ex. The Lost Boys because as a artist I loved the coloring of sinners and that vintage to modern era look.

– Liv Hurd

Sinners is surprising because it somehow manages to be the perfect movie and did so with flare that almost made it seem effortless and yet still shows all the passion and experience poured into every inch by cast and crew. Story wise, its heart wrenching, just beautiful and still pulls off a genuine horrifying scenario, while also having real moments that make you smile and feel warm inside.

– Vanessa Winders

The most surprising movie of 2025 for me was Sinners, I had no idea how Ryan Coogler was going to combine prohibition-era Mississippi and vampires…he combined them into a scary, thrilling, dramatic, and touching film. 10/10

– Izaiah Shupe

2. The Gorge

The Gorge was a genuine pleasant surprise. A genre film going to straight to Apple TV sounded like a near guaranteed dud, but in Scott Derrickson’s capable hands, this one is incredibly entertaining and wonderfully romantic. Teller and Taylor Joy have terrific chemistry, the action sequences are visceral and exciting, and the visuals are highly immersive. This could’ve easily been a forgettable genre film with a sizable waste of talent, but ended up being perhaps the biggest pleasant surprise of the year for me.

– Tom Chatalbash

1. The Naked Gun

The Naked Gun: I expected this film to be yet another phoned-in reboot, but it ended up being one of the funniest movies of the year, made by people who you can tell have a genuine understanding of what made the original movies so hilarious. From the sight gags, to the absurd dialgue played completely straight, the film features all the trademarks of those original Naked Gun movies, now taken to the modern day.

What could’ve easily been another cash grab reboot ended up a consistently hilarious film made by people, both behind and in front of the camera, who understood precisely what made those original ZAZ spoof movies so funny. Like those movies, it takes on the appearance of what it spoofing, in this case a Hollywood action movie, but then takes everything to a cartoonish extreme and fills the frame with hilariously ridiculous background and sight gags. It also features the same same absurd non-sequitur and wordplay-ridden dialogue that’s delivered by actors who play it completely straight, making these moments so much funnier. Simply put, it was the hardest I laughed this year.

– Jacob Birks

The Naked Gun remake was actually funny! We’ve seen time and time again how legacy sequels, reboots, and reimaging’s have ended up just being franchise slop, reheated leftovers that never quite reach the heights of the original meal. Somehow, The Naked Gun with Liam Neeson is not only funny, but genuinely one of the most entertaining movies I saw in a theatre this year.

– Austin Waybright

This film has no right being as funny as it is. Legacy sequels are like roulette and this one hit the mark thankfully. It’s surprisingly well crafted with thought put into its comedy to emulate the original Naked Guns trilogy style while still bringing its own bits to the table. That snowman sequence haunts me though, but my gut actually hurt from laughing the entire time it was going.

– Vanessa Winders