Favorite movies I watched in 2025

This past year I watched 84 movies, some long and some short, the majority of them made before 1960.

At the end of this post, I’ll list them all, but for now, here are my favorites from the bunch. I did not include any movies that were rewatches for me in my favorites list, but I did include rewatches in the overall list.

  • Without Reservations
  • KPop Demon Hunters

  • It Happened One Night
  • Superman (2025 version)
  •  Take Me Out to the Ballgame
  •  They Got Me Covered
  • The Strawberry Blonde
  • Another Man’s Poison

The movies I watched in 2025:

  • Morning Glory
  • The Stranger
  • Gunga Din
  • The Power of the Press
  • The Prisoner of Zenda
  • The Young in Heart
  • The Exile
  • Angles Over Broadway
  • Sinbad The Sailor
  • The Rise of Catherine The Great
  • The Sun Never Sets
  • Almost Heroes
  • The Quiet Man
  • The Barkleys of Broadway
  • Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
  • How to Steal A Million
  • The Intouchables
  • Paris Blues
  • Hugo
  • Charade
  • Paddington in Peru
  • The Assassination Bureau
  • The Honey Pot
  • The Manchurian Candidate (original)
  • Herbie Goes to Morocco
  • National Velvet
  • The Rains Came
  • Gaslight
  • Bedknobs and Broomsticks
  • Abbott and Costello: Jack and The Beanstalk
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel
  • The Pirates of Penzance
  • Take Me Out to the Ballgame
  • A Hole in the Head
  • The Canary Murder
  • Please Murder Me
  • Without Reservations
  • Death on the Nile
  • The Court Jester
  • They Got Me Covered
  • Raffles
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
  • A Life At Stake
  • The Long, Hot Summer
  • Find Me Falling
  • KPop Demon Hunters
  • The Celtic Riddle
  • Nonnas
  • Benny and Joon
  • The Talk of the Town
  • The Bishop Murder Case
  • Autumn Harvest
  • It Happened One Night
  • What’s One More?
  • Pennie’s From Heaven
  • A Green Journey
  • Superman (2025)
  • Topper
  • Pfffft!
  • The Mummy
  • Iron Man
  • Iron Man 2
  • Thor
  • Storm in A Teacup
  • The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill and Came Down A Mountain
  • The Storied Life of AJ Fickery
  • Iron Man 3
  • The Avengers
  • I’ll Take Sweden
  • Another Man’s Poison
  • The Strawberry Blonde
  • Meet Me In St. Louis
  • Condemned to Devil’s Island
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Winter Soldier
  • Ball of Fire
  • It Happened on Fifth Avenue
  • A Christmas Story
  • The Falcon Takes Over
  • Tenth Avenue Angel
  • The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
  • The Thin Man
  • The Bishop’s Wife
  • The Benson Murder Case
  • Yankee Doodle Dandy

Have you seen any of these movies? Which ones did you enjoy?

Remembering Blockbuster

The year was probably 1994 (I don’t know. I’m a bit old. I can’t remember.) when my brother took me to the Mecca of video rental stores – Blockbuster. It was actually amazing we had one near us since we grew up in a very tiny town in Pennsylvania. It was about half an hour from us, but not such a bad drive really. It was located in a strip mall that now has seen better days with most of the stores gone and the parking lot a pothole haven.

(Not me in the photo *wink*)

If I remember right, I wanted to find a romance and he was probably looking for an action movie or maybe a foreign film. He watched a few foreign films and made me watch them at times. They were pretty good but I wasn’t a fan of reading subtitles back then. I’m better with it now.

Back then we would never have imagined we’d one day be able to download or stream our movies right from our TV. I mean, we didn’t even have cable at our house because the cable company refused to come to us since we were “in the middle of nowhere.” We had four channels brought into our TV by an old-fashioned wire hanger-style antenna on the back porch that Dad had to shift sometimes to get a better signal.

Yes, I am that old. Okay, I’m really not, but we were that poor.

Walking into Blockbuster back then was a bit overwhelming for this sheltered country girl but I loved walking up the rows and looking at all the different movies.

I’m not definite about this but I think the first time I watched the Irish movie Into The West was from a Blockbuster rental. Did you ever see that movie? It’s about two Irish boys who travel with a horse across Ireland after their dad, who is grieving their mother, hits rock bottom and tells them they have to get rid of this horse they found. That’s a very short version of what the movie is about, of course, but it is very good.

I also think it might be where my brother rented The Princess Bride for us to watch for the first time.

The movies weren’t the only thing that was tempting at Blockbuster. They had candy, sodas, and stuffed animals. I’m sure I bought some candy but never the stuffed animals because my mom always said I had enough and my brother said I was too old for such things by then. Little did they know that even as an adult I was buying stuffed animals and still cuddle many of them to this day.

Blockbuster sold all its corporate-owned stores in 2014. It no longer grants franchises to anyone but at one time there were 50 privately-owned stores. As of today, there is only one official Blockbuster store left open in the United States and it is in Bend Oregon, and is a popular tourist attraction, selling more merchandise than video rentals.

Do you remember renting videos at Blockbuster back in the day? What movies were you looking for when you visited?