My 2025 April R-Rated Movies Ranked

Here's what I saw, what about you?

May 01, 2025

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Here’s my latest monthly update on the R-rated movies I watched this year. I’m glad to share about my experience with you here and I’m curious: what did you watch and what did you think? Add your own watchlists in the comments.

2025 Total Movie Stats

2025 April Movie Stats

January Goal Met: Watch (at least) one movie per day.
February Goal Met: Watch all 10 Best Picture nominees.
March Goal Met: Watch the final 12 Oscar nominated 2025 films I hadn’t seen yet.
April Goal Met: Watch at least 1 movie per week during a busy travel month.
May Goal Made: Watch an R-rated movie selected by each of my kids.

Commentary: I saw many, many movies less in April than the many, many movies I saw in January, February, and May. I was on renewal leave from work (what a gift, truly) and had more time for movies then, and while I was on leave in April I had more travel and other events. Plus, several TV series, including Matlock, Severance, and the start of Andor. Mmm, movies good, TV also good! With that, I met my goal of at least 1 movie per week, though barely, as April ended quite busily.

For my May goal, I turn to my kids. My kids have good taste. Well, they have my taste, so… Even that’s not quite true! We enjoy a lot of the same kinds of movies, but not always. While I’m usually the movie selector in our family, this month I’ll let them take a look at our Blu-ray / 4K / DVD collection and pick a title. Yeah, if it’s too extreme for them I reserve the right to pass. I’m interested to see what they think looks interesting.

And with that, let’s get to the rakings! Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

April 2025 R-Rated Movies Ranked in the order I saw them:

Mickey 17 (2025) 3.5 out of 5 Expendable Print-Outs

FIRST WATCH | Our oldest is a Robert Pattinson fan (Twilight, The Boy and the Heron) and I’m a Bong Joon Ho fan (Parasite, Snowpiercer, The Host), so we went to this together in the theater. She liked it better than I did, but I did enjoy it. Maybe it’s because there have been lots of good 90-minute thrillers lately or maybe it’s because of the overall story, but this could’ve been trimmed well under 2 hours and still told a great story. Many scenes had long takes with lots of silence, and that shooting style can lock you into a certain editing style (that can also just be Joon Ho’s style, too), which I thought was the downfall of last year’s The Book of Clarence. Still, I enjoyed it enough that I’d recommend it and say it didn’t deserve the low box office returns it got (whether it deserved the high budget numbers it got is another story).

Gladiator II (2024) 3 out of 5 ‘Member This from the First Ones?!

FIRST WATCH | My kids wanted to see this in the theater but we ran out of time before it was gone. I finally got around to it on Paramount+ and it’s… not the original. Some silly fun in the mindless mayhem of gladiator fights, and intriguing intrigue of political fights, but I don’t see myself returning to this the way I return to the original. The kid haven’t mentioned this one since it left theaters, so we may not get to it together.

Black Bag (2025) 4.5 out of 5 Dirty, Filthy Lies!

FIRST WATCH | I agree with director Steven Soderbergh who was disappointed by the film’s low box office take, because people truly missed out. I was glad my showing was at least half full and with an engaged audience. This was a great spy thriller with all the right adjectives: mysterious, stylish, sexy, dangerous, and satisfying. You likely missed it. I’ll give you a pass, so long as you seek it out. Look, it’s 90 minutes of solid acting and a juicy script, go for it.

It’s fun to recommend what we enjoy. Please share this with someone who would enjoy it.

Oldboy (2003) 4 out of 5 Jaw Droppers

FIRST WATCH | I made it 22 years and didn’t have the ending spoiled for me, can you believe it?! Wow, this one pulled me in completely and the ending was so shocking and brilliant. Now, don’t do that thing where you read this and go spoil yourself. Just watch it. Waitasec. How’s your stomach? Strong stomach? Formidable constitution? Good, ‘casuse you’re going to need it, and not just for the ending!

The Fundamentals of Caring (2016) 4 out of 5 Morbid Pranks

FIRST WATCH | This is a good example of one of those movies that you hear about and are pretty sure you’d probably like it but you’re not in a rush, so you’ll see it when you see it. For me, it was a 9-year wait. I thought this was charming and its dark humor clicked with me. I didn’t know Selena Gomez was in this, and I’ve always been in the Selena Gomez camp, both as a singer and actor, and she elevates this one.

Heretic (2024) 4 out of 5 Blueberry Pies

FIRST WATCH | Several people have asked me what I thought of this film, as a clergyperson. I finally caught this on a flight near the end of the month. It’s delightfully creepy, a taught thriller. The religious aspects were intriguing. I’d have to look back at some seminary textbooks to see how much of Mr. Reed’s religious history lessons hold water, but as for his religious theories, no thanks! Terrific acting and someone you don’t expect to be in this is a real chameleon. Yeah, I liked this one.

Uncommon Valor (1983) 3 out of 5 Randall “Tex” Cobb Breakdowns

FIRST WATCH | I figured I should get in at least one good Gene Hackman movie this spring after he died earlier this year. I hadn’t seen this, and yet I have. This one has all of the clichés of the Vietnam vet rescue mission movies of the 80s, though it does them quite well. I haven’t sat down to put all of these movies on the timeline to know who invented what, but at least it’s well-acted. And while the ending feels like it abruptly cuts off a long-lost coda, I didn’t see the rescue twist coming, and Hackman plays it with gravitas.

Bring Them Down (2024) 4 out of 5 Stolen Rams

FIRST WATCH | Why oh why does Barry Keoghan consistently pick the most bizarre projects where he plays the creepiest people?! At 32, he’s pushing it for playing a young son of one of the main characters, but I was still engrossed at the tangled web of these neighbors on a hill in Ireland, from their tragic roots that pulled them apart to the bitter rivalry that clashes them together. The violence is brutal and lingering, with real consequences (unlike so much Hollywood shoot ‘em-up style violence), which can make it a tough watch. Still, if you’ve got Mubi and you missed this when it was in theaters for like a week in February, give it a shot.

How to Have Sex (2023) 4 out of 5 Ragin’ Pool Parties

FIRST WATCH | I didn’t touch our 3-month trial of Mubi very much and as the days wind down I’m looking for movies that got high accolades, including this darling of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section for young up-and-coming talent like first-time writer/director Molly Manning Walker. It is a powerful film, but not always an easy watch, taking in the journey of these 3 young women on holiday. The most powerful message? How can we truly be there for one another when it matters, and how and when do we let one another in when life happens?

The Gift (2000) 3 out of 5 Premonitions

FIRST WATCH | This is one of those movies that feels solidly 2000, mostly because it has an all-star cast of people who were either just hitting it big in 2000 (Giovanni Ribisi, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear) or about to hit it big after 2000 (Hilary Swank, Cate Blanchett, J.K. Simmons), plus a few character actors looking to try something new (Gary Cole, Michael Jeter, Rosemary Harris). Plus hey, Keanu Reeves as a real racist slimebucket. I saw this a couple times in the early 2000s and while today it feels clunky with a highly-telegraphed ending, it was fun to return to again.

Your turn!

What did you see in April? Agree with my ratings? Any reviews to share?

Glad you were here today. God’s peace and good movies to you!

R-Rated Movie Club

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