Caught Stealing Is The 3rd Best Movie Of The Year & Other Reviews

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I've now reached the century mark in movies seen in the theater in 2025 and Caught Stealing is the third best one of that group. This isn't a great movie like Sinners or Weapons but I do have this in the next tier along with Black Bag, Presence and The Life Of Chuck.

Caught Stealing review is below along with weaker movies like Sketch, Relay, Ne Zha 2 and The Toxic Avenger.

Caught Stealing is a better version of After Hours. Saying something is an improvement of a Martin Scorsese movie is a high bar to clear. Not only does this clear the bar, it was as much fun as you can have in the movies this year.

I love Darren Aronofsky. Requiem For A Dream is his best film and Black Swan is also excellent. While this isn’t as brilliant as Requiem, it’s so much more accessible. It’s a shame it’s not making more money at the box office. Cinema needs movies like this.

Austin Butler throws this movie on his back and proves to me that he’s a true leading man. It’s not a strange character and doesn’t need a weird accent to make this work. Instead, he’s very likable and relatable. After great supporting work in Dune 2 and Eddington, he shows here that he can carry a movie

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This is shot wonderfully and makes you believe you are back in 1998. It’s not a perfect movie (lots of supporting characters can rush some plot points) but it’s absolutely entertaining.

Caught Stealing: A-

Relay might be the most frustrating movie of 2025. The first 70 minutes is a morally grey adult drama led by very good actors in Riz Ahmed and Lily James. The third act turns into a mindless action movie which lights all of the film’s goodwill on fire.

It would be wonderful if movie studios had as much respect for their audiences as television studios do. Don Draper was neither good or bad. You didn’t need your hand held during Mad Men. Relay tells the story of whistleblowers who don’t want to be whistleblowers anymore and the intermediary that helps them. That’s enough right there. You don’t need to create good or bad guys.

If a small film studio like Bleecker Street and a lower budget movie like this one can’t take the chances to tell a story with complicated ethics, what hope do we have that the larger movies will take risks with characters?

Relay: C+

Sketch would be an enjoyable family movie from any studio. That it comes from Angel Studios feels like a miracle. It’s funny, smart and creative. This feels like a throwback to the Spielberg-inspired movies of the 1980’s.

Tony Hale, who is obviously great on TV as a goof, proves he is a good actor as a widowed dad here. The kids acting range from very good to passable. The two siblings have especially good comic timing.

I loved how much care went into this movie despite having a budget under $5 million dollars. It’s shot like a horror movie and for a kid’s movie; is effectively scary at times. 

The budget limitations keep this big concept movie from being truly great but that’s an unfair critique. This is an original and enjoyable movie for all ages. How often can that be said?

Sketch: B-

Ne Zha 2 is a true film accomplishment. The visuals are incredible (especially in fight scenes). But for me, the story and attempts at humor never landed. 

As an American, I don’t have a familiarity with Chinese gods so that aspect of the story isn’t going to affect me like it would someone who is more knowledgeable. I think it’s ok if you are criticizing art to also acknowledge that it’s not something you don’t truly understand. It’s wrong to just dismiss something as bad if you don’t comprehend it. This is a quality film. I don’t think anyone can see this movie and not admire elements of it.

I’m guessing this would be the same if you took someone with zero understanding of comic books and had them watch Avengers Endgame. They wouldn’t know why these characters are important either. But, that wouldn’t mean it’s a bad film. It’s just not for them.

This wasn’t for me.

Ne Zha 2: C-

The Toxic Avenger is exactly the stupid, goofy and incredibly violent movie that you’d expect from this character. Having Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon and Jacob Tremblay star in it gives it some more quality that you might expect. The problem is it’s just not funny enough.

The goofiness works best when the gore gets insanely over the top. There’s just not enough laughs in the rest of the script. The throwback practical effects are fun. The throwback “69” jokes aren’t.

The first one worked more because it all felt counter-culture as well as stupid fun. With characters like Deadpool in the zeitgeist, this movie felt less rebellious and more like an antique.

The Toxic Avenger: C

2025

1)Sinners

2)Weapons

3)CAUGHT STEALING

4)Presence

5)The Life Of Chuck

6)Black Bag

7)The Ballad Of Wallis Island

8)Warfare

9)Friendship

10)Superman

11)Mission Impossible 8

12)28 Years Later

13)Novocaine

14)Fantastic Four

15)The Naked Gun

16)Final Destination 6

17)The Amateur

18)Drop

19)Dangerous Animals

20)Together

21)Death Of A Unicorn

22)The Accountant 2

23)The Damned

24)One Of Them Days

25)Materialists

26)Lilo & Stitch

27)Paddington 3

28)Thunderbolts

29)F1

30)Clown In A Cornfield

31)Bring Her Back

32)Hell Of A Summer

33)Karate Kid 6

34)Fight Or Flight

35)Valiant One

36)SKETCH

37)How To Train Your Dragon

38)Elio

39)Rule Breakers

40)Heart Eyes

41)Mickey17

42)The Surfer

43)RELAY

44)Last Breath

45)Flight Risk

46)Minecraft

47)Den Of Thieves 2

48)Dogman

49)Companion

50)Eddington

51)Jurassic World Rebirth

52)KPop Demon Hunters

53)THE TOXIC AVENGER

54)Ballerina

55)A Working Man

56)The Last Rodeo

57)Shadow Force

58)The Alto Knights

59)Honey Don’t

60)The Bad Guys 2

61)The Penguin Lessons

62)The Chosen Part 2

63)Looney Tunes

64)Opus

65)M3GAN 2

66)Becoming Led Zeppelin

67)Captain America: BNW

68)I Know What You Did Last Summer

69)Until Dawn

70)NE ZHA 2

71)The Chosen Part 1

72)Riff Raff

73)The Home

74)Freakier Friday

75)Inheritance

76)Nobody 2

77)The Chosen Part 3

78)The Wedding Banquet

79)Smurfs

80)The Legend Of Ochi

81)Night Of The Zoopocalypse

82)The Phoenician Scheme

83)Sneaks

84)Ash

85)Jujutsu Kaisen

86)The King Of Kings

87)The Friend

88)Dan Da Dan 2

89)Snow White

90)The Unbreakable Boy

91)Brave The Dark

92)Wolf Man

93)Hurry Up Tomorrow

94)The Monkey

95)Love Hurts

96)The Last Supper

97)Woman In The Yard

98)Bride Hard

99)Juliet & Romeo

100)In The Lost Lands