One Battle After Another Is One Of The Best Movies Of The Decade & Other Reviews

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One Battle After Another is exceptional. I went into it as excited as I've been for any movie since Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Luckily, it did not disappoint at all. I also saw Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle this past week.

One Battle After Another is a perfect movie for right now. Outrageous and thrilling, it’s never able to escape chaos. It’s hard to believe Paul Thomas Anderson who made a movie as precise and elegant as Phantom Thread also made this. I really appreciate that movie but I liked this more.

With one exception, it’s cast brilliantly. I believe Leonardo DiCaprio as a burnout with a broken heart. Regina Hall does incredible work just with her eyes here. Chase Infiniti is fantastic in her film debut.

I just didn’t love Sean Penn here. This may be something a lot of people disagree with me on. I know the people in the my theater did. It just felt too broad and cartoonish for me. Since this came out, Penn has gotten early universal praise. I'm clearly on an island here. But compare his performance to what you see from Tony Goldwyn or James Raterman as the Interrogator. That's a more interesting level of evil to me.

That’s a small complaint though. This is exciting, dramatic and the third original brilliant film of 2025 joining Sinners and Weapons. This is why we love movies.

One Battle After Another: A

Top 10 Movies Of The 2020's

1. Oppenheimer

2. Sinners

3. Belfast

4. Air

5. The Worst Person In The World

6. A Real Pain

7. Weapons

8. Anora

9. One Battle After Another

10. The Iron Claw

It’s probably too kind to give Spinal Tap 2 a mediocre review but I can’t help myself. Despite this being one of the most useless and least creative movies of the year, I like the people involved with this too much to hate it.  I was mildly entertained just hanging out with this guys for 82 minutes.

This entire movies exists to point out the funny things about the original. They don’t really write new songs, they just play the old ones (sometimes twice!). They don’t come up with new ideas, they just bring back the Stonehenge bit.

However, my biggest issue is where the movie separates from the original. In the first Spinal Tap, they were has-been failures and the comedy lived in the juxtaposition between reality and their expectations.

Here, they are giant successes with Elton John and Paul McCartney literally singing their praises and then playing a giant arena. Successful elderly people making money playing music well isn’t really funny.

Spinal Tap II: C

After watching Demon Slayer: Infinty Castle, I realized anime may just not be for me. After a brilliant opening credits sequence, this is almost entirely fighting for over an hour. That’s just not why I go to the movies.

This review comes with a giant disclaimer. I haven’t watched the series that preceded this movie. I am seeing every movie that comes out in 1,000 screens or more. Some of these movies are television shows that have back history to them. This was also true with Dan DaDan and Jujitsu Kaisen. Think of this more of a review for someone walking in off the street.

The artwork here is impressive. It’s right below Ne Zha 2 as the best I’ve seen this year. The villain in the first half was strong too. I just don’t really find a lot of entertainment in that much fighting. But credit to this franchise, it’s broken through for American audiences and has done over $100 million in domestic box office alone. It’s just not for me.

Demon Slayer - Infinity Castle: D+

2025
1)Sinners
2)Weapons
3)ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
4)Caught Stealing
5)The Long Walk
6)Presence
7)The Life Of Chuck
8)Black Bag
9)The Ballad Of Wallis Island
10)Warfare
11)Friendship
12)Superman
13)Mission Impossible 8
14)28 Years Later
15)Novocaine
16)Fantastic Four
17)The Naked Gun
18)Final Destination 6
19)The Amateur
20)Drop
21)Dangerous Animals
22)Together
23)Death Of A Unicorn
24)The Accountant 2
25)The Damned
26)One Of Them Days
27)Materialists
28)Lilo & Stitch
29)Paddington 3
30)Thunderbolts
31)F1
32)Clown In A Cornfield
33)Bring Her Back
34)Hell Of A Summer
35)Karate Kid 6
36)Downton Abbey 3
37)Fight Or Flight
38)Valiant One
39)Sketch
40)The Roses
41)How To Train Your Dragon
42)Elio
43)Rule Breakers
44)Heart Eyes
45)The Conjuring 4
46)Mickey17
47)The Surfer
48)Relay
49)Last Breath
50)Flight Risk
51)Minecraft
52)Den Of Thieves 2
53)Dogman
54)Companion
55)Eddington
56)Jurassic World Rebirth
57)The Senior
58)KPop Demon Hunters
59)SPINAL TAP 2: THE END CONTINUES
60)The Toxic Avenger
61)Ballerina
62)A Working Man
63)The Last Rodeo
64)Shadow Force
65)The Alto Knights
66)Honey Don’t
67)The Bad Guys 2
68)The Penguin Lessons
69)The Chosen Part 2
70)Looney Tunes
71)Opus
72)M3GAN 2
73)Becoming Led Zeppelin
74)Captain America: BNW
75)I Know What You Did Last Summer
76)Until Dawn
77)Ne Zha 2
78)The Chosen Part 1
79)Riff Raff
80)The Home
81)Freakier Friday
82)Inheritance
83)Nobody 2
84)The Chosen Part 3
85)The Wedding Banquet
86)Smurfs
87)The Legend Of Ochi
88)Night Of The Zoopocalypse
89)DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE
90)The Phoenician Scheme
91)Sneaks
92)Ash
93)Jujutsu Kaisen
94)The King Of Kings
95)The Friend
96)Dan Da Dan 2
97)Light Of The World
98)Snow White
99)The Unbreakable Boy
100)Brave The Dark
101)Wolf Man
102)Hurry Up Tomorrow
103)The Monkey
104)Love Hurts
105)Him
106)The Last Supper
107)Woman In The Yard
108)Bride Hard
109)Juliet & Romeo
110)In The Lost Lands