Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Top 10 Least Favorite Films Of 2025
A year of loud releases and louder opinions deserves a clear-eyed reckoning. I pull back the curtain on my most disappointing theatrical watches and ask why big IP, glossy remakes, and awards-season polish still left me so cold. From the opening wobble of a critically adored war epic to the baffling character choices that derail tension, I trace where promising ideas lose their footing.
I dig into representation with care, using Teyana Taylor’s awards momentum to examine the kinds of roles Black women are too often celebrated for, and why nuance matters more than ever. Then I hit the middle of the list: a first-date thriller that vanishes from memory, a new Running Man that gestures at politics without bite, and a Snow White drowned by culture-war noise when its simpler flaw is boredom. Horror fans won’t be shocked to hear me press the difference between “wrong” and “stupid” choices in Wolf Man, and action diehards may bristle as I call Ballerina what it is: kinetic, competent, and curiously empty.
I also talk auteur aesthetics versus emotional ignition in The Phoenician Scheme, and whether Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 serves fans or strands them. Megan 2.0’s genre pivot raises a fair question: can a franchise reinvent itself without losing its soul? Finally, I land on The Roses, a remake that mistakes toxicity for comedy and reconciliation for catharsis. Stories shape norms; if a premise can’t be updated with ethical clarity, maybe it shouldn’t be revived. Along the way, you’ll hear candid takes, some heat, and a few pleas for better character logic.
If this kind of honest film talk is your thing, hit follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review telling me your most overrated movie of 2025. I’ll read the spiciest ones on a future episode.
All episodes of the podcast can be found on our website: https://booksvsmovies.buzzsprout.com/share
Connect with me: Instagram | Threads | Bookshop | Goodreads | Blog
Welcome to Books vs. Movies, the podcast where I sit out to answer the age-old question: Is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Juvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today I will be counting down my top 10 least favorite films of 2025 that I saw in theaters. So let's go ahead and get started. So number 10. I'm really scared to have it in my top 10 least favorite films because it is very critically acclaimed. It's currently nominated for several Oscars. And this is just those kind of film that makes the film bros slobber at the mouth. So the fact that it's in my top 10 list is scary. But before the film bros, Come At Me, I really liked this film. Okay. I did like it. So don't come at me. I yeah, just I liked it. Just know that I liked it. So why is it on my top 10 least favorite films? Because there was just others that I liked more than this one. And if you want to hear what the honorable mentions are that didn't make the top 10 favorite or top 10 least favorite, you can listen to my top 10 favorite. Actually, I'll just repeat them again. In honorable mention, that were just somewhere in the middle, were the bad guys to Freak Your Friday, Downtown, Downtown Abbey, the grand finale, Last Breath, and Fantastic Four First Steps. And the film bros listening in this like one battle and after another was way better than like all of those. I don't care. This is my list. But I just want to acknowledge that I I did ultimately end up liking it, but I liked the others more on the list. If that is gonna get your boxers on all in a bunch, then you know you can click off right now. But let's go ahead and talk about one battle after another. So, yes, this is number 10, and as I said, I did like it. However, it did take me a while to get into the story. I thought the first third of the film was kind of all over the place, and like, don't get me wrong, narratively, it was I understood what was happening, and but it kind of felt like I love my nieces, so no one takes this as a dig at my nieces. But when I'm with my nieces, my eldest one is seven, and then her little sister is four, and they both really, really love me, and they both really want my attention, and so the oldest one will be like, pay attention to me, and then the younger one will do something, so I pay attention to her, and it just feels like my attention is being pulled in two different directions, and I want to make sure that I'm giving them both equal attention, which is impossible, I know, but I just want to make sure that like one of them doesn't feel like I'm favoring her over the other, and I want to make sure that I'm spending equal amounts of time with them. Just yes, so that's how it felt. It just felt like my my attention was being pulled in all sorts of different directions, which I acknowledge, like the storyline, like the the the film, it's it's it is following one story. So, does it really make sense that I felt that way? Not really. I acknowledge that, but that's how it felt. Like I was just like, what is is going like I understood what was going on, but it was still like, what am I watching? What is going on? What is this? And so I didn't really begin to fully like it until the first third of the film was over, and we the last two-thirds I really liked and enjoyed, and yeah, but like that first third kind of just ruined it for me. And this film, part of it was shot in El Paso, so like I will I want to say that part of the two-thirds of the film, last two-thirds of the film, I saw my beautiful downtown El Paso, so maybe I was just biased. I don't know, but no, apart from that inherent bias, I really did get into the story and start liking it at that point and really appreciated the comedic aspects of it. That being said, were there problematic things that are now that are really catching people's attentions now that Tiana Taylor is winning all these acting awards? Yes. So no one, to be clear, I'm not saying this, and no one is saying this. No one is saying that Tiana Taylor is not worthy of the awards she is winning. She did do a really great job. What is kind of what the conversation has been structured around is the kind of roles that black women are more likely to be awarded for, and they are more likely to be awarded for kind of getting into black stereotypes. Um so it's it's one of those things where we've seen plenty of black women give wonderful awards and and be nominated for them, but they don't win for more nuanced three-dimensional roles. They're more likely to win for something that's a little bit more that leans into more harmful stereotypes about black women. And that seems to be what is happening with Tiana Taylor. Again, no one is saying she's not worthy of these awards. This is just something that people have noticed. And I will say, watching this film, I was very, very so a little this is technically still part of the setup of the film. It takes place in the first few minutes, so I don't think uh it's technically a spoiler, but I'll give a spoiler alert anyway. But I was watching it, I was very, it just felt really odd to me that this hardcore radical left-leaning black woman would cheat on her partner with a hardcore radical white nationalist who happens to fetishize black women. Like that just made absolutely no sense to me based on her beliefs, what she's fighting for. It's like, why would you cheat on your partner who also happens to be white, but who shares the exact same beliefs as you and is fighting for the exact same things as you are, and you're gonna cheat on him with this man who's just fetishizing you. Like that just never sat right with me while watching the film. I was, I didn't understand why she would do that. And I know there's a moment, there's the the very first moment in which her character is introduced to Sean Penn's character, who's a white nationalist. Um, Tiana Taylor herself brought that up in an interview because a lot of people are like, this woman is overly sexualized. And um, and Tiana Taylor was like saying in this interview, she's like, she didn't understand the criticism versus her character against her character, because to her, like she's so empowered in her sexuality that she sees a moment in which she can outsmart the white nationalist by using her sexuality to outwit him. That's fine, but that's just one scene. Like, if she realized that like my powers in my sexuality, this is how I can outwit this man, and she did that, and then never had any kind of relationship with him after that, it wouldn't have bothered me, or it wouldn't have bothered me as much as then forging an actual relationship with this man. Like that just it doesn't make sense to me character-wise why this woman would do that. So, like, yeah. Um, so definitely have my issues with it, and that I did have like that just didn't sit right with me while I was watching the film. So, and I know this that's a conversation that is being had at the moment, what kind of acting roles are black women usually awarded for? Not saying that they're not usually nominated or they can't win in other categories, or or they can't win in or that they haven't won for other performances, but it's just like if you look at statistically which roles black women have won for, it usually leans into more harmful stereotypes. Anyway, moving on. Number nine is Drop. So Drop stars Megan Fehey and Brandon Brandon Sklenner, and they go on a first date to a restaurant, and she gets an alert on her phone that's like, if you don't do this thing, your family's gonna like you need to kill the person you're on a date with, and if you don't kill them, we're gonna kill your family. And so, yeah, so it's kind of like a thriller. Um, I mean, I was entertained by it. I I didn't mind it, like I did like it after watching it, but was there anything about it that particularly stood up to me or made me like want to watch it again or necessarily recommend it to people? No, it was fine and entertaining at the moment if you're looking for something that's kind of more mindless. I think this is the one this is a good one to watch and just be entertained for a few hours. But is there anything particularly special about it? Not really. Number eight, we have The Running Man. So I have never seen the original Running Man film. This one was just something I I had like a really long gap between one thing that I needed to do in the morning and then one thing I needed to do in the evening, and I it wasn't like a big enough gap for me to come home, but it was too short of a gap to do something else. So I was like, I'll just go to the movies, and that that'll kill the time the perfect amount of time. So this one is just the one that happened to fit that amount of that the start time and end time that I needed to kill time for. So that's why I ended up watching it. Um, it wasn't terrible. I I will I'm working on an episode on this soon. I just need to read the book. I'm just waiting for the book to be ready from the library. It's been on hold for a while. So I'll definitely go into more detail once I do the actual episode about it. This is another one that is written by Stephen King under his pen name of Richard Bachman, which is the same pen name he used when he wrote The Long Walk. Again, this is a very political commentary story. So definitely interested in knowing what was going on during this time period. And when I mean Stephen King has always been political, that's not a secret, but I'm interested to know why Richard Bachman was writing so many political books during this time period. But yeah, I mean the the film itself was okay. I didn't hate it, I didn't necessarily like it either. I thought it was just a resounding okay, didn't stand out to me. Number seven, and a lot of people are probably gonna be upset that this isn't higher up on the list, and that's Snow White. I just want to say I didn't like this film, but I didn't hate it, and I I honestly don't think it deserved as much hate as it ended up getting. People just decided that they hated Rachel Zegler and that she deserved to be punished for starring in this film, and Disney should be punished for allowing her to star in this film. The images of the magic seven magical folk that were reportedly going to replace the seven dwarves were leaked, and people were like, This movie is getting too woke. The the fact that you're casting uh Latina Snow White is too woke. Um, Rachel Zegler said comments about Snow White that pissed people off. It's like this movie never had a chance, and it's really unfortunate that like if you look at I think this film never had a chance because of Rachel Zegler's casting, unfortunately. I think as much hate as The Little Mermaid got for casting Hallie Bailey, it I don't think it got like once it came out, it continued to receive awful, awful racist trolling against it. I'm not gonna deny that, but I think the reason it wasn't canceled the way Snow White was was because Hallie didn't have any controversial interviews. And if you look at Rachel Zegler's interviews, they're really not controversial. She just said that the prince was a stalker, which is that entirely accurate, maybe not, but we are cheering for her to end up in a relationship with a prince that she met once, which is a sign of the times it was made in. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a reflection of its times. And that's all she was saying. She was saying that the story has been updated. And everyone that was getting mad, because there were so many people like, there's nothing wrong with wanting a princess who's looking for love. Like, no princess, not every single princess has to be strong and wanting to be a leader, like it's okay for them to want love. There's still a love story, y'all. There is still a love story, and is it it still is it's still a pretty fast love story, okay? Like she still meets the guy and moves pretty quickly. There is more of a connection made though. She has more of a connection with her love interest and the this live action remake than the cartoon one ever did with her prints. So it it just it never stood a chance. People decided they hated it because of Rachel Zegler, because it was Disney was being too woke. It didn't, it didn't deserve all the backlash it got. Is it a good film? Is it a good remake? No, it's not. But is it as bad as everyone says? No, it's honestly not. Are there are there some things I agree with in terms of the acting choices of some of the actors? Yes, definitely. I can I can see the miscasting, yes, but is it as bad as everyone says? No. I don't think so personally. It's bad, yes, but did it deserve all the backlash it got? No. I think its biggest crime is honestly that it just wasn't very entertaining, it was kind of boring. I think that's its biggest crime. So it's not that bad. It's really not that bad. Number seven is Wolfman. Wolfman came out in January of 2025, if I'm not mistaken. So it's been a whole year since I've seen it. But I just remember not being very impressed by it. I thought it was this was another one that was just like, okay. There was nothing, it didn't add anything special to the wolf, the werewolf genre. It was just and I there was I've said it before and I'll say it again. My biggest gripe with horror films is that sometimes characters just make really dumb decisions. And what makes something scary to me is feeling like they're actually truly fighting for their lives, and sometimes in fighting for their lives, they end up making a wrong decision. Wrong is different than stupid. Okay, like let's let's make sure we know our differences. Wrong is different than stupid, but it is still a decision that ends up costing them their life, and that's what makes it scary. And Wolfman, if I remember correctly, did have some moments in out which I was like, why would you of all the decisions you could possibly make, why would you make that one? Because you're uh because I don't know, we needed a kill, and that was the easiest way to get a kill. Number five is Ballerina. It's a spin-off of the John Wick films. It takes place in the John Wick universe. We have John Wick making a cameo. I mean, it was okay. It's uh it's mine, it's a mindless action film. If you like mindless action films, then this is for you. You'll probably like it. I'm not a huge fan of mindless action films. I like my films to have a little bit more substance. That doesn't mean I need, you know, something. I yeah, just mindless action is not is not my I'm not entertained by it. It's it's sure. I don't hate it, but it it's it's like all right, we we get it. You're you're there's it's another action sequence coming my way. Great, moving on. So it's just it's just not my genre. It entertains some people, doesn't entertain me. Number four, we have the Phoenician Scheme. This was Wes Anderson's latest film. Uh I have really only seen like I'm familiar with Wes Anderson and I know the films he's made, but I haven't seen too many of his films, but I know like his aesthetic. And for the few handful of films that I have seen, sometimes they work for me. This one was just one that didn't. It wasn't uh I mean yeah, it it it just it was what it was. It was a Wes Anderson film, and nothing wrong with that, but this one just it just didn't it just wasn't for me. I didn't think there was anything standout about it. Number three, we have Five Nights at Freddy's. So oh five. Nights at Freddy's, too. Sorry. So I did see the original Five Nights at Freddy's, but I've never played the game, so I believe this one was done more for fan service than the first one was, if I'm not mistaken. Like there was more parts of the video game that were included in this one, like I said, as fan service. And the first one was more deviated a little bit off from the film, if I'm correct. I'm like I said, I don't play the games. I'm but I did like the first one. Did I think it was like stupendous? No, but I liked it. I thought it was pretty solid. This one, I was just like, I don't like I don't know if the uh the storyline is in any way related to this the video game. I don't think it is. I think the like the main cast of characters, apart from like Freddie Fosbear and the other animatronics, and like the fact that it's a security guard, that's all taken from the video game, but like the actual cast of characters, I believe, like Josh Hutcherson's character and his sister's character and Elizabeth Lale's character, I think those are all made up for the film. But I was just like, I why is this I like I know she's a kid and kids kids can be dumb. Like, I'm not saying I'm not gonna sit here, like sometimes kids are dumb. They're still learning, they're still learning the ways of the world. Can't blame them. But I was just like, why is this kid still so obsessed with Freddie and her friends? Like, why is more not being why are we like catering to I I just I like I don't I don't understand, like there's nothing that indicates that this this this like I I any I feel like any kid that goes if something traumatizing would be like over it, don't want anything related to that anymore, but this kid is still like obsessed. It just didn't make any sense to me. I don't know. I and just overall, I I just didn't like it. I I like like I said, the first one was entertaining enough where I was like, okay, cool. This one, I was just like, I don't what's the point of this? Is if this is made for fan service and fan service only, then I hope it pleased the fans because this added nothing to the story, in my opinion. But anyway. Number two, we have Megan 2.0. I've heard the first Megan is good, never saw it. So, you know, I I don't have that connection to Megan that a lot of fans did. So I'm not as disappointed in this film. I know a lot of fans were really disappointed in this film. I wasn't one of them because I never watched the first Megan. I've heard it's good, but I've never seen it. But there was just nothing good. Uh, I was just like, what is that? Like, this is very clearly no longer a horror film, and I think the filmmaker said their intention was not to make a horror film anymore. They wanted to expand, they wanted to make take Megan in a completely different direction, which they have every right to do, but it was also like I can see why fans were disappointed in this one because it's like you're expecting Megan to either add on to the story of Megan or just give the same recycled storyline with bloodier kills, which I feel like appeases a lot of fans of horror a lot of times. Just that's fine. I don't care. Give me the same recycled garbage as long as the kills are better. So, but as someone who's coming in this completely blind, having never seen the first Megan film, I was just like I there was nothing good about it, in my opinion. I was just like no. So I it it just it just I just was not good. It just was not good. And my number one least favorite film of 2025 was The Roses. So I know that this film is based on a book and it's also a remake of a film that was made in the 80s. This is probably something that is also a reflection of the time it was written in and in the 80s. I feel like you could have gotten away with this storyline a lot easier than you could in 2025. And I do try to be conscious of the fact that we have to look at films as a reflection of the time period they were made in. Like, we can't look at a film made in the past and look at it from the lens of 2025. That doesn't mean we can't acknowledge that it hasn't aged poorly or anything, but I think in acknowledging it, we can recognize like this is what was okay or deemed okay to make at the time. This is the comedy that was allowed or popular at the time, you know, whatever. However, if we're gonna remake a storyline, if we're gonna remake something that was written in the 50s, that was problematic, or we're gonna remake a film from the 80s that we now recognize as problematic, we need to update it a little bit for the 2025 audience. And this one, I was excited to watch it because I do like the cast and it was billed as a comedy film. I like comedy. Uh yeah, this did not make me laugh. This did not make me laugh. I did not find this funny at all. I found the storyline to be incredibly problematic and just some aspects of it that were just supposed to gloss over because that's the source material it was based on. We don't we don't need to remake every if there's no way to update it in a smart, intelligent way for the 2025 audience, we can leave it behind. We can leave it in the past. Let's bring something new and original in. We don't need to remake something that should not be remade. Okay. Yes, I yes, the film it's based on was made in the 80s. Maybe it was the the storyline is just as problematic. I'm I'm just basing it off of the remake. Yes, like we can say the story was problematic back in the 80s, and maybe it was okay at the time to get away with this kind of storyline. But just because it was okay then doesn't mean like if you're gonna remake something, you have to adjust it to the time period within. And before anyone's like, oh, you're being too well, blah blah blah. No, like again, I am just not a fan of storylines where we're supposed to be laughing at partners that are toxic to each other. And by making people laugh, it glamorizes it, and in glamour, and in making people laugh, it makes it, it tells people it's okay to have a relationship like this. Are the what the character's experiencing incredibly over the top? Yes, and you could say, like, well, no one's actually gonna be in an overtop book. No, but the way the characters are talking to each other, the way the characters are treating each other, there might be someone out there with a similar relationship that is then like, okay, no, it is normal, and it's not normal. And yes, I am very passionate about this because I was in a relationship that really was really toxic and emotionally abusive. So I'm very passionate about this because I want people to know that that behavior is not okay. People need to know what behavior is okay and is and isn't in a relationship, and it and it and if we just keep rushing in office, that's a film, blah blah blah. No, but the what we see, what we consume does uh shape us in a way and it allows us to um it it just affects us. That's all I'm trying to say. So I am very, very passionate about this, and you can think I'm being over the top or whatever. You can think that, that's fine, but I'm gonna keep speaking up about this. I lost a friend of mine to domestic violence before the age of 25. I have other friends who have experienced relationships like this. Some have included domestic violence, some have not, but it still wasn't a healthy relationship. No one should be stuck in a relationship like that. No one. I don't care what gender you are, I don't care what sexuality you are. You should know what a healthy, loving relationship is, and everyone has the right to experience that kind of love. Everyone is deserving to experience that kind of love. So, yeah, I I'm very much against storylines like this. So that yes, this was played off as comedy. They're trying to kill each other, literally, and then at the end, it's okay because you know what? They never really hated each other, they were just blinded for by whatever at the moment, but they loved each other all along and were no. If you really love someone, you don't literally try to kill them, you don't literally try to hurt them, you don't know, you don't literally do any of that. And okay, they're separating. They're break you can say, well, they're breaking that up, they're separating. You should like if it's reached a point where you hate each other, you should still never try to kill anyone. If your relationship went from a loving, positive relationship to a point where something just became irrevocably broken, and there's no way of fixing it. Okay, you can break up and hate each other, but I don't think anyone here would say, Well, we hate each other now, so it's okay for us to hurt each other. No, it's still not we'll just break up and never see each other again and continue hating each other in peace. You don't need to hurt anyone. So, yeah, the that this movie just really made me angry as I was watching it. Like I said, I didn't find it funny at all. And to me, it was just the portrayal of this relationship. And the like, I think what made me more upset than anything is I didn't even give you a spoiler alert, but I already spoiled it. Yeah, they do get back together at the end before the oh my gosh, the ending. Okay, but yes, there's there's another plot twist that I won't include, but they do get back together before that final plot twist. But and it's like so everything, I'm just supposed to forgive everything that you put each other through because you loved e you never meant any of it, and you loved each other all along. No. So that is why this is my least favorite film. I can go on forever. I'm not gonna go on forever. I'm gonna stop now because I'm getting really heated. But tune in next time. And if you like this, give it a rating and a review, and uh bye. I'm really heated now.