Right, here's the deal. Summer cinema season is a glorious, chaotic, slightly overwhelming thing. On one end of the spectrum: films with budgets larger than most countries' GDP, trailers that have been soundtracked to within an inch of their lives, and marketing campaigns that started approximately eighteen months ago. On the other end: small British films that'll make twelve people cry in an Odeon in Exeter before quietly winning a BAFTA in February.
Both have their place. Both deserve your time. And crucially, both deserve your £14.50 plus booking fee (yes, really, we're not going to pretend that's not what it costs now).
Here's your definitive, opinionated, occasionally contrarian guide to the summer screen season. Hype ratings are out of five. 🍿 = popcorn required. 🧅 = bring tissues. Don't say we didn't warn you.
The Big Ones (A.K.A. The Films That Will Break the Box Office)
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
Hype Rating: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 | Perfect For: Everyone With a Pulse
Tom Cruise continues his one-man campaign to prove that practical stunts are superior to CGI by doing something that will almost certainly result in a physiotherapist's bill that could fund a mid-budget indie film. The Mission: Impossible franchise has been on an extraordinary run — Fallout is genuinely one of the best action films ever made, full stop — and this supposed finale has the weight of genuine expectation behind it.
Is it going to be two-and-a-half hours of Cruise running very fast and jumping off things? Yes. Will that be a problem? Absolutely not. See it on the biggest screen available to you. This is exactly what cinemas were invented for.
Jurassic World: Rebirth
Hype Rating: 🍿🍿🍿 | Perfect For: Families, Nostalgia Addicts, People Who Forgot the Last Three Were a Bit Rubbish
Scarlett Johansson takes the lead in what Universal is very much positioning as a clean slate for the franchise. The trailers have been reassuringly good — practical effects, genuine tension, dinosaurs that look like they might actually eat someone rather than standing around looking impressive. David Koepp, who wrote the original Spielberg film, has returned to scripting duties, which is either a brilliant omen or a very clever piece of marketing.
Manage your expectations, bring children if you have them, and remember that sometimes a perfectly enjoyable blockbuster is exactly what you need.
Superman (2025)
Hype Rating: 🍿🍿🍿🍿 | Perfect For: DC Faithful, Sceptics Willing to Be Converted
James Gunn's reboot of the DC universe has generated more online discourse than any superhero film in recent memory, which is saying something. David Corenswet's casting has been divisive in that peculiar internet way where people form strong opinions about someone they've never seen in the role yet. The early footage, however, looks genuinely different — warmer, more hopeful, less obsessed with making everything dark and gritty.
If Gunn pulls this off, it could reset the entire superhero genre's emotional temperature. That's worth a trip to the Cineworld.
The Ones That Deserve a Bigger Audience
Bring Them Down (UK Release: Summer 2025)
Hype Rating: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🧅 | Perfect For: Anyone Who Thought The Banshees of Inisherin Was a Good Time
Christopher Andrews' debut feature — a brutal, beautiful Irish thriller about two farming families in violent conflict — has been quietly generating extraordinary word of mouth since its festival run. Barry Keoghan is involved, which at this point functions as a quality guarantee. It's the kind of film that'll play for two weeks in an arts cinema in your town, get seen by about 400 people, and be discussed by those 400 people for the next five years.
Go and see it. Tell your friends. Be the person who was there.
Eddington
Hype Rating: 🍿🍿🍿🍿 | Perfect For: Joaquin Phoenix Devotees, People Who Like Films That Are Trying Something
Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) directs a Western set during the COVID-19 pandemic. That sentence alone tells you this isn't going to be a comfortable evening out. Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal lead a cast that also includes Emma Stone. It's going to be weird, it's going to be polarising, and it's going to be talked about for months.
Exactly the kind of film that makes cinema feel vital and irreplaceable.
The British Ones You Absolutely Should Support
The Roses (Working Title, Summer 2025)
British romantic comedies have been having something of a quiet renaissance, and this summer's homegrown offering looks set to continue the trend. We won't spoil the premise here, but if you've been missing the era when a British film could be charming, witty, and genuinely funny without trying to be anything else — this one's for you.
Documentary Picks
If you're the kind of person who treats the cinema as more than just a blockbuster delivery mechanism (good), the summer documentary slate is strong. Look out for British-produced non-fiction films covering music, sport, and social history that'll be doing the rounds at indie screens nationwide. The BFI Southbank and HOME Manchester will have the full picture.
The Honest Bit at the End
Here's what we'd actually tell you if we were your mate at the pub: don't skip the big ones just to seem sophisticated, and don't skip the small ones just because the trailers are harder to find. A summer at the cinema is best spent doing both.
The multiplex and the arts cinema aren't enemies. They're the two halves of a genuinely brilliant cultural ecosystem that, for all the streaming competition, still offers something no living room can fully replicate: a dark room, a massive screen, strangers laughing and gasping beside you, and the slightly overpriced but completely worth it large salted popcorn.
We'll see you in the queue. We'll be the ones already eating the popcorn before the trailers have finished.
Listings and release dates subject to change. Always check your local cinema for exact UK release schedules.
