2025 Hit Sleeper Dud is here, and this year it’s a solo pod.

Whitey is on the road, the Academy Awards are looming, and the team is temporarily scattered, but the show must go on. So in true Born to Watch fashion, we break down the year in film the only way we know how, by calling it straight. The hits. The sleepers. The duds. No fence-sitting. No safe takes. Just movie love, movie rage, and a bit of chaos in between.

First up, the HITS.

Leading the charge is F1, starring the forever-sexy Brad Pitt. It’s big, loud, formulaic and absolutely electric. Joseph Kosinski proves again he knows how to strap a camera inside a cockpit and make you feel every rev. Unreal cinema fun. That’s what movies are supposed to be.

Then comes Weapons, the horror surprise that had Whitey on edge from start to finish. Creepy premise, massive performances, and Amy Madigan absolutely crushing it. This one lingers.

Stephen King’s The Long Walk delivers bleak dystopia done right. Cooper Hoffman proves the talent runs in the bloodline, and Mark Hamill playing against type adds weight to a brutal premise.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps lands better than expected, giving Marvel just enough oxygen to stay alive heading into Doomsday. Period setting, Galactus looming, and yes, Pedro Pascal everywhere.

And yes, Jaws returning to cinemas for its 50th anniversary still rules the ocean. Some films do not age. They evolve.

Now the SLEEPERS.

Anaconda (2025) should not have worked. But it did. Jack Black, Paul Rudd, jungle chaos, midlife crisis energy. Low expectations. Big laughs.

The Naked Gun reboot? Surprisingly hilarious. Liam Neeson leans into absurdity and Pamela Anderson brings the heat. It’s not Leslie Nielsen, but it earns its laughs.

Then Marvel’s quiet comeback entry, Fantastic Four, sneaks in again as a sleeper-level win.

Now the DUDS.

Jurassic World Rebirth proves some DNA experiments should stay extinct.

Superman should have soared. Instead, it stumbled. Strong casting, messy execution.

And Captain America: Brave New World? Whitey turned it off. Enough said.

Plus, we talk about the “meh” movies like Sinners and One Battle After Another, which were good but not great.

Then we look forward. Spielberg. Nolan’s The Odyssey. Michael. Masters of the Universe. Mandalorian and Grogu. Avengers Doomsday. Dune Messiah.

Big year coming.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

• What was YOUR 2025 Hit Sleeper Dud?
• Did Superman deserve better?
• Are we done with dinosaurs yet?

Drop us a voicemail at https://www.borntowatch.com.au and be part of the show.

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Born to Watch. We don't take ourselves or the movies too seriously.

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Logan (2017) Review kicks off this week's episode of Born to Watch, and boys… this is not your usual superhero movie.

Whitey, Gow and Damo head into the wasteland of 2029 to talk about the final outing for Wolverine, and right from the start the big question is asked, is this actually a superhero movie at all… or is it a western wearing claws?

After nearly two decades of Hugh Jackman playing Logan, the X-Men universe throws away the colourful costumes, the CGI sky beams and the multiverse nonsense, and replaces it with dust, silence and a dying hero who just wants it all to end.

This week, the boys dive into:
• Why Logan feels closer to a Clint Eastwood western than a Marvel film
• The emotional weight of Professor X and Logan’s relationship
• Laura (X-23) stealing the movie without saying much at all
• The brutality and why the R-rating actually matters
• Whether this is the greatest superhero film ever made

Whitey argues that this is the natural evolution of comic book movies, a character study about regret and aging rather than saving the world. Gow admits he expected CGI chaos and instead got a real film. Damo questions the timeline, the X-Men continuity and whether the emotional ending works if it doesn't match the earlier movies.

The discussion also covers how Logan was clearly inspired by classic westerns, especially Shane, and why the movie works best when it forgets it's part of a franchise entirely.

Hugh Jackman delivers possibly his best performance as a broken warrior who no longer heals, drinks too much, hurts constantly and carries decades of guilt. Patrick Stewart's Professor X adds heart and tragedy, while the road-trip structure slowly turns the film into something surprisingly intimate.

And then… there's the ending.

No big sky battle.
No final speech.
Just consequences.

The boys debate whether Logan's death lands emotionally, if Laura is the future of the character, and why this film changed how studios approached superhero movies afterwards.

Is Logan the peak of comic-book cinema? Or just a really good western accidentally starring a superhero?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

• Is Logan the best comic book movie ever made?
• Does the R-rating improve superhero films?
• Is this secretly just a western?

Drop us a voicemail at https://www.borntowatch.com.au and be part of the show.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Our Hard to Kill 1990 Review kicks off with a simple truth: the late 80s and early 90s were the golden age of action heroes. Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis ruled the world… and then along came a man with a ponytail, a whisper voice and an absolute obsession with breaking forearms.

This week Whitey, Dan and Will the Worky step back into the dojo to tackle Steven Seagal's second ever film, Hard to Kill (1990). A movie that, at the time, felt like the arrival of the next unstoppable action icon… and now feels like a fever dream involving aikido, silk shirts and extremely uncomfortable sex scenes.

Seagal plays Mason Storm, a cop who uncovers political corruption and is immediately shot, along with his wife, in what might be the least secure safe house ever filmed. Storm survives after being pumped full of shotgun pellets and spending seven years in a coma. Yes, seven years. And apparently, all it takes to recover is a massage, a training montage and a nurse who instantly falls in love with him.

From there, the movie becomes a revenge story, but also, somehow, a romance, a conspiracy thriller, a martial arts film, and a weird Seagal self-fantasy all rolled into one.

The boys dive deep into:
• The unbelievable hospital security
• The most aggressive love scene ever filmed
• Mason Storm's questionable medical recovery
• The ponytail era of action cinema
• And why nobody recognises the villain's voice despite him repeating the same catchphrase constantly

There are discussions about video store culture, the 1990 action boom, and how Seagal briefly convinced the world he belonged alongside the legends.

But time has not been kind to Hard to Kill. Watching it today reveals something different. Schwarzenegger knew he was in on the joke. Bruce Willis had charm. Seagal genuinely believes he is the most dangerous man alive… and that may be the biggest reason this film is unintentionally hilarious.

Still, there are broken bones, exploding pool cues, corrupt cops and more arm snapping than a chiropractor convention.

And honestly… that’s why we kind of love talking about it.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Is Seagal the strangest action star of all time?
Does Hard to Kill accidentally become a comedy?
And is this the most confident bad movie ever made?

Leave a review, share the episode and send it to a mate who still thinks Seagal could win a real fight.

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