10 Movies You Won’t Believe Turn 20 Years Old In 2025
Poet William Carlos Williams wrote that “time is a storm in which we are all lost”; yet, it’s only when the sun rises that we’re able to reflect on what has transpired.
For a lot of people, this clarity is a yearly event as we look back at how much time has passed and how we didn’t even notice how it moved so fast. Since movies have become such a pivotal part of our journey as meatbags surviving on a spinning rock through space, it’s now as good a time as any to say, “Wow. I can’t believe these movies were released 20 years ago already.” Don’t worry, you’re not the only one feeling old right now.
Batman Begins
Most people pinpoint 2008’s The Dark Knight as the moment in which comic book movies changed and they ascended to another level of pop culture relevance. However, the seeds were planted with Batman Begins already. As far as origin stories go, they don’t get better than this as the viewer follows Bruce Wayne’s (Christian Bale) journey to becoming Batman, including his time training under the tutelage of Henri Ducard/Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) and the League of Shadows. The film is stacked with star power including everyone from Morgan Freeman to Rutger Hauer and a spooky Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow.
House of Wax
A remake of a popular Vincent Price horror, House of Wax isn’t at the top of anyone’s list of the best movies from 2005. However, it’s memorable for two reasons: First, Jaume Collet-Serra made his directorial debut and demonstrated how he was well on the way to becoming one of the best blockbuster directors in the business, which he has now done so. Second, the cast is something special. Featuring Chad Michael Murray, Jared Padalecki, Elisha Cuthbert, and Paris Hilton, House of Wax sees a group of friends encounter a world of terror after they approach an abandoned wax museum for assistance. Oh, and the kills are simply gnarly here!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
What, has it really been 20 years since Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, hit theaters? Uh-huh. This Burtonesque adaptation of Roald Dahl’s seminal novel feels like a fever dream as Burton goes wild to bring the candy-coated story of Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), who wins a golden ticket to visit the chocolate factory of his dreams, to life. To this day, the film still looks amazing on screen, and that’s largely due to Burton’s choice to use practical effects and real-life sets over CGI chicanery.
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
For some, this might be the last good Star Wars movie as the franchise entered questionable waters thereafter. As far as the prequel saga goes, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith establishes itself as the best of the trilogy, showcasing Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) full turn to the dark side and his rise (or fall) to becoming Darth Vader. Never short on action or shocking moments, this pulsating film expands on the lore and fills storyline gaps in a more than satisfying way. Plus, all the memes it has given us is simply *chef’s kiss*.
Constantine
Look, Hollywood loves nothing more than spitting in the face of the source material, and the same could be said about Constantine. In the comics, John Constantine is a blond British guy who has more snark than any high school could hold. In the movie, he’s, well, Keanu Reeves. Yet, somehow, someway, this all works in this horror film that sees the demon hunter Constantine battle against demons in a visually stunning feature film that never gets old. There’s a sequel in the works, so those who enjoyed Reeves as Constantine will get another shot at seeing him play the character again.
King Kong
Right now, King Kong keeps dusting it up with Godzilla and the other kaiju on screen, but in 2005, Peter Jackson – yes, that Peter Jackson from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fame – decided to go back to the grassroots of the character. In King Kong, filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) travels to Skull Island to make a movie with a crew, but he encounters the gargantuan ape known as Kong and decides he wants to bring him back to New York as an attraction. Yeah, if you watched The Lost World: Jurassic Park, you’ll know how this turns out for the idiotic humans. Keep the tissues nearby, though, because this doesn’t end in a way that’ll make anybody happy.
Wedding Crashers
In the 2000s, it seemed like Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson were in every single comedy movie produced. In 2005, they combined their powers of laugh and disorderly conduct in David Dobkin’s Wedding Crashers – a film where John Beckwith (Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vaughn) gatecrash weddings in an effort to meet women. Of course, they eventually crash a wedding where they fall in love with two of the guests and the shenanigans kick off. Considering it’s a 20-year-old movie, Wedding Crashers delivers the chuckles in a number of highly quotable scenes that still hold up to this day.
Sin City
Based on Frank Miller’s comic book series and directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez, Sin City changed the landscape of cinema upon its release. Nothing else looked quite like it, as it spoke a visual language that influenced subsequent comic book movies like 300 and Watchmen. More importantly, the film feels like a proper throwback to the glory days of film noir where a series of connected stories starring an all-star cast paint a picture of a grimy city lost to decadence and crime. Sin City is cinema at its purest form.
Red Eye
Wes Craven became known as one of the masters of horror, but he showed his deftness in the psychological thriller genre as well, with Red Eye being one of his most underrated works. The premise is enough to shake anyone post-9/11: Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) finds herself seated next to Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy) on a flight. Jackson is a terrorist who pulls Lisa into his plan to assassinate a high-profile government official. With nowhere to run or hide on the flight, Lisa needs to think on her feet and react in real time to Jackson’s threats, while understanding that one wrong move could change everything.
Son of the Mask
Think of the worst movies of all time. Got it? Surely, Son of the Mask was high up on everyone’s list, because as far as movies go, W-O-O-F! A standalone sequel to The Mask – which featured Jim Carrey at his bonkers best – Son of the Mask is the equivalent of putting a fluffy toilet seat cover over a golden throne. Jamie Kennedy stars as Tim Avery in a film that sees Tim’s son, Alvey, come into possession of the magical mask and become a superpowered unstoppable force of nature. And yeah, that’s pretty much it. Well, at least Otis the dog is a good boy in this movie that got picked out of the sewage line.
