Kiwi Film Review

I believe this is the first Documentary trailer I've shared, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Looks like such a great trailer about the revolution in Egypt and how even though it felt like so much had changed, nothing had. Looks fantastic and I cannot wait to see it!

I LOVE Christmas, and therefore, I love Christmas movies. While researching for this list I realized there are a number of classic christmas films that I've never seen, so I imagine this list will change multiple times before I'm done. Hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas season 10.) The Nightmare Before Christmas I've actually only seen this film once or twice, even though I love Tim Burton, its not a movie that really puts me in the Christmas spirit. I'm definitely going to watch it again this year and perhaps I will feel a little differently. Don't get me wrong though, still a great movie, super enjoyable and the sets and animations are super impressive, this was really during the prime for Tim Burton, definitely one of his greatest achievements.

Another group of nominations were released today, its time for the Golden Globes!  A lot of differences between the SAG nominations, definitely a few surprises, both good and bad. Take a look!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Awards season has begun and I could not be more excited! The SAG Award nominations were released today so I thought I'd take a look and give some feedback.

Its been a while since I saw the first one, so its definitely time for a re-watch. I'm a huge fan of both Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone so I'm excited to see them, and Martin Sheen, Sally Field, and Dennis Leary are all back again. I'm assuming flashbacks. New to the cast is Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, and Paul Giamatti. Definitely excited for this one!

This looks so eerie and amazing. Such a dark concept, but a fantastic cast. I think Elizabeth Olsen is a name we're going to be seeing a lot of in coming years. She was in a great film a couple of years ago called Martha Marcy May Marlene which was one of my favourite movies if 2011.  I'm also really interested in the fact that its a period piece, always love those!  Can't wait to see this film, looks so intense and thrilling! Definitely a twist in a normal love story.

IMDB: 8.4/10 Rotten Tomatoes:  89%(critics), 94%(audience) Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone. Written By: Simon Beaufoy(screenplay), Michael Arndt(screenplay), Suzanne Collins(novel) Directed By: Francis Lawrence Release Date: Described by IMDB as: " Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a "Victor's Tour" of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) - a competition that could change Panem forever."

Come on, Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Ty Burrell with The Muppets?? This is going to be so good! I loved the last Muppets movie, and many before that, so I'm excited that they're having such a successful come back! Can't wait to see the film!

Top 5 Scorsese Films On my Top 10 Directors list Scorsese topped it. I absolutely adore his films, he absolutely mastered crime thrillers. All of his films have a lot of grit to them, but they always have so many amazing twists and turns. If you haven't seen any of his films, check yourself, because his films are fantastic. For those of you who might disagree with some of the films I left out, I haven't seen Raging Bull so, apologies that it will not break the top 5, but it IS under honourable mentions!

New Trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street! I love Martin Scorsese, and I love Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy this movie. Looks like this movie is going to be awesome!

Its that time of year again, and boy do I love my Halloween movies! I already posted my list of Adult Halloween movies, but there are some really fun Halloween movies for kids as well! 10.) Under Wraps Really fun Disney Channel movie from 1997 that follows 3 kids who find a mummy who has been brought back to life after 3,000 years. They're on a mission to find a resting place for Harold before Halloween night or he will turn to dust and lose any chance of being reunited with his long-lost love. Funny little movie and I always enjoyed it!

I definitely need to start off by saying that I hate horror movies and therefore there are going to be some classic slasher films missing that most people would expect to see. Apologies to those people, but I just have no interest in those ones. However, I can definitely say that all of the films listed are fantastic movies so please enjoy! 10.) Sleepy Hollow Surprise! Tim Burton and Johnny Depp made a movie together! I haven't seen this movie in a few years, but damn is it creepy and weird. It definitely fits the halloween criteria with the classic Headless Horseman tale. This movie is one of my favourite Tim Burton movies, which obviously means that the lead is Johnny Depp. This is a perfect character for Depp and he plays it very well. The rest of the class is great and includes Christina Ricci, Michael Gambon, Richard Griffiths, Jeffrey Jones, and Christopher Walken. Depp plays Ichabod Crane, who is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of 3 people.  H...

IMDB: 7.8/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 100%(critics), 82%(audience) Stars: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley Written By: Armitage Trail(novel), Ben Hecht(screenplay) Directed By: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson Produced By:  Howard Hughes Release Date: 9 April 1932 Described by IMDB as: " An ambitious and near insanely violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall."

Christian Bale is one of my favourite actors, so I'm pretty much guarenteed to watch anything that he is in, but the story looks great, and the cast looks fantastic. I'm super excited to see this one. With a cast like this one which also includes Zoe Saldana, Willem Dafoe, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker, and Sam Shepard, I definitely see some Oscar possibilities in this one. The director is Scott Cooper, the director of Crazy Heart, so I definitely don't think its a long shot. Check out the trailers! I included both because I liked the first one better, but a new one was released last week. I really enjoy the music choices for both, I love Pearl Jam so that pretty much sold me in the first one, and who doesn't love a good Neil Young song in a new light? Enjoy. Trailer #1 Trailer #2

The 1993 novel The Giver    is being turned into film, and already has an impressive and interesting cast. So far it as been confirmed that the cast will include Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, Jeff Bridges, Brandon Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, and apparently, Taylor Swift. The film, and adaptation of the popular young adult novel by Lois Lowry, stars Thwaites as a young boy who is selected for life service as a Receiver of Memories. He works with The Giver (Bridges), and old man who helps the boy with his gifts. Streep will play the Chief Elder, who assigns the young their tasks, in the film about a society in which there is no sickness, conflict, or racism, and Holmes will play the young boy's mother. The movie which is set to start filming October 7th in Cape Town, South Africa, will be directed by Phil Noyce and the screenplay was written by Michael Mitnick.

Last month I mentioned that Warner Bros. and J.K Rowling were teaming up for Rowling's screenwriting debut in the new movie to take place in the well-known wizarding world. That film was going to be based off of her book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them . Today it's been released that Warner Bros. got the film rights for two more Harry Potter spin-offs based on J.K Rowling's books Quidditch Through The Ages and  The Tales of Beedle the Bard . More exciting news for Harry Potter Fans!

Yet another new trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has been released, and it is an exciting one at that. We get to see, and hear from Smaug and are introduced to a whole lot of new characters. Come on December 13th! Enjoy!

IMDB:  8.0/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 96% (critics) 88%(audience) Roger Ebert: 4/4 stars Stars: Max Schreck, Greta Schröder, Ruth Landshoff Written By:  Henrik Galeen(Screenplay), Bram Stoker(Novel). Directed By:  F.W. Murau Release Date: 4 March 1922 Described by IMDB as:  "Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife. Silent classic based on the story 'Dracula'."

IMDB:  8.0/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 100% (critics) 88%(audience) Roger Ebert:  4/4 stars Stars:  Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Fiedrich Feher Written By: Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz Directed By: Robert Wiene Release Date: 26 Februrary 1920 Described by IMDB as:  " Dr. Caligari's somnambulist, Cesare, and his deadly predictions."

Julianne Moore has been cast as President Alma Coin in the final two instalments " The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2 ". This is a big role in these films and I'm excited to see what she brings to the character. I'm a big fan of Moore, so I think she'll be a great addition to the already fantastic cast including Jennifer Lawrence , Josh Hutcherson , Liam Hemsworth , Woody Harrelson , Elizabeth Banks , Stanley Tucci , Philip Seymour Hoffman , Donald Sutherland , Lenny Kravitz , and many, many more in The Hunger Games , and Catching Fire . I actually wasn't aware that Mockingjay was going to be divided into two movies. Exciting stuff! Will you be going to see the rest of the Hunger Games franchise?

J.K Rowling announced today on her Facebook page that she will be writing her first screenplay under Warner Bros. for a new film set in the Magical world which Harry Potter was created. The film itself will not include Harry Potter, or possibly any familiar characters, but will be based on one of Hogwart's textbooks "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Needless to say, as a Potter Fan, I was mildly freaking out this afternoon upon hearing the news. Here is the full statement from her Facebook page. Please be filled with joy as I was!

Originally Posted: 11 June 2013 New Teaser Trailer for  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug . How exciting! The New Poster (pictured above) was also released.   

I noticed a few days ago that the first trailer for the new Robocop movie was released and I thought I should share. The cast looks fantastic so I am super excited about this! Take a look:

Originally Posted: 17 June 2013 New trailer for Scorcese's newest film, The Wolf of Wall Street. Loves me some Leo. Enjoy!

13 June 2013 So its been more then a month since posting anything, but for me summer has come and I'm working full time. However, I got a new position this week that leave me more time on the computer so you'll probably and hopefully see more of me from now on. Most of these films I'd say are more directed towards 7-12 year olds. I'd say maybe Labyrinth, Space Jam and Matilda might be an exception for those. Its not that the rest aren't appropriate for them, but more that they might not like them as much. All of them are fantastic films but for this one I went 100% with my own personal experience and preference. Please enjoy this weeks list, Top 10 Non-Cartoon Kids Movies. 10.) The Muppets Treasure Island I've never had a huge connection with The Muppets, but I thought a lot of people who feel this list would be unacceptable without it. I've only seen this film once or twice many, many years ago, but I remember it being enjoyable. I'm sort of usin...

Originally Posted: 4 May 2013 First of all, I think I've missed at least the last 2 weeks, possibly 3, so I'm just gonna have to go ahead and apologize for the 2 of you who actually care about these lists. I spent the last week with a 3 year old so I guess I can say I was inspired for this weeks list. I'm even going to attempt a second list as well so, fingers crossed on that one. So, here it is, 3 weeks late, Top 10 Non-Disney Cartoon Movies. 10.) My Neighbour Totoro I honestly don't even know how to explain this movie but I'll try. Its a movie from Japan and its incredibly quirky. Its about two young girls who move to a new home. They go exploring in the woods near their house and discover Totoro, a monsterish thing who, with the help of his friends, bring them both on amazing adventures while they try to cope with their mother being in the hospital trying to recover from an illness. I think thats just about as best as I can figure to describe it. Its SO m...

Originally Posted: 17 April 2013 First off, I think just about anyone who knows anything about Musicals is going to completely disagree with 90% of my choices on this list, but I don't care. I don't have a music theatre background, so I think that when its in a movie, and not on Broadway or in an Opera, its more important to have great acting then perfect singing. Either way, please enjoy this weeks list; Top 10 Movie Musicals. 10.) Mamma Mia Against all of my best judgement I love this movie. I don't know if its simply my love of ABBA or not, but the first time I saw this I spent the whole movie laughing. Is this a great movie? Absolutely not, but is it some of the most fun you will ever have watching a movie? Hell yes. The cast is incredibly impressive but  Pierce Brosnan  is absolutely embarrassing in this movie. I'm sure he's an ok actor in general, but I was really almost unable to watch him in this one. However the rest of the cast, including ...

8 April 2013 So I took a bit of a break last week, terribly sorry for the inconvenience, This week's list is Top 10 Romanic Films. Did not have an easy time with this one. There are some really fantastic romance films, and I really wanted to get a wide range of them in there. I changed the list about 15 times before I finished, and chances are I'll change it another 5 before I post it. I think I've made the correct choices. 10.)  Sleepless In Seattle Meg Ryan  has a knack for being in some seriously romantic films, especially the ones that also have  Tom Hanks  in them. Some people think that this film is creepy, and I can definitely understand, but I think its one of those things where when someone does something and you're interested in them, it comes off as sweet, but if you're not, it comes off as creepy. Personally, I think its romantic and that kid is just too damn cute. Personally,  Tom Hanks  isn't the one who comes to mind when I t...

24 March 2013 Since last week's list was full of tears, I thought it would be appropriate to change it up a bit and make this list full of laughter. Here's the list, I found this one pretty hard because I think that people's sense of humour are pretty different, so I think a lot of people will probably disagree with me on a lot of these, but this is my list and my blog so I don't care. 10.) Easy A I honestly don't know if this film is genuinely funny, or if the 80s bratpack movie references just took over the nostalgia part of me, but I really love this movie.  Emma Stone  is fantastic as always in this film, so many great moments. Really shows what high school is like, and how quickly rumours are started and how quickly you can go from unknown to the most popular name in school overnight. Genuinely hilarious. Apart from  Stone , the cast also includes  Amanda Bynes ,  Penn Badgley ,  Patricia Clarkson , Stanley Tucci ,  Dan Byrd ,...

18 March 2013 So, this is obviously not a Sunday, so I'm a few days late this week, but its been a busy week. I'm a girl so I really do enjoy a good tearjerker. However, most of these are not chick-flicks so I think its important that that is clear so that males will not be afraid to also look at this. All of these are fantastic movies, but I'm not raking them by how good the films are themselves, but by how the number of tears they managed to wrangle out of me. All but 2 of these films one Oscars, so I can assure you they really are all fantastic films. Here is this weeks (late) Top 10 list: Top 10 Tearjerkers. 10.)  Finding Neverland This is a film about the family who inspired J.M. Barrie to write the famous story of Peter Pan. A very sweet story with a lot of drama and tragedy surrounding it. The film is directed by the ever talented  Marc Foster , and has a very impressive cast including Johnny Depp  as JM Barrie,  Kate Winslet ,  Dustin Hoffm...

This week's list is Top 10 Thrillers. I think a lot of people think that Thriller and Horror are the same things, and it is a pretty thin line between then, and the fact that Horror films are my least favorite genre, and Thrillers are my very favorite genre is also sort of confusing to most people. My definition of Thrillers are films that normally have a great storyline, are very suspenseful, but don't use cheap tricks to get cheap scares out of you by something jumping out in front  of you. The most fun ones are normally psychological thrillers, but basically any thriller is fine with me. Here are my Top 10 Thrillers, the list, so far, closest to my heart. 10.) Insomnia Its actually been a little while since I saw this film, but I absolutely adored it. SUCH a great murder mystery, and definitely a thriller. Between the brilliant actors( Al Pacino, Robin Williams,  and  Hilary Swank ) and having  Christopher Nolan  as the director I'm not sure how it reall...

Originally Posted: 3 March 2013 This weeks Top 10 list is definitely one of the most important lists to me, it holds a lot of nostalgia, and pretty much defines my childhood. Definitely a list that is important to share with the future generations. All of the honourably mentions are very good as well, but these were definitely my top 10. 10.) The Rescuers I am also including The Rescuers Down Under in this.A movie about two mice and their friends who rescue children? Who wouldn't enjoy that kind of movie? I think that movies about mice are always funny/interesting because they normally involve making functioning objects out of tiny(to us) household items, such as the sardine can in the photo on the left. They really are both fantastic children's films, full of adventure, mystery and suspense. 

Originally Posted: 24 February 2013 This list might actually have been the easiest to rank surprisingly. Although, on this one I went more for talent over favouritism. Technically my favorite actress would probably be  Carey Mulligan , but is she actually the best actress in the world? No, probably not. So, here it is my list of Top 10 Actresses. 10.) Jennifer Lawrence I'm SO glad that she had already been nominated for an Oscar before doing  The Hunger Games  so that she doesn't get put into the same trap as Kristen Stewart. And then of course having  Silver Linings Playbook  released the same year and having all of these awards under her belt now have definitely cemented her as a legitimate actress in the worlds eyes. So far in her fairly short career she's been in such films as Winter's Bone ,  X-Men: First Class ,  The Hunger Games , and  Silver Linings Playbook . She's also signed on to do another X-Men film and the next two Hunger ...

Surprisingly this is the list that so far has taken me the longest to decide. All of these actors are top notch actors, including the ones in the honourable mentions list. All of these actors have either won Oscars themselves or have been in Oscar winning movies. I still feel bad about not being able to fit a couple of people in the Top 10 so please check out the honourable mentions as well. 10.) Daniel Day-Lewis Oh Daniel, what a treasure he is. The first movie I saw him in was Gangs of New York  and I fell in love with him, funny I know because he's a total bad-guy and it not attractive at all, but I just knew, he was amazing. Later I saw  There Will Be Blood ,  In The Name Of The Father , and most recently,  Lincoln . However, I think he is most famous for  My Left Foot  for which he won an Oscar. So far he's won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for his performance in Lincoln, and I'm pretty confident he'll be winning the Oscar as well. I'd watch any movie he ...

This weeks list topic is Top 10 Directors. I found this list very difficult because most of these directors who have created different worlds that have changed our lives, or taught us something about ourselves that we didn't know beforehand.  10.) Sam Mendes I think most people have actually not heard of Sam Mendes, although his name is getting a lot of coverage lately for the amazing job he did on the most recent Bond film  Skyfall .  He's actually only Directed 9 films so far, but all of them have been pretty well-known and extremely well recieved.  American Beauty ,  Road to Perdition ,  Jarhead ,  Revolutionary Road , etc. Since  American Beauty  is one of my very favorite films of all time, I had to allow him to make it onto this list. Like I said, he's only done a few films but thats incredibly exciting because he definitely got some serious potential, and after seeing his most recent film,  Skyfall , I can only assume its going...

This weeks top 10 list is  Top 10 Documentaries of All Time .I watch an absurd number of Documentaries, so many that I often forget them, so trying to remember specific ones for this list was actually rather difficult. There are hundreds of fantastic documentaries, but I wanted to make this list about ones that I thought were the most important, most informative, and left the biggest impact on me, because I think thats really the point of documentaries. So here it goes: 10.) Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room Very intriguing and mind-blowing documentary about this giant company and its enormous corruption which led to the company's ultimate demise. Its unbelievable the level that they went to to make money. These were some seriously bad people, they were incredibly greedy people who went to any length to get money. I urge pretty much everyone to watch this movie to understand just how the world really works and why Capitalism isn't always th...

Originally Posted: 27 January 2013 So, we all have our own favorites when it comes to trilogies. I think that a lot of people also become pretty passionate about their favorites, because unlike just one movie, you get tons of time for character development and therefore you get much more attached to the characters and the story lines are able to become more more intricate. So here is this weeks Top 10 list:  Top 10 Film Trilogies 10.) Jason Borne Trilogy I actually almost forgot about these ones when I was first making the list. I've only ever seen each one once, so theres actually a huge possibility that they should be higher, but until the day comes that I decide I need to see them again, they will stay at #10. These made me have some serious respect for  Matt Damon , especially in The Borne Ultimatum, where he did a lot of the stunt work himself. These films are a perfect example of how to have an action movie with a real story to it. Really great.

Like I said, I've decided I want to try and do a new post every Sunday. I've decided that what I'm actually going to do is to have a Top 10 list every Sunday. The last few I've done have been a lot of fun so I figure, why not make it a new thing. Hopefully some people out there will enjoy them! So here they are: my list of Top 10 80's Teen/Brat Pack movies. 10.) Dirty Dancing I put this last, only because I was iffy on even putting it on the list because its not really a "Brat Pack" film, or the kind of "high school" movie I had intended, but she is a teen so I think it counts. Great coming of age/ discovering love movie.

Originally Posted: 13 January 2013 First off, I've decided that I'm going to try and make an honest effort at posting a review or list every Sunday starting this week. This doesn't mean that I won't be posting more then that every week, but I just wanted to have a day where I definitely posted something. Thanks and enjoy the rest of the post. --Gill. Some of these movies will probably be confusing (ie Perks of Being a Wallflower as there were a number of other films before it on my  Top Films of 2012  list) but I think that theres a difference between an excellently made film, and a film that you feel a connection to, or one that really stands out to you. I chose most of the pictures because I felt they really represented what each film was about. So here they are, my top 10 films of all time. 10.) The Godfather A lot of people are definitely thinking that this should be higher on the list, but there are just more movies that I had a stronger reaction to. Thi...

10.) Zero Dark Thirty Such a great film, so intense and although I have no idea how much of it actually happened, most of it seemed pretty realistic, and it seemed to have the general gist of what I knew to have happened. Even if 90% of it is BS its still a fantastic film, such a thriller and its definitely action-packed.  Jessica Chastain  was really great in this one, she's almost unrecognizable in every movie I've seen her in.  Kathryn Bigelow  directs the films who also directed The Hurt Locker, I think I might like this one more, but I don't really remember  The Hurt Locker  much despite the fact that it epically won the Oscar in 2010 against her ex-husband  James Cameron  who directed  Avatar  that year. The movie was nominated for 5 Oscars winning 1 for Best Sound Editing.