Kiwi Film Review

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.

Top 5 Quentin Tarantino Films Tarantino is one of the most unique directors of our generation, and probably in history. His films have incredible writing, and over the top violence, and although all of his films share the same theme of revenge, they are all incredibly different films every time. He has created some of the most impressive films of the last 20 years and is therefore one of my favorite directors, and here are my pics for his top 5 films.

Top 5 Spielberg Films I've decided to try and do a top 5 films from a specific director  or actor maybe once a week, not sure how long it will last but we'll see how it goes. Steven Spielberg is one of the most influential and easily one of the greatest directors of all time. His films span over 5 decades, and over every genre imaginable. He is one of the best fantasy/adventure directors out there, but is equally capable to perfect period piece films, especially biographies. I would watch any of his movies, and am happy to say I've seen at least most of his hits. So here they are, the top 5 Spielberg films. 

I really enjoyed this years Oscars I was a little unsure on how Seth Macfarlane would do, but I do think he didn't do too bad. I laughed a lot actualy. I thought the random Shatner bit was a little weird, and not funny, but I liked the general gist of the skit. I thought his other jokes throughout the night were pretty hilarious, and his musical numbers were great. I really liked that this year had a theme of appreciating the music. There were some really great performances, and surprise guests to remind us how much the music really matters. Here are my thoughts on the big winners last night;

As most of the world now knows the Academy Awards Nominations were announced today! I thought it might be interesting to give my thoughts on the nominees, who I'd like to win, and who I think actually will win. Obviously there are way too many categories to give my opinions on all of them, but I'm going to stick with the main categories. Before I give my thoughts on the individual categories, I wanted to say that generally I agree, but there a few names I'm shocked not to see on here. No Ben or Tarantino for Directing? No Leo for Supporting actor? I'm shocked that there were no nominations at all for Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Dark Knight Rises or Cloud Atlas! And only one nomination for The Hobbit for visual effects?? Unreal.  Here we go!

Originally Posted: 28 March 2013 IMDB:  8.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes:  65% (critics) 84%(audience) Roger Ebert:  (currently none, I'll check again in a few days and add then) Stars:  Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis. Written By:  J.R.R. Tolkien(novel), Fran Walsh(screenplay), Philippa Boyens(screenplay),  Guillermo del Toro(screenplay), Peter Jackson(screenplay) Directed By:  Peter Jackson Release Date:  14 December 2012 Described by IMDB as:  " Bilbo Baggins is swept into a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters an...

11 February 2013 IMDB:  8.6/10 (Top 250 #39) Rotten Tomatoes:  88% Roger Ebert:  4/4 stars Starring:  Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson Directed By:  Quentin Tarantino Written By:  Quentin Tarantino Release Date:  25 December 2012 Described By IMDB as " With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. "

Originally Posted: 11 February 2013 IMDB:  7.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes:  93% Roger Ebert:  3/4 stars Staring:  Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, James Gandolfini Directed By:  Kathryn Bigelow Written By:  Mark Boal Release Date:  11 January 2012 Described by IMDB as:  " Maya is a CIA operative whose first experience is in the interrogation of prisoners following the Al Qaeda attacks against the U.S. on the 11th September 2001. She is a reluctant participant in extreme duress applied to the detainees, but believes that the truth may only be obtained through such tactics. For several years, she is single-minded in her pursuit of leads to uncover the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden. Finally, in 2011, it appears that her work will pay off, and a U.S. Navy SEAL team is sent to kill or capture Bin Laden. But only Maya is confident Bin Laden is where she says he is. "

28 January 2013 IMDB:  8.2/10( 222 on the Top 250 list ) Rotten Tomatoes:  91%( critics ) 91%( audience ) Roger Ebert:  3.5/4 Starring:  Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Styles. Directed By:  David O. Russell Written By:  David O. Russell( screenplay ), Matthew Quick( novel ) Release Date:  21 November 2012 Described by IMDB as: " After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own. "