Top 30 Greatest New Zealand Movies of All Time. You should check out these New Zealand Movies. These New Zealand Movies will give you a lot of fun and practice.
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1. Boy (2010)
Director: Taika Waititi
Alamein Ranginui, a Maori boy, is 11 years old and living with his paternal grandmother in the North Island of New Zealand’s small town of Raukokore. His mother Joanie passed away seven years prior in childbirth, and his father Alamein has spent a significant amount of time in prison for robbery.
Boy and his Nan share a home with their sibling Rocky, 7, and a number of the boys’ cousins. The boy is prone to fantasizing, frequently daydreaming about a life with his father and the person he is most obsessed with: Michael Jackson, while Rocky has been led to believe that he has magical abilities.
He also has feelings for Chardonnay, a female classmate. The boy is left in charge of the house and the other kids when Nan travels for about a week to Wellington to attend a funeral. During that time, Alamein, who is now out of prison, and his buddies Juju and Chuppa pay them an unexpected visit.
The boy accepts the three with wide arms because of his delusions about his father and plans to take Rocky along when they leave since he thinks that’s what families do.
2. Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Director: Peter Jackson
Two adolescent girls have a special bond, but when their parents try to separate them because they worry it’s getting too close, the girls get even. In the 1950s, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme crossed paths at school. They became fast friends and spent as much time as they could together, frequently writing about a fictional world they had created.
The two sisters, who are becoming further apart from their families, recognize how unique they are compared to most people and resolve to do whatever it takes to stay together. In a very moralistic era, the two families are growing more anxious about the girls’ friendship.
3. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
Director: Taika Waititi
Ricky Baker, who has spent a lot of time in foster care, is considered a problem child. His most recent placement is in the remote home of Bella and Hec Faulkner, who decided to foster him despite obstinate Hec’s objections.
He is upset when Ricky refers to them as Auntie and Uncle, respectively, at Bella’s urging. Ricky flourishes under Bella’s care and responds well to her methods, with Hec staying off to the side and caring for Ricky exclusively. Ricky and Hec wind up together in the bush with no one knowing where they are, largely as a result of a change in their circumstances.
There are many rumors that Hec may have kidnapped Ricky, or even worse, that the kidnapping and Hec’s history of pedophilia go hand in hand. As a result, a manhunt is launched with a new bounty placed on Hec.
Although there is nothing wrong between the two, Hec and Ricky both understand that they are unable to come out due to their personal history and that doing so would cause them to split apart. Their folk hero reputation may increase the longer they manage to avoid capture.
4. Black Sheep (2006)
Director: Jonathan King
A genetic engineering experiment transforms domestic sheep into bloodthirsty killers that terrorize a large New Zealand farm. Harry Olfield’s upbringing on the family’s sheep farm was blissful, save for some snarky antics from his brother Angus and until their father suffers a terrible accident.
Harry returns after finishing his ICT education and sheep-phobia therapy fifteen years later. He is ready to showcase the GE Oldfield sheep that Angus has bred with a cunning team when he buys him out. Environmentalist Grant is the first person to contract predatory hunger and a mechanism that transforms any mammal into a werewolf version when he steals an abandoned fetus with sharp fangs.
Grant’s friend Experience, who is running for the farm men, is partnered up with Harry and his obnoxious but kind pastoral youth acquaintance Tucker. They must endure both the ruthless sheep and their inventors, who left an antidote despite not realizing it at the time.
5. Braindead (1992)
Director: Peter Jackson
A deadly Sumatran rat monkey is transported to a zoo in New Zealand from a barren island. Paquita, Lionel’s new flame, accompanies him there. His miserable mother, who most likely has a reverse Oedipus complex, follows him.
She gets bitten by the monkey, slowly deteriorates, and eventually becomes a zombie. Then, as she stalks prey, everyone she bites also turns into a zombie. Fighting the zombies and keeping them hidden from Paquita and the rest of the world are becoming more and more difficult for Lionel.
Finally, amid a gathering of uninvited guests at Lionel’s house, Paquita and Lionel engage in combat with a large number of zombies.
6. The Piano (1993)
Director: Jane Campion
A mute woman is brought to New Zealand in the middle of the 19th century with her young daughter and priceless piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer, but a farmhand soon develops feelings for her. Midway through the nineteenth century.
Ada is mute and has a small daughter named Flora. She departs from her native Scotland in an arranged marriage with her daughter and her prized piano. She may not have anticipated life amid the untamed forests of New Zealand’s North Island, and neither did her marriage to Stewart.
When Stewart sells her piano to a neighbor named George, she is tormented and loses everything. George teaches Ada how to teach piano, but only under certain restrictions, so that she can have her piano back. Ada first hates George, but as time goes on, their relationship changes and this puts them in a dangerous scenario.
7. Goodbye Pork Pie (1980)
Director: Geoff Murphy
Gerry Austin, then 19 years old, breaks into a wallet in the Northland town of Kaitaia in the spring of 1978 and uses the money and driver’s license inside to hire a yellow Mini. He wanders down to Auckland without having any specific goals in mind.
While all of this is happening, middle-aged John in Auckland has just had Sue, his six-year girlfriend, fly home to Invercargill. John decides to travel to Invercargill following a night of intoxication. While looking for a ride, John witnesses Gerry being pulled over by a traffic cop for not using a seat belt.
John steps in and stops the officer from issuing a ticket. Gerry thanks John and offers to give him a lift some of the way. In northern Waikato, the couple pulls down for petrol but unintentionally drives away without paying, drawing police attention to the car.
8. Utu (1983)
Director: Rick Kofoed
A Maori warrior fighting for the British in 1870 discovers that his village has been massacred and swears vengeance. The indigenous Maori people of New Zealand fought the British colonizers in the 1860s to retain the territory promised to them by treaty.
Te Wheke, a warrior, battles for the British until he is betrayed and forced to seek utu. Williamson, a settler, wants retaliation after Te Wheke attacks his homestead. British officer Wiremu seemed to believe that resistance is pointless in the meantime.
9. The World’s Fastest Indian (2005)
Director: Roger Donaldson
Burt Munro is regarded as somewhat of a folk hero in Invercargill in 1967. He is well-known for possessing the quickest motorcycle in New Zealand and Australia as well as for appearing in Popular Mechanics.
His irritated neighbors, some of whom are sick of his uncouth practices, such as revving his motorbike in the early morning, urinating on his lemon tree and not mowing his grass, stand in stark contrast to that recognition.
But Burt has a long-held ambition to visit the US and test the limits of his motorbike at the Bonneville Speedway. Burt has a heart attack while modifying his motorbike, though. He is sent to the hospital in an ambulance, where he is diagnosed with angina and ordered to take it easy and avoid riding his motorbike. Burt disobeys this counsel, therefore medicine is administered to him.
10. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Director: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement
Vampires Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav struggle with day-to-day responsibilities including paying rent, keeping up with the chores, attempting to get into clubs, and resolving issues with their flatmates.
Follow the lives of Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav, three flatmates who are merely trying to make ends meet and get by while having to feed on human blood to remain immortal.
The vampires, who are hundreds of years old, are discovering that modern society has them struggling with banal like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and resolving flatmate disputes. This is in addition to sunlight catastrophes, hitting the main artery, and not being able to get a sense of their wardrobe without a reflection.
11. What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999)
Director: Ian Mune
The younger son of Jake Muss, whose oldest son was slain in a gang battle, seeks retribution, but Jake doesn’t want to lose his other kid to violence as well. This follow-up to the New Zealand-set drama “Once Were Warriors” revisits alcoholic Maori man Jake Heke and his wife Beth, who had split up in large part because of his heavy drinking. Their oldest son, Nig, is killed in a gang battle, and Sonny vows to exact revenge on his killer. Jake seeks to help Sonny avoid Nig’s awful fate to improve his life.
12. The Dark Horse (2014)
Director: James Napier Robertson
A bright but disturbed New Zealand chess champion finds meaning in sharing the game’s rules with poor kids. The real-life account of New Zealand chess champion Genesis Potini, a man who, despite difficulties, finds fulfillment in teaching chess to young people in his community to keep them away from a life of crime and violence.
13. Sleeping Dogs (1977)
Director: Roger Donaldson
A New Zealander who has lost contact with his family unintentionally becomes involved in a revolution. Smith, a recluse, is sucked into a revolutionary conflict between the New Zealand government and Marxist guerillas.
Smith strives to avoid conflict while caught between two at-war parties despite being accused of murder and falsely accused of being a revolutionary conspirator. Bullen’s romance with another man led to the dissolution of Smith’s marriage, so he makes plans to relocate to an island owned by a Maori tribe of the Coromandel Peninsula.
Political unrest increases as a result of the country’s energy problems caused by an oil embargo. Guerrilla warfare and civil war break out as a result of the tension. Smith and his dog live a quiet island life, though, with little contact with the outside world.
14. Muru (2022)
Director: Te Arepa Kahi
‘Taffy’ Tawharau, a community sergeant, just moved back to the village of Rtoki to be with his ailing father. Taffy drives the neighborhood school bus in addition to his work as a police officer alongside Blake. In the woodlands of Te Urewera Valley, the Ngi Thoe activist Tame Iti, a well-known local community figure, runs a series of boot camps dubbed Camp Rama.
These boot camps teach people how to survive and maintain their identity, but the elite Special Tactics Group (STG) of the New Zealand Police is interested in them because they think the participants are terrorists planning to kill the Prime Minister.
15. Came a Hot Friday (1985)
Director: Ian Mune
Wes Pennington and his business associate Cyril are attempting to perpetuate a horse-racing fraud in rural New Zealand in 1949. They are compulsive gamblers who have banded together to deceive the neighborhood bookies by watching delayed broadcasts of horse races.
Wes and Cyril become entangled in a bootlegging operation, an arson attack, and a murder after landing in Tainuia Junction, a small village. They also encounter the Tainuia Kid, a Maori who imagines himself to be a Mexican bandit, among a bunch of oddball locals.
He takes on the role of the pair’s sort of guardian. Although Morrieson’s novels did contain considerable violence and sexual content, the movie minimized these elements in favor of the comedic portions.
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16. Mahana (2016)
Director: Lee Tamahori
Two Mori families, the Mahanas and the Poatas, who are sworn enemies, are the subjects of the movie. According to legend, the rivalry began when Tamihana Mahana fell in love with Ramona and saved her from her unwanted betrothed, Rupeni Poata.
By the late 1950s, Tamihana is the patriarch of the Mahana tribe and is in charge of the family’s prosperous sheep-shearing enterprise in the Gisborne District. Simeon, however, is Tamihana’s obstinate grandson and dislikes his autocratic authority. Tamihana makes Simeon do chores as retribution for making sarcastic remarks during the family’s meal prayer.
Simeon finds a picture of Ramona and Rupeni together while cleaning his grandmother’s study. Simeon later presents his mother Huria and his aunts with the picture. Huria chastises her son for researching his ancestry and asserts that his grandma detested Rupeni. Later, when Simeon questions his grandmother about the picture, she refuses to comment but says that “men fight for what they want.”
17. Pork Pie (2017)
Director: Matt Murphy
Three teenage misfits compete in a stolen Mini Cooper S throughout the entire nation in search of a long-lost love. When they find themselves in the crosshairs of a media frenzy and an expanding police operation, they turn into folk heroes and the most wanted criminals because they are avoiding the law and have nothing to lose.
18. Death Warmed Up (1984)
Director: David Blyth
Dr. Howell, an evil scientist, exploits young Michael Tucker as a test subject for his mind-controlling chemicals, which leads to his accidentally killing his parents. After serving seven years in a mental hospital for the murders, Michael, his fiancée Sandy, and his two friends Jeannie and Lucas travel to Dr. Howell’s clinic on a distant island using Michael’s automobile, a black 1963 Ford Fairlane 500.
Michael is driven by a burning desire for vengeance and is determined to break into the scientist’s base and brutally execute him. He finds Howell and kills his zombie slave mob of mind-controlled workers, but in the ensuing mayhem, both Jeannie and Lucas perish. Finally, after repeatedly stabbing Howell in the stomach with a knife, Michael kills him violently.
Michael and Sandy escape the clinic, but when they get back to their vacation home, they find it has caught fire. When Michael goes outside to check on the damage, he is electrocuted to death after being hit by a fallen electrical line. Sandy is left to mourn his death alone as she begins to flee because of her sadness
19. Whina (2022)
Director: Paula Whetu Jones
Dame Whina Cooper, a trailblazing Maori leader whose incredible life saw her overcome gender barriers, fight for Maori rights, and stand up for the land, all while remaining loyal to her heart and her principles, is the subject of this biopic. The film follows Whina Cooper’s life as a Mori leader, wife, and mother.
These are intermingled with memories of her organizing the Mori Land March in 1975. In their hometown of Panguru, Whina and her family are involved in a land dispute with a Pakeha farmer named Bob Holland at the start of the movie. Whina is detained by the police, but Father Mulder, a sympathetic Catholic priest, gets her freedom by pointing out that Whina’s father, Heremia Te Wake, built the church he attends.
20. Under the Mountain (2009)
Director: Jonathan King
When their mother passes away unexpectedly, teenage twins Rachel and Theo decide to stay with relatives in Auckland. They discover a strange atmosphere and hear Mr. Wilberforce talking about the fire-raiser, which is stirring underground.
Teenage twins Rachel and Theo are taken to live with relatives in Auckland when their mother passes away, where they encounter three extraterrestrial races. The seven shape-shifting Wilberforce, who love anything evil, are out to destroy the entire planet with the help of the seven Gargantua, giant slug-like creatures that are currently imprisoned under each of Auckland’s seven volcanoes but will soon be able to escape.
Mr. Jones is an extraterrestrial as well; he came to use his fire skills on the other aliens as the surviving twin of a pair. Only twins can use a set of magic stones’ full potential, so Jones doesn’t hold out much hope for Rachel and Theo, even if he isn’t aware of their ability to telepathically interact with one another.
21. Once Were Warriors (1994)
Director: Lee Tamahori
A harsh father and the difficulties of being recognized as misfits in society plague a family descended from Maori warriors. This film, which is set in urban Auckland, chronicles the tale of the Heke family. Although Jake Heke frequently abuses his wife when intoxicated, it is clear that he loves both of them.
The film depicts a few weeks in the life of the family and focuses on Jake’s violent outbursts and the impact they have on his family. While the older son is preparing to join a street gang, the younger kid is in problems with the police and may be placed in foster care. The plot revolves around the terrible issues that Jake’s daughter is facing.
22. Bad Blood (1981)
Director: Mike Newell
A Westland smallholder named Stan Graham experiences a persecution complex in October 1941 and begins threatening his neighbors, with his wife encouraging him to do so. After that, he defies a directive from the government requiring everyone to give up their weaponry for the duration of the conflict.
Four police officers eventually show up to seize his weapons, which sets off a tense moment for Graham. Graham kills all the police officers and three townspeople in the ensuing altercations with the aid of his wife, who shoots and wounds one of them. Graham is then shot and hurt before retreating into the nearby forest. The police, soldiers, and members of the neighborhood home guard organize a manhunt to find him.
23. Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr (1981)
Director: David Hemmings
A plane wreck from World War II has been found in the New Zealand Alps by Gibbie Gibson. A group of treasure hunters led by Mister Theo Brown are determined to find the stash of cash they believe is on the wreck, and when word of Gibson’s discovery spreads across the community, they cause difficulties for Gibson, his daughter Sally, and his lodger Barney Whitaker.
A nasty treasure hunter competes with a drunken deer hunter, his pilot colleague, and his daughter to get to a lake hidden in the New Zealand mountains where a WWII plane disaster with a fortune in gold is submerged.
A WWII plane wreck is found by hunter Gibbie Gibson in a lake located high in the New Zealand Alps. When he spreads the word, a group of thieves pursues him and his daughter and makes threats because they know there is $50 million in the wreck. Barney, a helicopter pilot, puts his life in danger by aiding Gibbie in fighting them.
24. The Tattooist (2007)
Director: Peter Burger
Jake Sawyer, an American tattoo artist, travels the globe while investigating and utilizing ethnic themes in his artwork. He first encounters the exotic world of traditional Samoan tattoos at a tattoo convention in Singapore and, via a careless action, unintentionally releases a potent furious spirit.
Jake must figure out a way to save his new love, Sina, and retrieve his soul on his harrowing voyage into Pacific mysticism. Jake Sawyer, an American tattoo artist, traverses the world in search of tattoos to study and people to tattoo. He steals a tool from the Samoan family of his friend Sina when he is in Singapore.
He does, however, have a problem with a client who thought that his tattoo will cure his son’s illness. Jake unintentionally cuts his palm. When Jake travels to New Zealand, he runs across Sina again and is met with hostility by her family because they know he stole their tool. They go to a Samoan family who has been hiding out in shame ever since their missing son failed to complete a customary tattoo rite.
25. Bad Taste (1987)
Director: Peter Jackson
A tiny town’s residents vanish, to be replaced by aliens that hunt down human flesh for their intergalactic fast-food franchise. In a small village, Derek and his friends are tasked with finding the missing residents. Then they discover that all of the residents of the small village were used as snack burgers by incredibly large-headed aliens with human forms. With his chainsaw, Derek must now stop the meat eaters from destroying the entire planet and saving the day.
26. The Dead Lands (2014)
Director: Toa Fraser
Mori chief Tane, his 15-year-old son Hongi, and his tribe permit a rival tribe access to the warriors’ bodies of the second tribe. Hongi, who is led by Wirepa of the enemy tribe, does not respect him. The visit is a ploy, as Hongi had predicted, and Wirepa desecrates the grave site to justify war while attributing Hongi’s interference with the remains to Hongi.
Tane, who is convinced that his son is innocent, offers to kill Hongi to end the conflict. Insisting that conflict is near, Wirepa declines. Later, Wirepa’s tribe reappears in force, massacres the tribe’s male members, and beheads Tane before taking his head as a trophy. Despite being knocked by the conflict, Hongi lives.
27. Smash Palace (1981)
Director: Roger Donaldson
Al Shaw’s life is centered around auto racing and his ‘Smash Palace’ backcountry salvage yard. Jacqui, his French wife, doesn’t like how neglected she is as a result of Al’s vehicle compulsion.
When Al discovers her in another man’s arms, he grabs Georgie, his daughter, and flees for the wilderness in a last-ditch effort to protect his remaining family. Formerly a Grand Prix racing star on the world stage, Al relocates to New Zealand with his French wife Jacque and little daughter Georgie to manage his father’s auto salvage business.
Jacquie, who is lonely and unhappy, starts an affair with Al’s best friend and separates from her husband. Jacquie, who is terrified by Al’s aggressiveness and behavior, tries to prevent him from seeing their daughter Georgie.
28. An Angel at My Table (1990)
Director: Jane Campion
Janet Frame is raised in a large, impoverished family in 1920s and 1930s New Zealand. She distinguishes herself from the other youngsters from a young age. She completes her schooling to become a teacher, but she spends eight years in a mental hospital since she is deemed weird.
When she begins to create novels, she finds success. Using three of her autobiographical books as a foundation, this is Janet Frame’s biography. It details her upbringing in a loving but impoverished home in New Zealand. The first section of the movie focuses on her relationships with her devoted parents, one brother, and three cherished sisters.
She was an intelligent young girl who received a false schizophrenia diagnosis as a teen. The diagnosis’s outcome is presented in vivid detail. The latter part of the movie follows Janet as she travels across the globe and lives in Europe as her best-selling novels are released.
29. The Quiet Earth (1985)
Director: Geoff Murphy
Zac Hobson wakes up and discovers that he is the only person in the entire world. He looks desperately for others, but all he finds are two selfish people. When a man wakes up, he is practically the only person in the world. He then sets out to discover other survivors and learn what occurred.
He believes that the disappearance of everyone was related to a government research study in which he had participated. He eventually comes into several others, and as they start to feel safe around one another, they start to look into why they were left on earth.
30. Never Say Die (1988)
Director: Geoff Murphy
Alf and his wife Melissa have both returned to their native New Zealand. The two return to their former house, where the utilities have just been turned back on, following a lengthy delay in customs that frustrates Alf. A gas explosion destroys the house as they enter.
Alf, who is paranoid, rushes to Inspector Evans, his archenemy on the New Zealand Police, to inform him of his concerns that the explosion was intentional. Alf, according to Evans, is unhappy and making things up. Alf later survives an automobile accident in which his brakes were damaged, but Evans later concluded after looking at Alf’s car that the brake line was damaged by shrapnel from the house explosion.
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