One Waipātiki Beach lifeguard managed to rescue three people in one go.

How do you determine what the greatest movies of all time are?

Nobody can be wrong about their own opinion.

Lists compiled by IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes don't typically reward the greatest movie, but the one the fewest people dislike.

And critic lists tend to reward the obscure art movies that only they like.

In 2022, Sight and Sound named famously slow Belgian art film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles as the best movie ever made.

There's no way to work it out mathematically. It just comes down to gut feeling.

Which is why the task has fallen to this journalist to compile their ultimate list – based on nothing more than watching a lot of movies and thinking very hard about it.

To avoid casting too wide a net, this list only includes English-language movies.

20. Alien (1979)

What to do when you're in an inescapable and tiny space with something that wants to kill you?

It's the most basic of a horror movie premise, but Alien manages to be both subtle and terrifying.

The film also undermined the audience's expectations by having the sole survivor among the cast be the only one who wasn't yet famous.

19. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Every movie in the 1990s that didn't star Arnold Schwarzenegger was either a courtroom drama or a rom-com.

And every rom-com was setting out to recapture the charm of When Harry Met Sally.

The concept of the movie will seem very familiar to people who have never seen it, but that's because it set the standard.

But no rom-com did it better.

18. All The President's Men (1976)

Film buffs love to talk about the elaborate, single-take long-shot.

But the script is so tight in All The President's Men that you don't realise you have been looking at nothing but Robert Redford's face non-stop for six minutes.

Made in close consultation with the real-life subjects, the film is not only a vehement defence of the importance of journalism, but a primary source in one of the biggest political scandals in history.

17. Monsters Inc (2001)

The sheer audacity of making a movie with one of the most complicated conceits ever attempted – and making it for children.

The movie tells the story of two monsters who find themselves in charge of the most hazardous and terrifying thing in the world – a small child.

And despite its high concept, it is great fun the whole way through.

16. 12 Angry Men (1957)

Twelve men, one room, no air conditioning.

It's a simple concept but a masterful execution.

A jury deciding the fate of an accused murderer is deadlocked because of one stubborn man.

But over the course of 90 minutes, he causes each of them to question everything they've seen in a trial the audience saw nothing of.

15. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

A few minutes into a bank robbery, the phone rings.

"It's for you," the manager says, and hands the phone to one of the robbers.

Too often, Hollywood makes films about criminal masterminds.

This is a movie about two men who don't know what they are doing, trapped in a bank, surrounded by police, with a group of hostages they are becoming increasingly attached to.

14. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

The charming Nazi psychopath tasked with finding Jews doesn't know there's a family secretly underneath the floorboards while he drinks a glass of milk.

Or does he?

Most of Quentin Tarantino's movies could be included on this list, but Inglorious Basterds manages to be his most tense and his most funny.

And as the movie reaches what appears to be its thrilling crescendo, Brad Pitt utters the word "Buongiorno".

13. West Side Story (1961)

Street toughs doing ballet and modern dance moves seems like the silliest idea for a movie ever.

If this movie wasn't fantastic, it would be terrible.

It's billed as a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, but the best parts are the scenes with neither of the stars.

12. Lady Bird (2017)

There's no tragedy in Lady Bird.

It's the story of the last few months of a girl's high school experience.

It's a movie about disappointment, friendship and discovery.

But more than anything, it's a movie about a daughter and her mother.

No film captures the experience of growing up with greater wit, charm and truth.

11. Schindler's List (1993)

Oskar Schindler was an unlikely real-life hero – a Nazi industrialist philanderer who made his fortune off Jewish slave labour.

But over three harrowing hours, Steven Spielberg made one of the most affecting films ever – about Schindler and the thousands of lives he saved.

It's a story about a tiny flicker of hope within the worst atrocity of all time, and it is a masterpiece.

10. Singin' In The Rain (1952)

It's the 1920s, and the two biggest stars in Hollywood are switching from silent movies to talkies. 

But there's a problem.

The actress has a very annoying voice, and no-one's brave enough to tell her.

There's lots of singing and the dancing is incredible, but nobody tells you ahead of time just how funny Singin' In The Rain is.

9. There Will Be Blood (2007)

For the first 15 minutes of There Will Be Blood, there isn't a word spoken.

But we see Daniel Day-Lewis as a ruthlessly determined would-be oil tycoon, the violence within him a tightly coiled spring.

When he loses control, it is terrifying and mesmerising.

Perhaps the greatest ever performance put to film.

8. Get Out (2017)

Chris is nervous about meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time, in no small part because he is black and they are white.

What starts off as a surgical satire on race and manners takes a turn midway through, and it is gripping.

With dozens of mediocre and cliched horror movies made each year, Get Out is clever, funny, unsettling and thoroughly original.

7. Jurassic Park (1993)

It's nearly impossible to make a perfect movie, but Steven Spielberg managed two in one year.

Jurassic Park is the perfect popcorn movie – thrilling, charming, dazzling and fun.

It was also the movie that showed that CGI made anything possible – and it still looks better than movies that came out two decades later.

6. Some Like It Hot (1959)

Two men witness a mob hit, and in order to get out of town unnoticed, they join an all-female orchestra, but in disguise.

It's a familiar conceit, but no film pulls it off better than Some Like It Hot, which is hilarious the whole way through.

The final line is "Nobody's perfect".

But this movie just might be.

5. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Realising that a mental hospital is a cushier life than prison, a convict pretends to be insane in order to get himself committed.

But this chronic troublemaker clashes with the head nurse, who had every inmate in the unit wrapped around her finger.

One of three films to have won Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay at the Oscars, and it's hard to imagine any film beating it.

4. Casablanca (1942)

Rick is a cold and broken bar owner happy to take the money of desperate refugees trying to flee the Nazis, and the Germans looking for dissidents to arrest.

And in walks the woman who broke his heart, and the fugitive Resistance fighter she is in love with.

Made at the height of World War II, much of the supporting cast consisted of refugees.

As Madeleine Lebeau sang La Marseillaise in the most powerful scene of the movie, her desperate and determined tears were real.

3. No Country For Old Men (2007)

While out hunting, small-town welder Llewelyn stumbles across a mass of bodies from a drug deal gone wrong, and a briefcase full of money.

The innocent bystander finds himself chased by a cold-blooded killer tasked with getting the briefcase back – and by an out-of-his-depth sheriff desperate to stop more bloodshed.

There's few moments in film history as tense as Javier Bardem's character talking to an oblivious petrol station owner – the audience knowing he has murdered every other person he has interacted with.

2. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Over the course of four hours, we see the real-life war hero T.E. Lawrence go from being too effete for the British Army, to too savage for a band of Arabian militia.

Along the way, we get a scathing view of colonialism and masculinity in a world completely removed from women.

But even without the subtext, the film is magnificent.

You could watch it without the sound on and it would still be incredible.

1. Silence of the Lambs (1991)

It makes little sense that perhaps the scariest and most unsettling scene in the history of cinema is merely two people talking.

There's no raised voices, no threats, and they are separated by unbreakable glass.

But what makes Silence of the Lambs a masterpiece is how it can fill the audience with terror on the strength of extreme close-ups of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster.

By every conceivable metric, the movie is perfect.

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On a Christmas Day when the war in Ukraine casts a shadow over Europe, concerns over immigration divide societies, and some politicians fan anger and resentment, King Charles III called on people to focus on kindness instead of conflict.

Delivering his annual holiday address from Westminster Abbey, Charles said on Thursday the Christmas story of wise men and shepherds traveling through the night to find their saviour shows how we can find strength in the "companionship and kindness of others."

"To this day, in times of uncertainty, these ways of living are treasured by all the great faiths and provide us with deep wells of hope, of resilience in the face of adversity," Charles said.

READ MORE: White Christmas for parts of Tasmania as sun shines on Bondi

"Peace through forgiveness, simply getting to know our neighbours and by showing respect to one another, creating new friendships."

"In this, with the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong," he added.

The speech, which concluded with a Christmas carol sung by a Ukrainian choir, comes as European leaders rally support for Ukraine amid signs that US President Donald Trump is losing patience with America's traditional European allies.

At home, British politics have become increasingly bitter as Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government struggles to control unauthorised migration and bolster creaking public services.

Charles, the titular head of the Church of England, chose Westminster Abbey as the site of his Christmas Day broadcast to underscore the theme of pilgrimage that ran through the speech.

The abbey, known as the site of coronations and royal weddings, is also the focus of an annual pilgrimage honouring Edward the Confessor, an early king of England who was canonised as a saint in 1161.

"Pilgrimage is a word less used today, but it is of particular significance for our modern world, and especially at Christmas,'' he said.

"This is about journeying forward into the future, while also journeying back to remember the past and learn from its lessons."

Charles and his family made their own pilgrimage on foot earlier in the day to St. Mary Magdalene Church on the King's private Sandringham Estate, about 100 miles north of London.

Charles and Queen Camilla, along with Prince William and his wife, Kate, and their children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, and extended family walked to the church and greeted the crowds of people after the service.

Events earlier this year marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II underscored the need to learn from the past, Charles said.

While there are fewer and fewer living veterans of that conflict, we must remember the courage and sacrifice of those who fought the war and the way communities came together "in the face of such great challenge," he said.

"These are the values which have shaped our country and the Commonwealth," he said.

"As we hear of division, both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight.''

The monarch's annual holiday message is watched by millions of people in the UK and across the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 independent nations, most of which have historic ties to Britain. The pre-recorded speech is broadcast at 3pm London time (2am AEDT Friday), when many families are enjoying their traditional Christmas lunch.

The speech is one of the rare occasions when Charles, 77, is able to voice his own views and doesn't seek guidance from the government.

This year's address comes just two weeks after Charles made a deeply personal television appearance in which he said "good news" from his doctors meant that he would be able to reduce his treatment for cancer in the new year.

The King was diagnosed with a still undisclosed form of cancer in early 2024. Buckingham Palace says his treatment is now moving to a "precautionary phase" and his condition will be monitored to ensure his continued recovery.

The speech was accompanied by a video of members of the royal family, from the King to his grandchildren, George and Louis and Charlotte, meeting with the public and carrying out their royal duties.

That included scenes from the King's historic trip to the Vatican as he works to forge closer relations between the Church of England and the Catholic Church.

The event was the first time since King Henry VIII severed ties with Rome that the leaders of the two Christian churches, divided for centuries over issues that now include the ordination of female priests in the Church of England, have prayed together.

The King's message was clear. Even if some years had passed, there's always hope to start over. Peace is possible.

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A Rabbi's car displaying Hanukkah decorations has been firebombed in a Christmas morning attack in Melbourne.

The Prime Minister and Jewish leaders have slammed the arson as an act of antisemitism in St Kilda East, as police try to track down the culprits.

The vehicle displaying Hanukkah decorations was set alight about 3am today just metres away from a bedroom with a woman and three young children asleep inside.

READ MORE: Government raises threat level to popular tourist destination

The home belongs to a well-known local Rabbi, who is in New York with one of the couple's children.

He is now scrambling to get home to be with his shaken family who escaped without injury.

"The community is absolutely on edge. This is the last thing we'd want coming off the Bondi attack," Southwick said.

"Bondi Beach is now soaked with Jewish blood. Is that what we are waiting for here in Victoria?

The act was condemned by the Prime Minister and Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan.

"It's just beyond comprehension. What sort of evil ideology and thoughts at a time like this would motivate someone," Anthony Albanese said.

READ MORE: Teenager arrested after tourist attacked at St Kilda Pier

Allan said the governments are working towards a "long-term" solution to combat antisemitism.

"We have a duty to this community: to ensure their families are safe and feel safe right now, and to work long-term in a serious effort to drive antisemitism and hate out of our state," she said.

Shadow Housing Minister for Victoria, David Southwick, called for a recall of parliament.

"We are literally waking up every morning to a groundhog day of hell," he said.

"Its time to recall parliament – Jacinta Allan says she's gonna get tough on things, well it's time to show some action."

Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann from the Ark Centre wants "real tangible action".

"There's been a lot of talk but now we need it to be implemented," he said.

The resident returned briefly to pick up items for her children but won't be staying at the home out of fear of what happened.

Police and private security will continue their bolstered patrols.

Police say they have identified a suspect but no arrests have been made.

Just over a week ago a terror attack killed 15 people at a Hanukkah festival at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Anyone with any dashcam vision, CCTV footage or information should contact Crime Stoppers.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced more details for the national bravery awards to recognise civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during the Bondi Beach antisemitic terror attack that left 15 dead.

Albanese said he plans to establish a special honours system for those who placed themselves in harms way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself.

Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the December 14 attack, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram are accused of perpetrating Australia’s worst massacre since 1996.

READ MORE: Car with Hanukkah sign firebombed on Christmas morning

Speaking at a press conference after a Christmas Day lunch at Bill Crews and the Exodus Foundation with NSW Premier, Chris Minns in Sydney, Albanese described a Christmas defined by a sharp contrast between extremist violence and the “best of humanity".

“This Christmas is a different one because of the anti-terror and the terrorist attack motivated by ISIS and antisemitism,” Albanese said.

“But at the same time as we have seen the worst of humanity, we have seen the bravery and kindness and compassion … from those who rushed to danger.”

Albanese promised $10 million to the charity.

The proposed honours, revealed earlier this week, would recognise those who are nominated and recommended for bravery or meritorious awards under the existing Australian Honours and Awards system for their actions during and after the attack.

READ MORE: Trump tells 10-year-old child he made sure 'a bad Santa' is not 'infiltrating' the US

Wounded policeman visited by Sydney Roosters captain

The young policeman who was shot and blinded from the Bondi terror attack has been pictured at home, after nearly two weeks in hospital.

Probationary Constable Jack Hibbert was visited by Sydney Roosters captain James Tedesco a gifted a signed Redcliffe Dolphins jersey, NSW Police said.

Constable Hibbert was just four months into the job, when he was critically injured while patrolling the Hannukah event.

READ MORE: NSW Premier doubles down on gun reforms, says more changes are imminent

'Difficult fortnight'

Just a day after pushing through the country's toughest firearm laws, New South Wales state leader Chris Minns issued a plea for national solidarity, urging Australians to support their Jewish neighbours during what he described as a fortnight of “heartbreak and pain".

“Everybody in Australia needs to wrap their arms around them and lift them up,” Minns said at the same press conference.

“I want them to know that Australians have got their back. We’re in their corner and we’re going to help them get through this.”

Tougher gun laws

The gun reforms which passed through the New South Wales state legislature on Christmas Eve include capping individual gun ownership at four and reclassifying high-risk weapons like pump-action firearms.

The legislation also tightens licensing by reducing permit terms to two years, restricting ownership to Australian citizens, and removing the review pathway for license denials.

“Gun reform alone will not solve hatred or extremism, but we can’t fail to act on restricting access to weapons which could lead to further violence against our citizens," Minns said earlier in the week when introducing the proposed laws.

Other new laws will ban the public display of terrorist symbols and grant police expanded powers to restrict public gatherings in specific areas following terrorist incidents.

Albanese has also announced plans to tighten our already strict gun laws.

It's a very happy holiday for a lucky lottery player in the US state of Arkansas, who nabbed a $US1.8 billion ($2.7 billion) Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve (Christmas Day AEDT).

Last minute ticket sales in Wednesday's draw pushed the jackpot in America to $US1.817 billion – with a cash option of $US834.9 million ($1.2 billion) – making it the second-largest US lottery jackpot ever, Powerball said in a statement.

The winning numbers were 4, 25, 31, 52 and 59, with red Powerball 19, and a Power Play multiplier of 2.

READ MORE: Public release of Epstein records puts Maxwell under fresh scrutiny

The win ended the lottery game's three-month stretch without a top-prize winner, with noone matching all six numbers for the last 46 consecutive drawings.

The last drawing with a jackpot winner was on September 6, when players in Missouri and Texas won $US1.787 billion ($2.65 billion).

"Congratulations to the newest Powerball jackpot winner! This is truly an extraordinary, life-changing prize," Matt Strawn, Powerball Product Group Chair and Iowa Lottery CEO, said.

While there was only one big winner on Wednesday, eight tickets nabbed $US1 million ($1.5 million) to stuff their stockings. Those tickets were sold in California, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

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Nationwide, 114 tickets won a $US50,000 ($75,000) prize and 31 tickets won $US100,000 (150,000), Powerball said.

Organisers said it's the second time the Powerball jackpot has been won by a ticket sold in Arkansas. It first happened in 2010.

The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve was in 2011, Powerball said. The company added that the sweepstakes also has been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013.

And while multiple jackpots have been won either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, none of them have ever reached $US1 billion – until now.

The Powerball jackpot now resets to $US20 million ($30 million) for Saturday's drawing.

The lottery game has generated some of the largest jackpots in US history, including the record $US2.04 billion ($3.04 billion) in 2022.

Jackpot winners have two options to get paid: either through an annuitised prize plan, with one upfront payment and 29 yearly payments increasing by 5 per cent, or through one lump sum pay out.

The annuitised prize plan takes interest into account. Most lottery winners take the lump sum.

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Christmas festivities have returned to Bondi, less than two weeks after the devastating terror attack killed 15 people.

Ten players also won the Second Division and will receive more than $27,000 each.

Days after Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to immediately free her from a 20-year prison sentence, the public release of grand jury transcripts from her sex trafficking case returned the spotlight to victims whose allegations helped land her behind bars.

The disclosure of the transcripts as part of the Justice Department’s ongoing release of its investigative files on Maxwell and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exposed how an FBI agent told grand jurors about Maxwell's critical role in Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse of girls and young women.

Maxwell, a British socialite and publishing heir, was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 after four women told a federal jury in New York City about how she and Epstein abused them in the 1990s and early 2000s.

READ MORE: DOJ needs a "few more weeks" to release Epstein files after millions more found

Epstein never went to trial.

He was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges and killed himself a month later in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail.

Two weeks ago, as the Justice Department prepared to begin releasing what are commonly known as the Epstein files, Maxwell filed a habeas petition, asking a federal judge to free her on grounds that “substantial new evidence” has emerged proving that constitutional violations spoiled her trial.

Maxwell claimed exonerating information was withheld and that witnesses lied in their testimony.

READ MORE: Trump bemoans destroyed reputations from Epstein files

She filed the petition on her own, without the assistance of a lawyer.

This week, the judge, Paul A. Engelmayer, scolded Maxwell for failing to remove victim names and other identifying information from her court papers.

He said future filings must be kept sealed and out of public view until they have been reviewed and redacted to protect victims' identities.

READ MORE: Car with Hanukkah sign firebombed on Christmas morning

Victims fear Maxwell will be pardoned

Epstein accuser Danielle Bensky said the release of records has only sharpened the focus on Maxwell’s crimes among their victims.

Bensky said she's been involved in daily discussions with about two dozen other victims that make clear Maxwell “is a criminal who was 1,000 per cent engaged in sexual acts."

“I’ve heard things that would make your blood curdle. I just had a conversation with a survivor last night who said she was the puppeteer,” Bensky said.

Bensky said she was sexually abused by Epstein two decades ago. She said she was never personally abused by Maxwell.

READ MORE: Epstein letter is fake, Trump administration claims

Delayed and heavily redacted files

The transcripts of grand jury proceedings that resulted in Maxwell's indictment were released this week in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law enacted last month after months of public and political pressure.

The Justice Department has been periodically posting records after acknowledging it would miss last Friday’s congressionally mandated deadline to release all records.

It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring victims’ names and other identifying information.

On Wednesday, the department said it may need a “few more weeks” to release the full trove after suddenly discovering more than a million potentially relevant documents.

It was a stunning development after department officials suggested months ago that they'd already accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.

Some of the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury records were initially released with heavy redactions — A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY” — was entirely blacked out. Updated versions were posted over the weekend.

READ MORE: Andrew pictured lying on laps in latest Epstein release

FBI agent testifies Maxwell manipulated young girl

An FBI agent’s grand jury testimony, describing interviews conducted with Epstein victims, foreshadowed trial testimony a year later from four women who described Maxwell's role in their sexual abuse from 1994 to 2004.

The agent told of a woman who described meeting Maxwell and Epstein as a 14-year-old attending a Michigan summer arts camp in 1994.

Flight logs showed Epstein and Maxwell went to the school sponsoring the camp because Epstein was a donor.

According to the agent, whose name was redacted from the transcript, the girl had a chance encounter with Epstein and Maxwell one day.

After learning that the girl was from Palm Beach, Florida, Epstein mentioned that he sometimes gave scholarships to students and they requested her phone number, the agent said.

Once home, the girl visited Epstein's estate with her mother for tea and the mother was impressed when Epstein said he provided scholarships, enough so that the mother said Epstein was like a “godfather,” the agent said.

The agent said the girl began regularly going to the estate as Epstein and Maxwell “groomed” her with gifts and trips to the movies, and Epstein began paying for voice lessons and giving her money that he said she should give to her struggling mother.

The agent said the girl thought her relationship with Epstein and Maxwell was strange, “but Maxwell normalised it for her. She was like a cool, older sister and made comments like, ‘This is what grownups do.’”

Eventually, the agent testified, the girl saw Maxwell topless at the pool.

After she revealed that she hoped to be an actor and a model, Epstein told her he was best friends with the owner of Victoria's Secret and that she'll have to learn to be comfortable in her underwear and not be a prude, the agent said.

Then, the agent said, the girl asked Epstein what he meant by that and the financier pulled her into his lap and masturbated.

After that, the agent added, the girl's encounters with Epstein began to include sexual contact, particularly in his massage room.

Maxwell was sometimes there with other girls, the agent said. One of the girls would begin massaging Epstein and Maxwell would tease the girls, the agent said.

“She’d grab the girl’s breasts, and she would direct the girls on what to do,” the agent said, relaying the girl’s account.

Maxwell's attitude during the encounters was ”very casual; she acted like this was normal," the agent said.

The released testimony appeared to reflect the testimony at Maxwell's 2021 trial by a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.”

At trial, Jane said Maxwell also participated in group sessions between multiple females and Epstein that usually began with Epstein or Maxwell leading them all into a bedroom or a massage room at the Palm Beach residence.

MetService warns driving conditions may become dangerous in Dunedin and Clutha.