This Week in Australian Cinemas

I just finished an assignment (comparing Mulholland Drive and Paris, Texas in terms of dialogue, character development and point of view, lol). So it's time for the every-Thursday feature where I show you how rediculous Australian distributers are! To be honest though, we're not terribly behind the ball this week. We get one movie that came out last week in the states, one from February, two that came out at Christmas and an Aussie feature. So WAY TO GO DISTRIBUTERS! You're only, what? 4 and a half months behind in some cases. Swell. Unfortunately for us none of them look good apart from some macabre stupifying death mongering, and even that...


Yes, even the cast of Final Destination 3 are scared of American Dreamz!

Final Destination 3 - Directed by James Wong
Confession - I LOVE Final Destination 2. It ditched all sensibilities and seriousness of the first one (also a wonderfully kooky movie) and just went for balls-to-the-wall gruesome hilarity, and it succeeded in spades. The scene on the highway in FD2 is classic, seriously! And so now we have a third in the oddly titled series (I won't go into how it can the third, yet still final destination even if the first was also meant to be the final one) directed by the man who inbetween directing the first and third installments of this franchise made the execrable The One (I rated it F). I won't be seeing this movie in the cinema, but like the other two I will see it on DVD and most likely enjoy it. It's sorta funny watching annoying stock characters die in truly inventive ways. Until then I can go watch the highway scene on Final Destination 2 on DVD.

American Dreamz - Directed by Paul Weitz
Ummm... I was moderately interested by this movie (it came in at around #80 on my 2006 look) but since seeing the material I can't say I became enthused. Mandy Moore looks a treat as always ("i'd rather stick toothpicks in my eyes than loose" (or whatever the direct quote is) is funny) but the rest..? Yeah, we know Dubya is an idiot, we know Idol competitions are fixed. Blah blah. It seems like Paul Weitz trying to be an adult (like About a Boy) and a teenager (like American Pie) and failing miserable. How odd that out of three films, two have "American" in the title?

The White Countess - Directed by James Ivory
I'd be more excited about this if had gotten some awards attention. Add to that a critical mauling by some (including David Stratton) and I can't say I'm excited at all. The techs looks good but that's about it. "Dull as Dishwater" comes to mind.

Lost and Found - Directed by David Blake
This is an ultra-low-budget Aussie feature from first time writer-director-producer-(yes)distributer David Blake. It's about a man who starts have visions of himself committing excessively violent acts towards other people. Apparently it's not very good (the budget restrictions are obvious) but Brett Climo is good in the lead. Well done to Blake for being able to get this into several high-end cinemas but much like last year's The Magician I don't see this generating anything except maybe a small tiny profit on DVD. Shame really cause it's got Rebecca Gibney in it, who's awesome. But why is FRANKIE J HOLDEN here? Like... what?