This Week in Australian Cinemas

If ever I needed a release schedule to prove how fucked up Australian distributers are, it's this week. We get two Australian releases clashing, three movies that were out in the US months and MONTHS ago (before Summer y'all) and one movie that is so direct-to-video that it hurts and doesn't even appear to have a US release date. Thankfully, at least two and a half of the movies look good!

United 93, 2006, dir. Greengrass
I want to see this movie, but I am not exactly anticipating it. It definitely looks like a better film than World Trade Center (which was released last week in America), which I think looks good but a bit on the soft side (if a topic such as 9/11 can be seen as "soft"). This movie just looks to be so well-made and is an interesting and different take on the story. I don't know whether I'll see this by myself or with friends. It's not exactly a popcorn + drink movie.

Kenny, 2006, dir. Jacobson
A new Australian mockumentary about, wait for it, a portable toilet consultant. Interesting. It apparently is actually quite great, with Leight Paatsch saying it was the best Aussie comedy since The Castle and gave it 4.5/5, which is pretty good praise no matter how you look at it. But then Paatsch also gave 2:37 (below) 1 star so I dunno. I will be seeing it at the AFI Festival of Film.

Curious George, 2006, dir. O'Collaghan
See this is weird. I can understand withholding kids movies until the school holidays because that makes sense (more people with more time to see them), but why withhold a movie's release from February (when it was released in America) all the way until August just to release it any old week like this. It's not school holidays and there is Hoodwinked doing fairly good business for the kids. It makes no sense I had distributers. They're the devil.

2:37, 2006, dir. Thalluri
This movie is apparently a lot like Elephant, but Australia. It involves several people at an Australian high school, one of who will commit suicide quite graphically by the end of the movie. It's rated R18+ for adult themes, which include rape, incest, suicide and all that stuff. Simon over at Straight to Video has a very detailed review of the film, which he liked a lot. I'll be seeing this too at the AFIFoF, strangely, on the same night as Kenny

Breakfast on Pluto, 2005, dir. Jordan
Yeah... I don't understand either.

Chaos, 2006, dir. Giglio
This is a oddity. Some low-grade action thriller starring Jason Strathom, Wesley Snipes and Ryan Phillippe. It doesn't have a US release date, and down here it's gotten zero advertising (except for an ad in the newspaper) and just looks so freakin' bad. My god. This looks even worse than that ridiculous looking Demi Moore horror movie from a few weeks back.

BOX OFFICE
1. Miami Vice (1)
2. You, Me & Dupree (3)
3. Hoodwinked (2)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (6)
5. The Lake House (3)
6. Jindabyne (4)
7. The Sentinal (2)
8. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (1)
9. Confetti (2)
10. Ten Canoes (7)

Miami Vice opens to #1 with identical numbers to the US (comparatively, of course) but this will disappear quick smart, also like it did in the US. You, Me & Dupree is somehow getting people into the Cinema! Strange I know, but this movie is a big hit in Australia. That's what getting the stars down here will do. Hoodwinked holds at #3 and continues it's good takings. It's not Cars or Over the Hedge but it sure is a nice little earner.

Pirates is still around, as is (somehow) The Lake House. Maybe the people who have already seen The Lake House have been telling people how extremely bad it is and they felt they needed to see it for themselves? God, I hope not. Jindabyne crosses the $3mil mark so YAY for that. And people desert 24: The Movie The Sentinal like you would expect.

Making a big debut at #8 is the Bollywood film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. It's only on 11 screens but made an average of $21,365 which is incredibly high. Bollywood films have been going greatguns this year with a few making it into the Top 10, which is rare for such niche films. Confetti, the British wedding mockumentary, moves up to #9 (it debuted at #10 last week) but falls 37%. It'll make a bit over half a mil, which is good for this non-advertised movie. And lastly, moving back into the top 10 is the ace Ten Canoes.

Outside of the top 10, Footy Legends continues to flop majorly. Ouch on that one. Brick debuts to a fair $83,000 on 25 screens and 49 Up continues to do great at 11 arthouses. Kenny debuts in preview screenings with awful results, but Ten Canoes didn't exactly have the best preview screenings weekend and that's going great now. We'll see how that develops.