This Week In Australian Cinemas (January 7, 2010)

With Christmas and New Year’s cheer well and truly drying up, it’s back to work here at WATCH OUT FOR | MOVIES. That means we, once again, are ripping and raring to go as we give you a round-up of the newest flicks hitting cinemas this week.

The thing is, it’s surprisingly quiet in the earliest parts of 2010. With only one major release for both January 1 and January 7, thanks in large part to the enormous roll-out of flicks on Boxing Day that are still chewing up screens across the country.

For those interested, here is the Australian Box Office chart currently doing the rounds:

1. AVATAR (Total Box Office : $ 38.7 Million)
2. SHERLOCK HOLMES (Total Box Office : $8.2 Million)
3. ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS : THE SQUEAKUEL (Total Box Office : $7.9 Million)
4. OLD DOGS (Total Box Office : $2.8 Million)
5. DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? (Total Box Office : $2.5 Million)

We know you don’t have time to trawl through the newspapers – so WATCH OUT FOR | MOVIES is happy to do all the leg work for you, giving you the Ins and Outs, the Hits and Misses of Movies hitting Australian screens for the week of January 1st and January 7th 2010.

The Princess and the Frog

Starring : Terrence Howard & Oprah Winfrey. Director : Ron Clements & John Musker

Walt Disney Animation Studios serves up a joyous gumbo of adventurous storytelling, captivating characters, offbeat comedy and memorable music in the all-new feature The Princess and the Frog, an animated comedy set in the great city of New Orleans.

It’s a welcome return to traditional animation, with some very cool New Orleans tunes, but sadly it doesn’t scream “Disney Classic” as much as it does “Really Enjoyable Straight-To-DVD Release”. [Read The Full Review]

It’s Complicated

Starring : Meryl Streep & Steve Martin. Director : Nancy Meyers

Writer/Director Nancy Meyers directs Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in It’s Complicated, a comedy about love, divorce and everything in between.

Is it the greatest rom-com ever? Of course not. But my mum would have howled with laughter and loved ab-so-lutely every minute of it, and so will yours. And that’s good enough for me.. [Read The Full Review]

WATCH OUT FOR | HIT PICK

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Starring : George Clooney & Meryl Streep. Director : Wes Anderson

Angry farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with a sly fox, look to get rid of their opponent and his family.

By no means Wes Anderson’s best work (but even an average Wes Anderson film is still miles ahead of the field), however it is wonderfully inventive and fresh – and most importantly – Fantastic Mr Fox is cuss-ing good fun. [Read The Full Review]