X opens with a bang, and by ‘bang’ I mean Tupperware party, and by ‘Tupperware party’ I mean women-only shindig where the featured entertainment is a young guy with a shaved ball sack who screws in front of them and whose finishing move is a cocky spritz onto a call girl’s stomach. Don’t act like you’ve never been to one of those parties. Holly (Viva Bianca) is professional escort in Sydney, Australia looking to get out of the business after one last night on her back. Shay (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) is new to the streets, brand new in fact, and is starting her very first evening as a sex toy for hire. They meet by chance when Holly finds herself in need of a partner for her final gig. The pair proceed to party with a coked-up, low level criminal, but things turn from sexy to scary when the man’s business partner arrives and turns the john’s head into a bowling ball. The girls take off running with the killer in pursuit, and what should have been a night of sex, drugs, and Vegemite instead becomes a desperate bid for survival. This is a dark and violent reminder that no one, at no time, should ever say aloud that they’re going to retire after “one last job.” It’s just not going to work out the way you think people.

J awakens one day to find his mother dead from a heroin overdose. He waits, calmly, while the ambulance attendants take her away, and then he calls the only other family he has. His grandmother, Janine (aka Smurf), picks him up and welcomes him into her home. J soon discovers why his mother tried to keep him away from this extended family… his three uncles along with a friend are involved deep in Melbourne’s criminal underworld including drug dealing, bank robbery, and possibly murder. J’s arrival coincides with a stepped-up police investigation into the family’s activities, and when a seemingly concerned detective singles out J as a possible witness the teen realizes survival of the fittest is no game… it’s a way of life. And death. Animal Kingdom is writer/director David Michod’s debut, and it’s this year’s answer to The Hurt Locker when it comes to pure, unrelenting tension. J is our window into not only the personal realm of one crooked family but also of the dangerous and menacing world outside. His Melbourne streets are the urban equivalent of the African Veldt where everyone is prey until they figure out the rules of nature and their place in it. Michod presents J’s indoctrination into this landscape as an uncertain path between a family determined to maintain their lifestyles at any cost and a police department hell-bent on taking them down by any means necessary. It’s as smart and assured of a film debut as anyone could have hoped, and [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

I remain cautiously optimistic about Animal Kingdom, the blessed child of Cannes that’s gotten intensely high praise. It’s the story of a young man caught between a crime family and the long helpful arm of the law that’s intending to get him out before he’s pulled back in. Unfortunately for it, its premise, praise and promise of violent drama make it sound far too much like The Square which turned out to be more boring than riveting. Joel Edgerton’s involvement here doesn’t help the cause either.

The sixth match up of Round One finds an Oscar-winner and a celebrated Western from down under. It proves to be a tough pairing, and it’s almost impossible to predict whether the critically-acclaimed Lives of Others will pull out a win against the popularly-loved Proposition.

The screenwriter of Moulin Rouge! and the directors of Daybreakers carry on the Henson torch.

Once again it’s time for After Dark Horrorfest, and just like last year Robert Fure refused to watch any of the releases from foreign lands. You’d think he would have grown or matured some in twelve months, but no, he still believes that foreign horror is inferior to our own domestic terrors.

An import from Australia is hitting theaters soon, but will American audiences care about what goes on down under?

A new trailer for the Australian film Tomorrow: When The War Began has appeared online, and it’s basically Red Dawn relocated to the outback. The film is based on the first in a bestselling series of novels by John Marsden that follow the adventures of a group of young adults dealing with a military invasion of Australia.

Road trip movies are fairly common and often mundane, but there’s a subset within the genre that has a greater appeal to someone like me… and that’s road trips gone bad.

Prisoners, escapes, tasmanian devils (of the human variety), murder, vegetation, and flesh-eating!

Foreign Objects travels the world of international cinema each week to look for films worth visiting. So renew your passport, get your shots, and brush up on the local age of legal consent, this week we’re heading to… Australia!

The Coroner has temporarily left the building.  Old Sawbones Fure took one look at the 8 Films To Die For in this year’s After Dark Horrorfest and flew into an immediate rage.  He marched right in to Executive Editor Neil Miller’s office (bypassing a proper check-in with the secretary, Cole Abiaus) and threw three of the titles onto the desk.  “These are foreign films,” he snarled, “You know I don’t watch movies when I can’t understand the language!”  Long story short, Miller and Abiaus assuaged Fure’s anger with martinis and a massage (respectively) and then assigned the British, Australian, and Korean films to yours truly. Dying Breed is the latest in a long string of Australian thrillers illustrating the simple truth that rural Australians want to kill you.  Nina and Matt are heading into the wilds of Tasmania (an island of the south-eastern coast of Australia) to search for evidence of living Tasmanian tigers.  The quest is a personal one for Nina as her sister apparently went mad and died eight years prior while on a similar journey.  Matt convinces his friend Jack to join them, and Jack brings along his current girlfriend, Rebecca.  Running parallel to the story about extinct Tasmanian tigers is the legend of The Pieman, Alexander Pearce.  He was a convicted cannibal who escaped into the Tasmanian wilds in the early 1800′s.  The modern-day quartet is searching for living relatives of the supposedly extinct tigers, but it may be The Pieman’s descendants that find them first… [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

News is coming down the wire that the long-gestating production of Green Lantern, the DC Comics property that is next up for Warner Bros., is finally setting up shop down under.

Does penis violence make you queasy? And I don’t mean violence committed by penises, but violence committed against them. Punches, drill bits spinning Candiru-style up the urethra, or tri-hooked fishing lures pierced through a guy’s dongle then yanked… if so, then you just may want to skip the new Australian film, The Horseman.

Kevin and Neil watch Watchmen and give their opinions about the most anticipated movie of 2009. Joining them in the Magical Virtual Studio in the Sky is Cole Abaius, FSR’s resident Watchmen aficionado.

Brian Gibson loves to buy DVDs. Come with him on his weekly journey into the depths of credit card debt as he tells you what to buy, rent and avoid.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the names of the 7 finalist in the Visual Effects category.

The Academy has announced its 15 finalists for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, and we know one film that can be eliminated right off the bat… Here’s a hint: it stars Keanu Reeves.

Yet another easy weekend for those predicting the first place finisher at the box office. Everyone is saying The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 remake) is going to win. The only question is by how much.

The order of finish this weekend at the box office looked very much like last weekend at the box office, with Four Christmases winning again with $18 million.