We hate to say we told you so, but Australia—Baz Luhrmann's sweepy weepy about his homeland in the 1940's—is not doing so well at the ol' box office. Nikki Finke reports that it's basically tanking, ceding top honors to such unambitious, unartsy fare as the darkening Twilight and this weekend's most likely top dog (and we mean dog), Four Christmases.
That Reese Witherspoon/Vince Vaughn laff riot will likely haul in some $47 million over the 5-day holiday weekend, while the $129 million-budgeted Australia will likely drum up a lowly $18 million, having earned a paltry $2.265 million on its opening day (Wednesday). And, perhaps more embarrassingly, word has it that the slapdash new James Bond film is outpacing Australia... in Australia. Which is grim! Studio Fox heralds Luhrmann's big overseas appeal, naturally (foreigners love weird melodramatic shit!), but this picture had high American Oscar hopes and now... sigh. They appear to have fizzled in just three days. Bad news for Fox, bad news for Jackman, and really bad news for Kidman, who desperately needed a hit.
And, honestly? We're kinda disappointed too. We had high hopes.
When you're done opening presents (slippers, again?) and eating your goose (not much meat, mostly fat) what will you do on Christmas? If you're like the rest of us gurgling popcorn stuffers, you'll go see one of the big ticket, Oscar-scented movies that are dancing on the screens down at your local multiplex. Australia, the Baz Luhrmann epic, will have been out for a month at that point, and its expensive glossy brother in arms, the life-in-reverse special effects vehicle The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, will have just come out that day. You'll spend a bundle on tickets and parking and snacks, and will it have been worth it? And, actually, 
You'll recall that The Box owner Simon Hammerstein was 
Before the Criterion Collection came along, the idea of releasing a film in widescreen format or with a commentary track was silly. Consumers didn't want that extra crap! Now every film eventually gets an overdone production full of extras, and Criterion is having a harder time carving out a niche in the marketplace for their pricey, tricked-out releases. We say that because the company is offering a 40 percent off sale (!) for three more days. Details, and whether the company can survive the economic downturn, after the jump.
There are aspects of the Criterion Collection that totally puzzle me, like why they take money from Jerry Bruckheimer and why Quentin Tarantino's brilliance offends their better senses, but who are we kidding? If I didn't have a rare Criterion Collection edition of Paolo Pasolini's Salo, I wouldn't be able to shock visitors to my apartment with insane sex and torture under the guise of art.
In the interim, it's 40 percent off all releases, and there was never a better time to snatch up the 
The early returns on Zack and Miri Make A Porno aren't what Harvey Weinstein was hoping for. After 
Simon Hammerstein, co-owner of downtown "burlesque" slum The Box—which pretty much everyone in the 
Poor Simon Hammerstein. First, the burlesque club owner's employee abusing-and-sexing ways 
The Box is one of the most interesting and decadent spectacles in downtown nightlife. Owned by Simon Hammerstein, descendant of the theater scion, the jewel-box theater hosts a variety of unique and sexually-charged acts nightly. Open since 2006, it's still a pretty hot ticket—“If you’re good enough to make it in, you’ll make it in," Box partner Cordell Lochin 
The fetish-burlesque cabaret duo the Porcelain Twinz have been performing their hot-twin act for years. They were mentioned in Neil Strauss's pickup-artist book The Game: "You know what's funny," they told the author when he tried to hit on them, "We get all our physicality out on stage... we're probably more distant than most sisters."
