Australia - The Movie

The day before exiting Vegas with a few hours to kill that wasn't at a slot machine or gaming table, I headed to the nearest cinaplex to have a look at Baz Luhrmann's Australia starring the worlds sexiest man, Hugh Jackman and Australia's leading lady of the silver screen, Nicole Kidman.

I'd heard plenty about the movie over here in the media about how amazing the flick was and how it harked back to the golden age of cinema where movies where epic in scale rather than visual effects (or in Michael Bay's case big Bangs) Dammit, Oprah gave it the biggest 'thumbs up' ever which while it will probably ensure a massive box office gave me shivers when sitting down to watch it.

The story itself is indeed epic and does hark back to the age old romantic period drama of yester year. It folows the formula of woman meets man, man hates woman, woman hates man, tragedy brings man and woman together .... you know how it rolls.

With this formula in place the story wraps itself around the impending bombing of Darwin, which oddly enough, was treated as the fictional pat of the movie by one lot of American movie goers as they walked out ("it was good, but did they make up that whole bombing thing just for the movie?")

Overall, it wasn't as stiff as I thought it would be and blended a good mix of comedy, romance, myth and fact into about 2 and three quarters hours of cinema. The stroy rolled nicely and while a little predictable in parts, still kept you watching intently.

Kidman was good as was Jackman, but it was the kid who was probably the real star of the show. A little cliche'd as the "half cast" but an essential ingrediant that held the whole story thread together. It might be me, but I don't know if the aboriginal population will be overly happy to watch it, because it does tread awefully close to racial lines ... but as long as the wowsers realise its just a movie that is actualy trying to bring some recognition to the "stolen generation" they should be fine.

Its grand, cheesy but amazing theatre. A must watch on the big screen as the cinematography is brilliant.

7 outta 10