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Average User Score: 7 (20 sources)

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Setsuka13

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I had expectations and intentions when going into this movie and I really believe that those expectations were the only thing that drug the movie down for me. I expected it to be an artistic, strange, beautiful, romantic spectacle of a film, much...
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I had expectations and intentions when going into this movie and I really believe that those expectations were the only thing that drug the movie down for me. I expected it to be an artistic, strange, beautiful, romantic spectacle of a film, much like Luhrman's other films. (Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.) Well it was all of those things. They just weren't portrayed the way I was expecting. I expected this to be a choreographed, musically beautiful romantic tale set in Australia. Well it's not a musical. It's just a movie. A great one though! It's very epic and large and it has a great story. It's just not a sweep you off your feet and stay with you forever epic like I was expecting. Still though, if you're a fan of his other work and you're someone who appreciates large, epically beautiful movies with high aspirations and you have a love for Australia with just a touch of WWII history and a large slab of romance to top it all off, Australia is for you.

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Posted jul 8, 2009 11:00 am pt

holabendez

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It is very clear Australia is not quite the movie it wishes it was. Being in New Zealand I completely missed all the hype for the movie, where it was greeted with general indifference. After sitting through it, that indifference is richly...
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It is very clear Australia is not quite the movie it wishes it was. Being in New Zealand I completely missed all the hype for the movie, where it was greeted with general indifference. After sitting through it, that indifference is richly deserved. It is not a bad movie, but it isn't a grand sweeping epic that is an instant classic.

I feel like you need to be an Australian to really like this film - and even then it's no guarantee.

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Posted jun 10, 2009 4:31 pm pt

• [+] TV Guide
  
  88
  Australia goes for the absolute limit in terms of scope. And let's not be coy -- size may not matter, but it still helps.

  by Cammila Albertson | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Hollywood Reporter
  
  80
  Defies all but the most cynical not to get carried away by the force of its grandiose imagery and storytelling.

  by Megan Lehmann | Read Full Review »
• [+] Time
  
  80
  There is some elemental human desire -- lately largely denied at the cinema -- to see pretty people in handsome landscapes assuaging our need for epic romance. On that level, Australia delivers with real panache.

  by Richard Schickel | Read Full Review »
• [+] Washington Post
  
  80
  A wildly ambitious, luridly indulgent spectacle of romance, action, melodrama and historic revisionism, Australia is windy, overblown, utterly preposterous and insanely entertaining.

  by Ann Hornaday | Read Full Review »
• [+] Newsweek
  
  80
  Australia is a shameless--and shamelessly entertaining--pastiche. It works because Luhrmann, a true believer in movie-movie magic, stamps it all with the force of his own extravagant, generous personality.

  by David Ansen | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  75
  It is exuberantly old-fashioned, and I mean that as a compliment.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] Variety
  
  70
  Deliberately anachronistic in its heightened style of romance, villainy and destiny, the epic lays an Aussie accent on colorful motifs drawn from Hollywood Westerns, war films, love stories and socially conscious dramas. Some of it plays, some doesn't, and it is long.

  by Todd McCarthy | Read Full Review »
• [+] Wall Street Journal
  
  70
  [Luhrmann's] movie is all over the map. But what a gorgeous map it is. The too-muchness, like the too-longness, befits the Northern Territory's vastness. In its heart of hearts Australia is an old-fashioned Western -- a Northern, if you will -- and all the more enjoyable for it.

  by Joe Morgenstern | Read Full Review »
• [+] Film Threat
  
  70
  With measured visual flash, Luhrmann highlights the delightful presence of his two stars and realizes an unlikely feelgood film, in spite of its grave matters.

  by Matthew Sorrento | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  70
  If you are willing to take the plunge and view things through Luhrmann's prism, "Australia" does deliver the classic dramatic and romantic satisfactions its ambitious advertising campaign promises.

  by Kenneth Turan | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  70
  A testament to movie love at its most devout, cinematic spectacle at its most extreme, and kitsch as an act of aesthetic communion.

  by Manohla Dargis | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  67
  Jackman, who stepped in after a cranky Russell Crowe walked away in a salary dispute, strikes just the right chord as a scruffy romantic hero.

  by William Arnold | Read Full Review »
• [+] ReelViews
  
  63
  It's an epic pretender, not an epic contender.

  by James Berardinelli | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  63
  Luhrmann is working a tricky game: He's trying to come to terms with modern Australia's racist legacy while telling a ripping yarn while also making fun of ripping yarns - but not too much.

  by Ty Burr | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Post
  
  63
  Baz Luhrmann's Australia has it all - unfortunately. With four major story lines and more endings than "The Return of the King," this ambitious 165-minute epic is the movie equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

  by Lou Lumenick | Read Full Review »