Australia

I saw AUSTRALIA. Some people didn't like it, and it underperformed in the domestic box office, but I thought it was fine.

True story: I was visiting my family in Arizona, and we trooped out to the theater to catch DARK KNIGHT (which was my third viewing). There was a HUGE line in front of the ticket-taker guy. It became apparent via overheard conversation that all of those people weren't there for DARK KNIGHT, they'd lined up for AUSTRALIA. Huh.

I wish I'd seen it on the big screen - it's a big, sweeping historical epic of a film. I like epics... I think they're expressions of filmmaking at its most ambitious. I'm a fan of Baz Luhrman. Though it took me several attempts to get all the way through MOULIN ROUGE, I've since come to really like that movie. Act one of AUSTRALIA is the most "Baz." As it drifts into cattle drivin' and war fightin', it's more about incident and less about personality. Still, it's fun.

It's a looong movie, long enough that I was a bit glad when the credits rolled. You could say that's the nature of epics - this isn't the genre for 85-minute features.

David Wenham plays the main antagonist. It was interesting seeing him as a villain. I think the guy's really talented... he was great as Faramir in LOTR.

Like most epics, it plays kinda old fashioned. It felt like this movie could've been made in the '50s, with little more than the names of the stars changing. This works for the movie... I think Nicole Kidman has the classic Hollywood thing going on, so the casting fits. She seems to get more attractive as time goes on, as if she were growing into her looks. Plus, she's funny.

Long/short - I didn't love AUSTRALIA, but I liked it a lot more than it seems most people did. Watching this movie, it felt like Baz had pulled his Bazness back so it'd appeal to a broader audience. I prefer Baz when he's batshit insane.