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A vibrant, if long, trip Down Under

By CHRISTY LEMIRE Associated Press

Published: Nov 26, 2008

And yet it can be a visually wondrous journey, one with striking visuals that will take your breath away again and again. No one ever doubted the director's capabilities as an inventive aesthetic stylist - this is the man, after all, who dared to set the balcony scene in a swimming pool in his revisionist "Romeo + Juliet," and who turned "Moulin Rouge!" into a dizzying dance of light and color, complete with Elton John and Nirvana songs.

Here, he focuses his considerable talents on a more traditional genre: the old-fashioned, wartime romance. The result is grandiose and dazzling, repetitive and predictable.

Set in pre-World War II, "Australia" stars Nicole Kidman as the British aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley, who travels to the Northern Territory ranch of Faraway Downs to confront the absent husband she suspects of philandering. The prim Lady Ashley is appalled by the rough-and-tumble life she finds there and Kidman plays her as more than a little awkward, which is good for some laughs, but she also gives the character some sweetness and vulnerability.

She immediately clashes with the roguishly charming Drover (Hugh Jackman in full-on Sexiest-Man-Alive mode), who works on the ranch. Luhrmann, who wrote the script with Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood and Richard Flanagan, is clearly aiming to replicate the kind of chemistry Bogart and Hepburn enjoyed in "The African Queen," with their antagonistically flirty banter. The burgeoning relationship infuses the early part of "Australia" with a goofy, cartoonish energy that eventually gives way to unabashed sentimentality. More

Nov 26, 2008

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Nov 26, 2008

• Movie added value

Nov 26, 2008

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Nov 20, 2008

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Nov 20, 2008

• 'Bolt' a familiar but sweet dog tale

It's sweet and eager to please but, sadly, nothing terribly special: Girl finds dog, girl loses dog, girl gets dog back. You've seen this sort of thing countless times before, namely in any movie with the word "Lassie" in the title.

Nov 20, 2008

• 'Boy in Striped Pajamas' needlessly overwhelms

That lad is the son of a Nazi commandant, and he befriends a Jewish boy his age who is being held in the concentration camp his father oversees. Sounds mawkish, but the relationship between wide-eyed Bruno (Asa Butterfield) and sad-faced Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) is the most effective part of writer-director Mark Herman's needlessly overpowering film, based on John Boyne's novel.

Nov 20, 2008

• Hollywood goes to the dogs

Nov 13, 2008

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Nov 13, 2008

• Bad guys

Nov 13, 2008

• Bland. James Bland.

The car metaphor is appropriate: "Quantum of Solace" starts out with a thrilling chase through the winding, mountain roads of northern Italy that's one of the film's few highlights. But this is a very slight Bond movie, and it feels especially so compared to "Casino Royale," easily one of the best of the long-running series.

Nov 06, 2008

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Nov 06, 2008

• An Animated Mild Kingdom

Instead, they maroon them on the African mainland for what amounts to more of the same: a shrill retread of the 2005 animated hit "Madagascar."

Nov 06, 2008

• Anne Hathaway sizzles in a dreary 'Wedding'

Demme's detours into documentaries ("Neil Young: Heart of Gold," "Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains") actually serve him well as he crafts a loose, docudrama style that infuses great authenticity into this anguished reunion tale of family and friends.

Nov 06, 2008

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