Australia, the movie.

[leelastarsky]

 

Just got round to watching the movie, "Australia."  What a bizarre, confused movie.  I feel like I watched 2 different films.  The first half was so camp it was like a pantomime!  Can I just say here, that using Waltzing Matilda to give a film (or TV show) that 'Aussie' feel sucks.  I hate it.  And we not only got that but Rolf Harris's good ol' wobble board!  Which didn't irk me as much as Waltzing Matilda, cos I'd decided the film was tongue-in-cheek by that stage.  Which is fine and dandy.  Harking back to the campy old westerns is fine, and I adjusted my expectations accordingly. But then there was the whole story about the Aboriginal kid and the Stolen Generations, which wasn't funny at all. And the second half was sort of good.  But I am left bewildered what I thought of it.

Hugh Jackman was lovely as always.  His hairy chest  in a few scenes was very nice eye candy indeed! 

I now have 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' stuck in my head.  :~j

And my eyes are now rolling around in their sockets indipendantly, so I am off to bed.  Ni-ni!

Comments

[chanel19.livejournal.com]

I thought the trailer looked so bad, I didn't even bother with it in the theater. Thanks to this I don't have to bother with it on DVD either.

[leelastarsky.livejournal.com]

I thought it looked ridiculous in the trailer too, but then I kept hearing reports that it was actually quite good, despite the panning it got from the critics. :~P Parts of it were good...BUT...

[mrsquizzical.livejournal.com]

oh i'm so glad to read this. lol. i haven't bothered with it. i just feel like i'm going to be rolling my eyes so much. but i feel badly or not supporting our hugh, and our bazz. and i really like and respect nicole, but find her acting so very ordinary.

so i'm not going to feel guilty any more. maybe sometime on dvd or if it's on the telly....

[leelastarsky.livejournal.com]

I have adored every other Baz movie, so I really wanted to like this.

I also really used to like Nicole as an actress, but her acting in this was so over the top...I really thought it was supposed to be campy. Plus, I'm sorry, but her face annoys the hell out of me now - it doesn't move! Very disappointing. They really should ban actresses from using teh botox. How can you act without facial muscles?? It really stood out because Hugh's face was SO expressive. The silly lips annoy me too. She was beautiful once. *sigh*

The kid who played Nullah was fantastic. Really good. He and Hugh Jackman were the only ones who weren't outrageously caricatured characters.

And it had just about every typical Aussie actor in it you could imagine! Jack Thomson, Brian Brown, David Wenham (looking like Indiana Jones!), and a whole lot more, all overacting so much I thought it had to be deliberate!

[mrsquizzical.livejournal.com]

was it a stylistic thing, you think? to make it sort of stylised and like that era's theatre? *grasps for straws*

i adore baz. i'm sorry that this wasn't so great.

oh i just noticed your icon. heee!

[moonshape.livejournal.com]

God, the scene where he's soaping himself and then takes the bucket (?) of water and lifts it over his head! OMG I died there!

[leelastarsky.livejournal.com]

But it happened right at the start of the film! I was shocked! I totally expected some decent UST before it!

[enomis57.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I enjoyed it second time around much more.

Brandon Walters was brilliant, though!

[leelastarsky.livejournal.com]

I agree, he was. He was probably my favourite part of the whole thing!

the movie...

[(Anonymous)]

I thought it was supposed to be a caricature of stereotypes at the beginning anyway beign a Baz movie, and then as the movie went on the characters softened and melded and became less distinctive and more real.
That is my thought and I'm sticking to it!
joms

Re: the movie...

[leelastarsky.livejournal.com]

They were VERY caricatured at the start. Maybe my feelings about it will soften if I watch it again...but I'm not sure I could be bothered. ;~j

[noeon.livejournal.com]

I've still not seen it. I love Baz's work and I was looking forward to Australia. I really like Nicole. And Hugh. I loved the look of the stills. But the reviews were so horrid, I felt like I was better off imagining the movie rather than seeing it. I keep almost renting it. My resolve will weaken soon, I'm sure.