Australia
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: November 14, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
19
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
TV Guide MagazineCammila Albertson
Australia goes for the absolute limit in terms of scope. And let's not be coy -- size may not matter, but it still helps. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterMegan Lehmann
Defies all but the most cynical not to get carried away by the force of its grandiose imagery and storytelling. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
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. Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A wildly ambitious, luridly indulgent spectacle of romance, action, melodrama and historic revisionism, Australia is windy, overblown, utterly preposterous and insanely entertaining. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
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. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It is exuberantly old-fashioned, and I mean that as a compliment. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
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. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
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. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A testament to movie love at its most devout, cinematic spectacle at its most extreme, and kitsch as an act of aesthetic communion. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
[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. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMatthew Sorrento
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. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
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. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's an epic pretender, not an epic contender. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
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. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
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. Read full review
60
Village VoiceElla Taylor
The result is mostly a woodenly derivative melding of '40s maternal melodramas, oaters, and World War II actioners. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)
Often beautiful but wildly inconsistent, Australia is none more Baz Luhrmann, which perhaps says it all. Worth a look on the big screen, though. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Yes, you can enjoy bits and pieces along the way, more than a few, even. At the end of this journey, though, you feel more exhaustion and relief than catharsis or satisfaction. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Jackman has musical-theater chops and knows how to sell material this ham-handed; Kidman isn't quite as deft. I've always admired her gumption in working so hard to overcome a certain temperamental tightness--but that tightness has now spread to her skin. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Really should have been made 60 years ago. It would have been timelier, with its tale of life in the remote north of that country during World War II. The juicy overacting, stereotypes and dramatic exaggerations would have been more in keeping with the style of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
It almost goes without saying that the film looks gorgeous, but the filmmaking behind it feels unsure how to work on this grand a scale. Australia is big. But it never fills the screen. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Luhrmann wants it all – comedy and tragedy, bombast and wet-eyed sentimentality. When it works, his kid-in-a-candy-store giddiness is infectious. When it doesn't – when he goes from silly to turgid in 60 seconds flat – he punctures Australia's proportions down from epic to simply overwrought. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
If looks were everything, director Baz Luhrmann's epic salute to his native land would be the movie of the year. But, crikey, a padded script bloated with subplots and shameless sentimentality can wear you down. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
All in all, Australia is so damnably eager to please that it feels like being pinned down by a giant overfriendly dingo and having your face licked for about three hours: theoretically endearing but, honestly, kind of gross. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Like the last two "Pirates" movies, Australia is ambitious more than awe-inspiring, grandiose rather than grand, full of spectacle but not spectacular. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
At times the film appears on the verge of morphing into a singing-cowboy musical. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
I left Australia feeling drained and weakened, as if I'd suffered a gradual poisoning at the hands of a mad scientist. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
You know something's amiss when you're in the middle of a picture that runs under three hours and you're tempted to whip out your cellphone and send friends a text message that reads "Send food." Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Epic piffle. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Luhrmann's squirrelly, five-exclamation-point stylings mercifully subside after the first 20 minutes or so, leaving behind a palatable big-screen confection. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Long before the second hour of Australia (which feels like the fifth), it's clear that Luhrmann hasn't found a satisfactory way to make a movie nearly as ballsy -- or coherent -- as he wants his creation to be. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The film also seems to end at least four times, which is three times too many. Better yet, it never should have started. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
With Australia, Luhrmann obviously intends to stage a grand romance against the epic backdrop of World War II. But what we get instead is an unwieldy mess that needed another six months in the editing room. Read full review
40
SlateDana Stevens
To marvel at the purity of Australia's corniness isn't to imply that the movie functions as so-bad-it's-good camp, or guilty pleasure, or anything else involving aesthetic enjoyment. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Luhrmann steals good ideas, fair ideas and terrible ideas - anything that once moved him when he was a little boy. He's turned Australia into a more-than-you-can-eat buffet of colorful kitsch. Read full review
38
PremiereJenni Miller
A self-impressed epic with grandiose vistas, flat characters, and a subplot about Native Australians. Read full review
30
The New YorkerDavid Denby
It's a shame that Fox entrusted Luhrmann with this project, because audiences were probably ready for a big-boned realistic movie spectacle. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Australia shows all the signs of having been a labor of love for director Baz Luhrmann. One problem: It's his love, and the audience's labor. Read full review
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