Lurhmann is noted for his post-modern speed and lighthearted spin. But such impatience doesn’t suit this story or its epic movie intent. Australia loses us from time to time, while wholly enthralling us at others. Overall, the scheme doesn’t work.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 7, 2024

But while Luhrmann's warts-and-all love letter to his sunburnt homeland is both a little half-baked and overdone, there's still enough invention and pure passion to ensure an entertaining, if not entirely engrossing, watch.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 15, 2023

Manages an epic feel and an extreme runtime, though the former is oftentimes merely a result of the latter.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 28, 2020

Australia, almost despite itself, isn't really an awful film.

| Original Score: 1.5/4.0 | Sep 2, 2020

A beautifully rendered but flawed pastiche of the grand epics of old.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 6, 2019

Look, I realize this subject is a labor of love for Luhrmann, but the real pain comes from watching the final product -- not making it.

| Original Score: D | May 22, 2019

What you do get... is a firm commitment to epic, triple-espresso-shot extreme romance (the kind spelled XTREEEM!) and the kind of tear-jerking that involves having both your arms wrenched behind your back until you holler "Uncle!"

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 6, 2018

Australia, a heaping blend of romance, adventure and action, is for all those folks who ask, "Why don't they make movies like they used to?

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 6, 2018

Australia is as big, lumbering, vast, dry, and aimless as the catch-all title would lead you to believe.

| Nov 6, 2018

Unless you don't remember what it's like to be so young with a head full of daydreams, you'll be happy to be carried off into the gorgeous Australian sunset.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2018

Australia works well enough to recommend, but this will likely be the least-worshiped movie in Luhrmann's filmography.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 6, 2018

When [Luhrmann] goes from silly to turgid in 60 seconds flat -- he punctures Australia's proportions down from epic to simply overwrought.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 6, 2018

There's a lot that feels jarringly overdone here.

| Nov 6, 2018

Hard-hitting social commentary is not [Baz Luhrmann's] forte and while he strives for analogy and pertinence, all is lost in a dust cloud of galloping horses and magical realist swish.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 4, 2018

Australia offers an often engaging story with some amazing cinematic moments. But with less self-indulgence on Luhrmann's part, it could have achieved greatness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 13, 2018

"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.

| Feb 6, 2018

Australia strains hard for epic Gone with the Wind territory, but it is undone by its own hubris, although, to be fair, the scenes of the Australian outback almost make the film worth seeing. Almost...

| Aug 22, 2017

The effect of watching a Baz Luhrmann film is indistinguishable from the effect of having a crater-sized parcel of glitter dropped on your head.

| Jan 29, 2016

What a pleasant surprise to discover that the film has earned its sweeping title.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 21, 2014

| Original Score: B- | Feb 14, 2012