OK, I know this mini-review of the big night is a couple of days too late, but I gotta say that, surprisingly, Hugh Jackman did not totally suck as host of the Oscars. The opening number was actually pretty funny and he tried his damnedest to keep a very bloated telecast light and lively, but, any w...

Those who listen to our movie podcast know that I’m a fan of Baz Luhrmann and of Australia (go here to hear our review with the Scene Unseen podcast). I was disappointed and disheartened by that film’s poor box office performance; according to BOMojo, its production budget was $130 milli...

Australia 1 star Director: Baz LuhrmannWith: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham165 mins, cert 12A Something strange happened to my face shortly after the beginning of Baz Luhrmann's excruciating new wartime romance epic, starring Nicole Kidman as the posh English Lady Sarah w...

Don't let Baz Lurhmann's narrowed, suspicious eyes fool you. Behind the icy glare lies a mind hard at work on once again bringing something called "Great Gatsby" to screens: The director, as Risky Biz first reported last month, also said that he has officially acquired rights to "Gatsby." Luhrmann s...

According to Nikki Finke, Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet director Baz Luhrmann (we’ll pretend Australia never happened) has signed on to helm a big screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby . I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read F. Scott’s ...

Baz Luhrmann takes a long time to make a movie. His Australia came out seven years after Moulin Rouge!, which came out five years after Romeo + Juliet. The gestation periods are so long that nothing is ever set in stone, in terms of his future projects, until cameras have started rolling. Which is w...

Ce film de Baz Luhrmann, le réalisateur d’Âœuvres qui ont pas mal marqué leur temps comme « Roméo+Juliette » ou « Moulin rouge », était pas mal attendu, et on se doute bien qu’il va encore trouver un moyen de se démarquer dans la forme. Mais là, on arrive à un tel assembla...

Ce film de Baz Luhrmann, le réalisateur d’Âœuvres qui ont pas mal marqué leur temps comme « Roméo+Juliette » ou « Moulin rouge », était pas mal attendu, et on se doute bien qu’il va encore trouver un moyen de se démarquer dans la forme. Mais là, on arrive à un tel assembla...

Well, Australia's second-weekend drop indicates that it isn't doing well enough with adult audiences to ever make it into a success here. Here are some of the reasons this movie couldn't make it. The heart of the movie--the part that works--is the story of the half-breed Aborigine boy (Brandon Walte...

Baz at Work Posted from South Australia The Smackdown.  Australia is a continent, my country, a state of mind and now, finally, a movie.  To get the silver-screen version made, they gave one of the most visually stylish directors working today more money than he'd ever had for a film before and le...