Australia is a totally unashamedly romantic adventure film painted on a huge canvas.

We totally enjoyed every minute: it is what cinema can be - stirring, fun, involving - and made us forget the world for nearly three hours.

If Spielberg had made this (And it really looks like he could have) it would be called a masterpiece - Luhrman has done a fantastic job and if it needed reediting then they got it right.

It is fun, big fun, with a real sense of adventure and romance and we loved it.

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are well supported by an excellent cast and produce great chemistry.

All in all in a sea of serious films this stands out as being tremendously good entertainment and a marvelous film.

We love it.

Australia was actually much better than I expected, after hearing some rather uncharitable things about it. Yes it is flawed, but you can't help think there are a lot of good things about it. Visually, Australia is absolutely striking, and captured beautifully on camera by Mandy Walker, the first five minutes especially. The music score is absolutely beautiful, and is careful not to overshadow the most dramatic of scenes, particularly the scenes with the cattle. I would also like to say, that despite talk of trouble between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, both stars turn in very believable performances, and David Wenham is good as Neil Fletcher; though I had a problem with the way he died, I will confess I was expecting him seeing as he had a spear in his body to die quicker than he did. But Brandon Walters is simply brilliant as Nullah. At first, I was put off by the length, but the length wasn't actually the problem, as it is supposed to be an epic. One flaw I had with the movie, was that there is a fair amount going on, like the love affair, the moving of the cattle, even a couple of murders; the problem was I never quite understood what the film's main focus was supposed to be, though in the film's defence some scenes are very well developed, and raise a couple of tearjerkers. When I first heard the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow,this is in no way a criticism, but at first, I wasn't sure what the significance of the song was, then as the film progressed, it was like a communication of hope. I will say that my main problem with the film was the ending. The scene itself was beautifully shot and quite moving, but it was the music that bothered me. As much as I like Nimrod by Elgar; it is a beautiful piece that reduces me to tears, however the film is about Australia, so I wasn't sure why they decided to use a piece of music that is actually British, so was rather irrelevant to the film's context. Despite the flaws, I did like Australia, enjoyed is probably inappropriate for the film's genre, and me, my mum and dad were left streamy-eyed at the end of the film. 8/10 Bethany Cox.

Apparently when the question is asked about why they don't make films like they used to, you can answer that they do in fact and one place to look is to the film and continent of Australia. The epic by director Baz Luhrmann is sure to take home some Oscar gold down under. This film is also likely to replace such classics as Gallipoli and Breaker Morant as the down under version of Gone With The Wind.

The cinematography of the rugged outback reminds me of some of the best work in John Ford westerns set in Monument Valley. Some beautiful and dangerous country is the backdrop for a love story between an unlikely pair. The American westerns Giant and The Big Country also compare favorably with Australia in that department.

Nicole Kidman is a proper English lady who decides to go to Australia and get her husband moving on the sale of some property, a cattle station named Faraway Downs. When she finds her husband murdered when she arrives, she's also faced with a decision on what to do with both the land and the cattle on it.

There's a war arrived with Australia with demand for army beef and the local Ponderosa played by Bryan Brown wants to be the man. But Nicole's husband had different ideas and the original contract. How to deliver?

Her help and salvation come in the form of Hugh Jackman, we never learn his actual name, he's just Drover like Gary Cooper and Joel McCrea were The Virginian. He's one rugged old fashioned movie hero just like those guys were. He's an outcast among his own people because he actually wed an aboriginal woman who's now dead.

The aborigines are a big part of this story. It's been rumored about that Nicole's husband's killer was a legendary aborigine called King George played by Australian actor David Gulpilil who was the first person of that descent to have a substantial movie role in Walkabout back in 1971. He's got a grandson played by young Brandon Walters in his movie debut of mixed parentage who is part of the crew put together by Kidman and Jackman.

It's hard to believe that it was policy by the government back then to take these mixed racial kids forcibly and civilize them according to Christian dictates. Of course in the USA we had a whole section of our country and some national institutions hewing to a strict racial segregation policy. It's something that Gulpilil and later Kidman and Jackman want to avoid for Walters at all costs.

The scenes of the drive and later of Darwin where Nicole gets her beef to and out of port before the Japanese bomb are well staged. I hadn't realized Darwin at that time was a real frontier town. I had envisioned a moderately sized typical city like in Great Britain subject to bombing.

I did love the set of Faraway Downs. I have no doubt that director Baz Luhrmann must have seen the set of Reata Ranch from Giant and used it as an inspiration. View the films side by side and see what I mean.

This film with any justice should bag a few Oscars. One could be for young Brandon Walters who narrates the film as well as stars. We're seeing this world of 1939-1942 Australia through his eyes. When the Japanese bomb Darwin and Australia's Expeditionary Force is in North Africa, those people had some anxious months like we in America can't possibly imagine. Douglas MacArthur for the USA and General Sir Thomas Blamey organized the resistance and the timely arrival of the Diggers from Africa saved a nation.

We Yanks should get out and see this wonderful film and know they do make them like they used to.