NICOLE KIDMAN - AUSTRALIA NOT SO AWESOME, SAY CRITICS

AUSTRALIA NOT SO AWESOME, SAY CRITICS

Baz Luhrmann's 165-minute epic Australia has received mixed reviews following its premiere in Sydney. The notoriously tough Australian critics agreed that the cinematography was magnificent == and ought to entice tourists to the country -- and that the performances by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were outstanding. The Sydney Daily Telegraph 's critic observed that Luhrmann "treats the Australian outback as if it were a monumental theater. It doesn't let him down." But critic David Stratton wrote in The Australian that it was "not the masterpiece we hoped it might be." ( The Australian, like 20th Century Fox, which produced the movie, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.) In Melbourne's The Age , Jim Schembri wrote that it was "fine and never boring, but, boy, is it overlong. ... The film often has the pace of a steamroller with engine trouble." It is due to open in the U.S. on November 26.

19/11/2008