Crikey!

Once again it's time for my totally unqualified and random movie review. This past Monday I went out of town with a friend who had to attend a conference. While said friend was actually attending the conference, I was left with most of the day to waste. I did the only reasonable thing to do - I went shopping. However, shopping is only fun if you have copious amounts of money to spend and/or a certain shopping mission to accomplish. I'm not much of a random shopper, especially if I don't have much in the way of extra coin. The Christmas Crunch is on, which doesn't leave many dollars for selfish items. After a two-hour foray in one of my favorite stores, Sportsman's Warehouse - which I've only seen in Colorado and had NO idea they were taking root in Arkansas - I found myself needing something else to do. I felt I was making the staff nervous. Then I found a bookstore - another wonderful place to waste time. But, I kept finding books I wanted to buy. After it became apparent that it was dangerous to my wallet to stay, I hastily beat a retreat back to the car. Luckily for my purse, there was a movie theater in the mall complex, and what better way to kill time than watching a movie? I was really looking for "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", but alas, it was not playing in this particular theater. However, another movie I was very interested in, "Australia" was playing. I figured if the movie was HALF as good as the actual Australia, I was in for a treat. I purchased my ticket and a soda and settled in.

And a good thing for that soda. I surely would have suffered severe dehydration had I sat through the WHOLE movie without refreshment. What I thought looked like a nice little movie was actually a THREE HOUR sprawling epic. I should have paid more attention to the title...the movie lasted longer than it would take to jog the whole country of Australia itself. Or so it seemed. I'm not really sure what the movie was trying to accomplish - Action adventure? Comedy? Drama? Love story? Commentator on Australian race relations? It seemed to try to cram all this in, amid breathtaking scenery paired with my nemesis - computer animation. In any case, you'd be hard pressed to find another movie that crams in extreme cattle droving, WWII attacks, True Love, Aboriginal/White Australian angst, and Boy Coming of Age.

I left the theater thinking, "What was that? Was that a good movie? Was it terrible? Who am I?" Usually you know whether you liked a movie or not upon exiting the theater, if not before. I still don't know. I didn't hate it, but yet I do know that I don't really have a burning desire to see the movie again, even though I'll probably watch it if it eventually comes on TV. Luckily, it didn't dampen my passion for someday visiting the real Australia again someday. No confusion there!

In any case, you might enjoy the movie. Or you might not. Or you might. Who knows. Let me know.