Strictly Ballroom | Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice | celebration of colour and movement set to music

Strictly Ballroom | Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice | Strictly Ballroom

DVDs:

Strictly Ballroom

	Strictly Ballroom Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice Miramax, 2002 average customer review:based on 210 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

From Baz Lurhrmann -- the director of the award-winning hits ROMEO & JULIET and MOULIN ROUGE! -- comes STRICTLY BALLROOM ... the hilariously funny romantic comedy that's sure to leave you laughing, cheering, and feeling great! It's the magical story of a championship ballroom dancer who's breaking all the rules, and his ugly duckling dancing partner. Together they make their dreams come true! Now celebrating its glorious 10th Anniversary -- you're sure to enjoy this exhaustively funny comedy as it dances and soars its way straight into your heart. Critics everywhere fell madly in love with this big-screen treat -- and so will you!

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celebration of colour and movement set to music

Strictly Ballroom made me believe in film making as a true art form. It is a celebration of colour and movement set to music. The story seamlessly weaves in the timeless themes of `one man versus the world' and `the ugly duckling'. The romance across ethnic lines adds to the spice and vigour.

You don't have to love dancing to love the movie, but after viewing it you may gain a new appreciation of dance sport as competition or perhaps art, the movie entertains both lines of thinking.

However, those who have been brought up on slick, big budget, Hollywood films might find some scenes a bit crudely cut. The humour is quirky. But herein lies its charm. In the commentary, the film makers said that a lot of their limited budget went into just a few small things, namely: the scene with the train going past, the rights to the song where they slow danced behind the curtain, and the rights to use the Coca-Cola neon sign as dance prop. Whatever, every cent was spent to perfection.

If the definition of a great movie is one that you can watch again and again without ever getting tired of it, then this perhaps could be the greatest movie ever made. I've seen it about a dozen times and I still cry at the end (and I'm a red blooded male).

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Strictly Ballroom

If you love the Australian funny movies, you will love this one. I love the story line, and the humour in this movie. My friend showed me this is college and I have liked it since. It has humour, romance and the good girls wins in the end.

Fabulous flic!

This is not your average "dancing" or "Cinderella" chick flic. The characters are finely drawn and the dancing complements the story line. I saw the movie by chance - didn't have anything better to do - and rushed to purchase my own copy ASAP. Highly recommended!

3 stars out of 4

The Bottom Line:

Both a sweet little movie in its own right and a sly, tongue-in-cheek play on formulaic dance movies/ugly duckling pictures, Strictly Ballroom is an amusing and entertaining romp that will win over even the more hardened cynics--it did me, after all.

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Those Blasted Ballroom Dancing Rules!

Here's a different kind of story: mocking the ultra-seriousness of ballroom dancing, at least among people in Australia, where the film was made. The strict rules, perhaps, are mocked as much as the people involved.

Once again, it's the clichéd story of a rebel who is the good guy and the establishment who are the bad people. (Will filmmakers ever get themselves out of the 1960s?)

Add some stupid humor, a very annoying lead woman (the mother of the star dancer), and a predictable storyline and you have another overrated critics' favorite, although it's still worth a rental. The good parts of the film are the colorful dancers and general cinematography. The dancing is excellent, too. For all the latter, I give it three stars.

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