CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

audrablum This week I watched Baz Luhrmann's dramedy romance Strictly Ballroom (1992). The logline reads "A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner." I was excited to see the movie that launched Luhrmann into larger things, and I was not disappointed. There are parts of the film where you see his early directing choices that improved with time and parts of the film where he does his Baz-y thing and treats our eyes to something rich, original and beautiful. The story definitely took some over-the-top liberties, but remembering this is cinema the eccentricness can be overlooked. Typical of a Luhrmann piece, the mother and one other female is a complete diva, while the true starlett is of a calmer, quieter, and arguably more "ladylike". The story was a playful, parts were silly, but the climax of the film was a great payoff. The acting was good, some actors were naturally stronger than others. Overall, the production values were good, there were a few shooting errors, and a lot of overused elements, but I think that directors get experience over time. I think this is apparent through his later films like The Great Gatsby (2013) and Moulin Rouge! (2001). I enjoyed this movie and can't believe that I waited so long to see it!

charlessmith702210 Here, the movie starts in the Waratah Championships, a setup for the big Pan-Pacific Ballroom Championships later on. Scott Hastings had already danced a great Viennese waltz with former partner Liz Holt, and then, as the scene shifts to samba, Scott Hastings starts out great with Liz, and then, in the middle of the samba version of "Tequila" in the background, Scott explodes and does his overkill-laden solo trick steps way beyond what Liz could follow. Les Kendall, Scott's dance coach, explains the reason why Scott wanted to free himself--in the start of the samba, Les said that he was "boxed-in" by Ken Rallings and Tina Sparkles, which caused Scott to release a freedom type of dancing anger. Liz tries to keep up with Scott's unacceptable solo dance showmanship but then, Australian Dance Council chairman, Barry Fife, penalizes that couple major points causing Ken and Tina to win the Waratah title. Liz then finally cuts off her dance partnership with Scott after the competition at the next scene in the Kendall Dance Studio.Then, a new beginning dance partner, Fran, accosts Scott at the studio and make a ruse to be new partners and practice their routine in light of the upcoming Pan-Pacific Dance Championships. Fran's flamenco dance ability is given away a bit when she demonstrates a short tap sequence. Learning from the dancesport debacle in Waratah, Scott is still stubborn and decides to strongly bend the dancesport rules with "new steps" for the Pan-Pacific championships to try to impress Barry Fife. Barry is not happy about it and decides that Scott's "new steps" will never, ever be in the books in competition as long as Fife remains in power in Australian dancesport.In the middle of the movie, Tina Sparkle decides to retire from her partnership from Ken Railings, doing their final honor dance at a pre- competition social ballroom dance party, while at the same time, Scott and Fran, do a theatrical dance in quasi-silhouette to "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps." This is where the disapproval of their partnership increases. Les Kendall now warns Scott that if you dance with Fran, you will never win the Pan-Pacific competition, but then suggests to Scott that if you partner up with Tina, you will have a 100 percent shot of winning the Pan-Pacific title.But then, Fran and Scott are caught by Fran's flamenco music family, forcing them to dance a paso doble, and then, eventually, Fran's father then teaches him the authentic Spanish paso doble. The solo focusing of the paso is the beginning of the recipe for almost total disaster on the start of the Pan-Pacific championships. In the appetizer paso doble heat in the competition floor, Fran does dance with an unknown lady, and then, as Scott arrives to face the forced partnering of Tina Sparkles with him for the Latin championship round, Scott decides at the last minute to dance with Fran in the second paso doble around with several professional Latin dance couples dancing. Barry Fife, already there, catches Fran and Scott in the action and orders the music powered down, and disqualifies both dancers for good. Fran and Scott, however, refuses to leave the floor and instead, with the help of Fran's family, dance a spectacular Spanish flamenco dance with strong paso feel, shocking the audience, and even Barry Fife himself. In the end, the audience comes out to the dance floor to get their chance to dance, and the guess is that even if disqualified--you can shock a crowd if you do a great unique dance, and that's what Fran and Scott did. They won their hearts, even if it is not a championship trophy!

secondtake Strictly Ballroom (1992)A campy, glossy, colorful, surprising fairy tale, total romance, lots of dancing, and inventive through and through. No, director Baz Luhmann has not pulled off another Moulin Rouge, which is a whole other order of invention and beauty, but this is his first movie, and it's filled with idealism. And some people to root for and to hiss against--you know, heroes and villains.It could have been tightened up, no doubt--there are times when I was a little impatient even though they were dancing away. But mostly I was happy to watch and wait for the next step toward the big climax.The two young leads, interestingly, came from nowhere (the perfectly named Paul Mercurio and the understated Tara Morice both in their first films). They've gone on to largely television careers, and in part you appreciate how much Luhmann gets from them. The highly stylized approach helps avoid a need for real acting, per se, but Mercurio in particular really rises to the occasion. The whole affair is Australian, and it feels bright and original the way some of fellow Aussie Peter Weir's films do, or in another sense, Peter Jackson.If you can summon up any innocence and romance and go for what really clicks here, be swept up and love it.

David McAvoy (ngeunit1) So Strictly Ballroom. I don't know exactly what I was expecting of this movie, but it was definitely different from what I expected. But that is not to say that I did not enjoy it a ton. I thought it was overall a good and really fun movie. The music and dance throughout the movie, as pretty much a method of story telling, worked very well for the movie and keep the story meaningful and engaging. Some of the characters and lines were a bit outlandish, but all in all, it fit together remarkable well, and created an enjoyable experience.Even thought there was nothing overly remarkable about the story's main love interest plot between Fran and Scott, I felt that it still worked out well. The discussion of dance as a act of creating a perceived love as part of the act was interesting and something I have thought about before so I found it nice to be brought up in the movie (even if only for a few lines). I thought that most of then characters, though maybe a bit simple, really came together to create a pretty good story. My personal favorite character was Doug though (even before finding out about his secret). I thought his overall fairly eccentric character was a lot of fun and in ways very relatable.All in all, this was a fun movie. For anyone that is willing to give a bit of a different way to tell a story a chance I would recommend giving it a shot.