Australia (Cert 12, 158 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Romance/Drama/Comedy/Action, also available to buy DVD £22.99/Blu-ray £27.99)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham, Bryan Brown, David Gulpilil.

Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) leaves behind the finery of the English aristocracy to travel to the Australian outback and confront her husband Lord Ashley on the Faraway Downs cattle station. She finds her spouse dead and a huge property in financial disarray, on the brink of takeover by scheming King Carney (Brown), who controls the local cattle market. With the help of a swarthy drover (Jackman), Sarah decides to challenge Carney’s monopoly by herding 500-strong prize cattle all the way to port in the face of stiff opposition from her rival’s heir apparent, Neil Fletcher (Wenham). En route, Sarah and the drover fall passionately in love, becoming surrogate parents to an orphaned Aborigine boy, Nullah (Walters). Writer-director Baz Luhrmann pays tribute to his homeland with a sprawling love story set in the years before the Japanese bombing of Darwin, threaded with a critique of the ’re-education’ of Aborigine children. Australia is a sweeping, old-fashioned epic that marries Catherine Martin’s ravishing production design with Mandy Walker’s breathtaking cinematography, split loosely into three, tonally distinct chapters. Jackman’s rugged man of the earth generates palpable screen chemistry with Kidman, who has never looked more radiant and demonstrates perfect comic timing. Brown and Wenham all but twirl moustaches as the villains of the piece and newcomer Walters possesses that rare, unspoiled quality that so many young actors lose as they play out their childhoods in front of the camera. Pacing slackens perhaps as Japanese bombers descend on Darwin but by then, we’re mesmerized.

DVD Extras: Deleted scenes (What About The Drove?, Angry Staff Serve Dinner); Blu-ray: “Australia: The People, The History, The Location” featurette, photography featurette, production design featurette, costume design featurette, locations featurette, cinematography featurette, sound featurette, editing featurette, music featurette, visual effects featurette, deleted scenes (What About The Drove?, Angry Staff Serve Dinner).

Rating: ****


Bedtime Stories (Cert PG, 95 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Family/Comedy, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £20.99)

Starring: Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Guy Pearce, Russell Brand, Richard Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, Courteney Cox, Laura Ann Kessling, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Teresa Palmer.

Hotel handyman Skeeter Bronson (Sandler) tends to malfunctioning appliances in the hotel run by germ-phobic Barry Nottingham (Griffiths), who is preparing to hand over his empire to snivelling general manager Kendall (Pearce). Skeeter is a friend to one and all, including his divorced sister Wendy (Cox), who needs to leave town for a few days and asks her lovable brother to help look after her kids, Patrick (Heit) and Bobbi (Kessling). During the day, schoolteacher friend Jill (Russell) cares for the little tykes and in the evening, Skeeter takes charge, inventing tall tales full of daring deeds to send the little ones to sleep. When elements from the stories impact on real life, Skeeter wonders whether he might be able to manipulate fantasy to realise his dreams. Bedtime Stories is a colourful, big budget family feature, which promotes the message that dreams can come true. Having established his narrative gimmick, screenwriter Matt Lopez fails to mine the underlying, rich vein of comedy, relying heavily on Sandler’s childlike charm to spark the picture to life. It’s simply too much to ask, especially with the leading man playing second fiddle to special effect-laden dream sequences including an Evil Knievel-style chariot jump in a gladiatorial arena. Director Adam Shankman handles the collision of reality and fantasy well, but some elements beggar belief. The children’s pet guinea pig Bugsy, who is burdened with cartoonish eyes, is one computer-generated contrivance too far. Pearce looks ill at ease playing the slapstick bad guy but Russell Brand is good fun as a slacker waiter, essentially playing a PG-friendly version of himself.

DVD Extras: “Bugsy Eyes” exclusive bedtime story, “It’s Bugsy” featurette, “Until Gravity Do Us Part” featurette, “To All The Little People” featurette, “The Cutting Room Floor” deleted images with optional actor commentary, “Laughing Is Contagious” out-takes and bloopers, Dylan & Cole: Blu-ray Is Suite; Blu-ray: “Bugsy Eyes” exclusive bedtime story, “It’s Bugsy” featurette, “Until Gravity Do Us Part” featurette, “To All The Little People” featurette, “The Cutting Room Floor” deleted images with optional actor commentary, “Laughing Is Contagious” out-takes and bloopers, DVD copy of the film.

Rating: **


Dean Spanley (Cert U, 96 mins, Icon Home Entertainment, Drama/Comedy, also available to buy DVD £17.99)

Starring: Jeremy Northam, Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Judy Parfitt, Art Malik, Dudley Sutton.

In early 20th century London, Henslowe Fisk (Northam) makes his regular Thursday visit to his cantankerous father, Horatio (O’Toole), and desperately searches for a way to amuse the old man. So he drags his father to a lecture on the transmigration of souls, delivered by Swami Nala Prash (Malik). Sitting in the audience, the two men spy Dean Spanley (Neill), who later reveals a connection to Fisk Senior’s beloved dog, Wag. Determined to learn more, Henslowe enlists help of conveyancer Wrather (Brown) to procure a bottle of the rare 1889 Imperial Tokay wine, which should lure the Dean to dinner. With the nectar flowing almost as freely as the conversation, the holy man makes a shocking disclosure over the lamb stew cooked by Mrs Brimley (Parfitt), which brings tears to the eyes of the host. Adapted by Alan Sharp from Baron Dunsany’s 1936 novella My Talks With Dean Spanley, this quixotic shaggy dog story will warm the cockles of your heart. Toa Fraser’s gently paced tale of fractious father-son bonding in Edwardian England is blessed with strong performances, from Northam’s laconic narrator who unexpectedly rebuilds bridges with his old man to O’Toole’s sharp-tongued rogue, snaffling all of the best lines. The script strikes just the right tone, juxtaposing a menagerie of playful and earthy supporting characters with the wistful, central quartet, searching for answers to life’s big questions. Humour is broad, reserved predominantly for older protagonists, who speak their minds, regardless of social conventions. Expectations are gleefully subverted, building to a big emotional release reflected in O’Toole’s twinkling eyes.

DVD Extras: “Making Of” featurette, cast and crew interviews.

Rating: ***

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