A lot of fun.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This is Baz Luhrmann's first film of his famed trilogy. I saw this in a group of retired college faculty and the spontaneous comments I heard from many people indicated they'd rate it a 10 (or higher). But "different strokes for different folks." IMO, in style it reminded me of a farce, somewhat of a comic strip in which many cartoon characters come in without any/much preceding development, often as caricatures. That obviously didn't bother most others as it did me. I used to dance a LOT in my 1950s college years (fox trot, waltz, jitterbug, rhumba, tango) and, at some formals, my partner and I were good enough that sometimes we were the only couple left dancing the tango or rhumba while others formed a large admiring circle around us. So I DID enjoy the dancing scenes and could also appreciate that some couples would compete for titles (although we never did). From my later professional life (PhD therapist, lot of marriage & family work) I DID appreciate that Scott would unknowingly follow very much in his father's path while his mother was strongly opposed to it! THAT was very realistic.Most will LOVE it -- some will find it so-so or less.

Look, i very much loved the dancing and the music involved, the storyline just looked really obvious like we all know there'll be a happy ever after in the end and everyone says sorry blah blah blah. It didn't really make me feel excited in a matter to be interested in the contents of the story.I think Tara Morice was quite a good dancer but i think she would rather suit better if she was the character Scotts sister than playing as his love interest. I just don't feel that they both would be a couple, maybe if the producer or director got someone else who would fit the role, then I would've given this movie a rating of 9 or a 10. I have to admit, the movie gave me a good vibe watching it at the same time. Definitely people who are interested in salsa dancing and haven't seen this, they would have to check it out!

The Australian "New Wave" of the seventies and eighties, defined by films like "Walkabout", "Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Breaker Morant", "The Man from Snowy River" and "Gallipoli", even the "Mad Max" series, established a distinctive national school of film-making, characterised by an emphasis on Australia's past and her dramatic rural landscapes. "Strictly Ballroom" can be seen as part of a "New New Wave" concentrating more on a modern urban Australia.This was the first film to be directed by Baz Luhrmann and started life as a stage play written by Luhrmann himself some years earlier. The story is set (as the title might suggest) in the world of competitive ballroom dancing. Scott Hastings, a young dancer, has caused some controversy within the sport by adopting a style of dancing which is not "strictly ballroom" in that it uses steps and moves not approved by the rule-book. Hence the title. The film has bequeathed its initial adverb to the BBC's pro-celebrity ballroom dancing contest, "Strictly Come Dancing", even though in that particular context it looks rather ungrammatical. Scott has upset not only the judges and the sport's governing authorities, but also his dancing partner Liz, who leaves him for a rival, and even his parents Doug and Shirley, themselves noted ballroom dancers in their youth. Undeterred, Scott finds a new partner, Fran, and with her begins preparing for a major championship. Given that competitive ballroom dancing is, after all, a sport with its own rules, Scott's stance struck me as rather futile, the equivalent of a rugby team entering a football tournament and then complaining that they were only allowed to field eleven players, not fifteen, and that they had to play with a round ball, not an oval one. Luhrmann, however, obviously invites us to side with Scott and to regard his disregard of the rules as an admirable stand on behalf of individuality against conformism.The film forms part of what has become known as Luhrmann's "Red Curtain Trilogy", the other two parts being "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo + Juliet". Despite being designated as a "trilogy" the three films do not have any characters or plot elements in common, and their only shared theme is a vague connection to the world of the theatre or of entertainment in general. There are, however, some stylistic resemblances between "Strictly Ballroom" and "Moulin Rouge", although fewer between these two films and "Romeo + Juliet", a modern-dress Shakespeare updated to the California of the nineties."Strictly Ballroom" relies heavily upon standard sporting drama clichés, notably the one about the plucky underdog who comes good. Although Scott is an experienced dancer, Fran is a mere beginner, with much less experience than Liz. She is also a social outsider, coming from a poor Spanish immigrant family and (in another cliché) is plain, bespectacled and dowdy. Of course, as soon as Fran takes off her glasses and lets her hair down she proves to be strikingly attractive. She also proves to be a formidable dance with the aid of her father who teaches her and Scott the authentic Spanish Paso Doble. There is also a storyline about Scott wanting to win the competition which eluded his father all those years ago. The film seems to be building up to the traditional conclusion in which Scott and Fran win a triumphant victory at the championships, thus confounding the doubters and a corrupt official who has been trying to fix the contest in favour of their rivals, although Luhrmann has a surprise up his sleeve which rather subverts all the clichés he has hitherto been relying on.One thing which the film shares with "Moulin Rouge" is a stylised, non- naturalistic style of acting, although nobody here overacts to quite the same extent as, say, Jim Broadbent did in "Moulin Rouge". As in the later film, the look of "Strictly Ballroom" is quite defiantly lurid with a palette dominated by vivid Day-Glo colours, especially reds but also pinks, yellows and lime greens, even if the camera-work is not so manic."Moulin Rouge" was a film I loathed, and "Strictly Ballroom" shares some of its faults, particularly an unattractive visual look and campy, mannered acting with deliberately overwrought emotions. Although Scott and Fran are supposed to be the heroes of this drama, I found it difficult to identify with them precisely because of the exaggerated way in which they are portrayed. In one respect, however, this is the better of the two films. "Moulin Rouge" is a musical made by people who can't sing. At least "Strictly Ballroom" is a dance film made by people who can actually dance, and the dance sequences are very well staged. It is, however, something of an acquired taste, and one I find myself unable to share. I am not, in fact, a great lover of the Red Curtain Trilogy as a whole; I (rather unfashionably) prefer Luhrmann's more recent productions, "Australia" (in which he seems to be reaching back to the traditions of the New Wave) and his masterly adaptation of "The Great Gatsby". 5/10

A maverick dancer (Paul Mercurio) risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.Although not the international sensation that "Moulin Rouge" or "Romeo and Juliet" are, there is definitely the fingerprints of Baz Luhrmann all over this. The music, of course, is very much Baz. But more so the colors. He apparently had to go the extra mile to get the Coca-Cola sign into the film, and it makes sense why he wanted it so badly: it is the very definition of what makes a Baz film: those bright, bold primary colors.This will probably never be considered a classic, and it has probably become more obscure over the last decade rather than more well-known, despite Baz's success. But still.