Product Description

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!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1610 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-03-19
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
While the plot of this Australian film may seem a bit familiar (The Ugly Duckling meets Dirty Dancing), the whimsical tone and superb dance sequences will make you forget the movie's predictability. Scott (Paul Mercurio) is a champion ballroom dancer who wants to dance "his own steps." Fran is the homely, beginning dancer who convinces Scott that he should dance his own steps... with her. Complicating matters are Scott's domineering mother (Pat Thompson), a former dancer herself, who wants her son to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championship (the same contest she lost years ago), and a conniving dance committee that is determined that "there are no new steps!" The dancing is enjoyable, yet not overwhelming, and the movie strives hard not to take itself too seriously (the beginning of the film is even styled as a pseudo-documentary). Strictly Ballroom, while not so subtly imparting its moral ("A life lived in fear is a life half-lived"), is a laughable romp that's sure to be a crowd pleaser. --Jenny Brown

DVD features
The 10th-anniversary DVD of Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom does everything it can to associate itself with the director's 2001 musical Moulin Rouge, from its cover art to its red-curtain animated menus. The commentary track, by Luhrmann, Catherine Martin (Luhrmann's wife and the Oscar(r)-winning production designer for Moulin Rouge), and choreographer John "Cha Cha" O'Connell, is rather broad, often covering general points about the movie or about Moulin Rouge instead of the specific scene that is playing. Trivia tidbits include the decision to cast actors rather than dancers (Paul Mercurio being a notable exception) and how the health department tried to shut down the film. The DVD also includes Maria Stratford's 1986 documentary "From Samba to Slow Fox," a 30-minute examination of the Australian ballroom-dancing scene (mirrored in Strictly Ballroom's faux-documentary opening), and five short Luhrmann-narrated featurettes, the most interesting of which present backstage photos and international promotional art. --David Horiuchi

From The New Yorker
Baz Luhrmann's first film brings good news: Australian cinema is on the move again, with a vigor not seen since the days of "Mad Max." There's no violence in "Strictly Ballroom"-the general lack of unpleasantness, in fact, is quite unnerving-but the speed of it still leaves you reeling. A young dancer, played by Paul Mercurio, acquires a new partner (Tara Morice), dreams up a flash routine, and sets out to break the Old Guard. The plot is cut-rate melodrama, and Luhrmann knows it; but he never sneers at his hero's ambitions. Besides, there are so many other things to laugh at-the costumes, the minor characters with their major obsessions, the psychedelic makeup, the trashy music. The movie is over before you know it, and is not one to linger in the mind, or indeed pass through the mind at all; but it's a good-humored ride for the senses, never too sickly, and who can say no to that? -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Fun Film, Meaningful Theme
Strictly Ballroom is a movie that you can watch again and again and its still entertaining each time. Many cliches are used to bring humor to this very funny film, however the movie has a slightly serious hidden theme: "A life lived in fear... is a life half lived."
I recommend this film for people who enjoy musicals or entertaining foreign films. A tidbit for those of you who are more concerned with pop culture, the star, Paul Mercurio, was a choreographer/movement consultant for the popular film iRobot. Mercurio again proves himself an expert in the field of movement.

Strictly Funny . . . Strictly Campy . . . Strictly Romantic . . . Strictly Ballroom!!!
This gem from the nineties is an early - and great - achievement in Aussie director Baz Luhrmann's career.

In Australia (natch!) professional ballroom dancer Scott (Paul Mercurio - Yum with a capital "Y")and his partner Liz - with her typical female ballroomers' fake tan and fake blonde hair - are competing in a local Latin championship. But when another, previously winning couple - Ken Railings and Pam Short - start to deliberately cram their style by backing them into a corner and actually coming between them at one point, Scott decides to go off on his own, showing off some amazing moves that are definitely not part of his and his partner's planned choreography and CERTAINLY not sanctioned by the PTB's (Powers That Be) in organized Australian ballroom dancing. Poor, outraged, winning-is-everything Liz follows her guy as best she can, but nevertheless, Scott (at least to her way of thinking) costs them the championship. Having had enough of her rogue partner, Liz angrily declares, "I want Ken Railings to walk through that door and say, 'Pam Short's broken both her legs, and I want to dance with you'"!

Guess who is in a nasty car accident no sooner than Liz says this? And guess who Ken wants to be his new partner while poor Pam recovers?

Meanwhile, Scott has given into pressure to find a new partner himself despite his qualms about confining his artistry to the rules of ballroom dancing. But plain-Jane Fran (Tara Morice) is an amateur who has noticed Scott and wants to dance with him - his way. They secretly begin training sessions and a romance soon begins to bud.

There follows conflict between Scott and the aforementioned PTB's, heartbreak, reconciliation, and, of course, a happy ending complete with a sweet kiss between Fran and the guy she never would have believed she could dance with, much less get to fall in love with her.

SIGH!

This, my friends, is a CANNOT MISS. Love, music, dancing, comedy . . . the stuff that makes the world go 'round, as far as I'm concerned. All filtered through the brilliance of Baz Luhrmann.

Magic.

Cheers.

Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom is a funny look at the world of ballroom dancing. The movie has some great dancing by Tara Morice and Paul Mercurio and a dramatic ending.