Some things I liked some I did not.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

It's hard to imagine many times when you actually think to yourself, 'Hey... I really fancy sitting down to watch a film about Nazi skinheads, beating up people they perceive as different.' However, just because the subject matter is pretty distasteful, doesn't mean that the film's that bad.Naturally, a lot of people claim that this film is 'racist propaganda' and refuse to watch it. However, after spending just over ninety minutes in the company of these 'Hitler worshipping' Aussie thugs, I can't see that their lifestyle would come across as very appealing to anyone – even the very impressionable among the audience. You could hardly want to be like these guys.The other thing 'Romper Stomper' is remembered for is Russell Crowe's performance as the main skinhead character. He does play him well – scarily well. It's amazing that he was able to build what became quite a diverse career on his angry, monotone performance here. Russell and his crew spend their days hunting down 'non white' residents who they're convinced are bringing down the neighbourhood and taking it away from the 'natural' white race. And, when they're not hitting other people, they're also hitting each other while jumping up and down to 'shouty' type skinhead music, spouting the wonders of 'bald-headed fighting men.' Just like 'Trainspotting' was a film about undesirable junkies, this is a film about undesirable skinheads. Neither tells you to behave like those on screen, but both offer a world into a (thankfully) niche group of people and the way they live their lives. You certainly don't have to like what to see to enjoy the film. Just be thankful you don't have Russell and co living next door to you.

A truly original and inventive film, rated R for it's heavy use of violence that looks very real for a change. Incredibly on this video cover, the violence reference is not mentioned. Crowe's performance here was the one that catapulted him to stardom, where as far as I'm concerned, this is still his best performance here. It's a pity they don't have Oscar awards in Oz, cause he'd win it hands down, as Hando, the unrelenting leader of a pack of skinheads, their hate for asians, reaching beyond what anyone could fathom. We don't learn much about their reasons for disliking the Vietnamese, and that's a good thing, cause if more was said as to why, the film would lose it's substance and ferocity. Every performance in this movie is excellent. Daniel Pollock, John Brumpton, and Jacqueline Mckenzie, a desperate junkie and a victim of incest, (pity that bloody Deep Blue Sea, put a stale period on her career) are all flawless. More here so, is Mckenzie, so believable when having a seizure, even I got concerned, even though I knew it was just acting. From the word get go, this movie takes on a no holds barred ride into a nightmare territory of boundless hate. The skinheads, even question the barman, at their favorite watering hole as to why he lets gooks in there. Later on at the same bar, the barman goes off with an Asian guy, who's gonna take over the business, leaving his two sons to mind the place. How could this barman be so reckless. When learning of this, the skins can't get away fast enough and the two races go war to war. The skins, totally outnumbered, realizing they've overstepped their mark, flee, and take refuge in a warehouse, occupied by one of the skin's girl's ex's. The dialogue that transpires, between the girl conning her way back into this building, is actually a humorous relief, in the wake of the intense ten minute battle between the two races, that passed where some real nasty blood was shed, some of the most realistic use of blood, I've seen. I liked the direction this movie took from here. It almost made me take up using Campbell's sauce again. The sex scene with Crowe doing Mckenzie behind, both naked, was titilating too, almost necessary, putting a light, though not romantic moment to this film. Some of the potent dialogue, here too, is interesting. So is Crowe's extensive tattooed work on his back. I'm almost prepared to believe Crowe won't be able to surpass himself here with a better performance, than in this bold and confrontational film, that I can't believe I first saw over twenty years ago. The way the cops interacted with the skins, granting no mercy, when capturing them, sounded all so true, almost a replica of that exact same scene happening for real. The movie does lose a little of it's fizz near the end, when it comes down to our three players, one skin who doesn't walk away, the other hopefully walking away from all of this futile hate bulls..t for good.

One of the better Australian movies to emanate from the 90's stars Russell Crowe before home-wrecking, hotel telephones and Oscars as an aggressive skinhead (Hando) whose relationship with best friend Daniel Pollock (Davy) sours over the ever-escalating brand of racism he practices, and the presence of Jacqueline Mackenzie's character with whom both are involved - Crowe's neglect paves the way for Pollock's advances and so the rivalry emerges.Apart from Crowe (who is essentially monotone in-character) and Mackenzie as a misguided rich kid rebelling in the extreme, only Sam Wyllie is recognisable as one of the motley crew. Though Pollock could have potentially become a recognisable actor, tragically his life ended prematurely shortly following this film.Generally, like a great many Australian pictures, "Romper Stomper" is edgy and raw, and the content of the film is fairly uncompromising in its violent and sometimes graphic detail (read nudity). This all bodes well if you're comfortable with the subject matter as you shouldn't be disappointed.

Before he became the big star, the New Zealand born Australian raised actor had varied parts in just a few films, and later he would get the bigger role in The Quick and the Dead, then the lead in L.A. Confidential, and of course the Oscar for Leading Actor in Gladiator, so it was interesting for me to see one of his earliest leading roles, from director Geoffrey Wright (Cherry Falls). Basically a gang of violent neo-Nazi skinheads from Footscray, Victoria, Australia, led by Hando (Russell Crowe), with his friend Davey (Daniel Pollock) as second in command, are not afraid to express their racism by attacking anyone of the Asian community. Gabrielle 'Gabe' (Jacqueline McKenzie) joins them, not after being beaten up by her drug-taking boyfriend, who was hired to do the beating by her sexually abusive and rich father Martin (Alex Scott), and she and Hando form a close blond. The gang are joined soon by friends visiting from Canberra, and they find out their local pub has been sold to a Vietnamese Australian businessman, so they go and attack the owner's sons, and in the situation one of the Vietnamese youth phones for help from fellow community members. They outnumber the skinheads and surround their rented warehouse, but they manage to escape the chaos as the community break in and ransack and set fire to the place, so the skinheads retreat to another warehouse that has squatters. Hando convinces his fellow gang members that they should get revenge against the Vietnamese, starting with the purchase of a gun, and Gabe's suggestion is to burgle her father's mansion, as payback for the years of abuse, she also tells Davey she plans to get away with Hando from the violent lifestyle. Davey has doubts about his current lifestyle and leave the gang, and the same time Gabe dumps Hando, the two of them spend the night together, and she informs the police where the gang is, and the gang are hoarded by police, with the youngest skinhead shot dead, and the rest arrested. Hando was not there at the time though, and even though he does catch Gabe and Davey in bed together, he wants to convince his friend to stick by him, and he does, so they all go on the run, robbing a service station, and the leader strangling the Asian store owner to death. They stop on a beach, and the two male friends have a conversation where there is an argument about the girl, she meanwhile sets fire to the car and admits to them that she called the police. This enrages Hando and he chases her, trying to kill by drowning her in the sea, but Davey stabs him in the back of the neck with a knife, he dies, and Gabe and Davey hug together, while a bus load of Japanese tourists watch from above. Also starring Leigh Russell as Sonny Jim, Dan Wyllie as Cackles, James McKenna as Bubs, Eric Mueck as Champ and Frank Magree as Brett. Crowe gives a great performance as the leader of the gang, he is suitably the most unhinged of the characters, and the support of Pollock and Scott is terrific as well, the raiding of the warehouse is the most engaging scene, but many moments of disturbing exploits of skinhead violence and abuse get you gripped, there are good reasons to put this in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, a good drama. Worth watching!