To me, this movie is perfection.

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This movie is astonishingly biased and is based on the opinion of gang members rather than true fact.The movie basically attempts to justify a murder committed by one of the Abberton brothers, who head the group. It also accuses policemen of starting a fight with gang members when both groups were attending functions at the same location."Bra Boys" encourages youngsters to leave school and take up a life of dangerous surfing, drug use and crime. The leaders who offer their opinions are ridiculously immature. Its wrong this movie was allowed to be released.The only good thing about the movie is Russell Crowes narration.

Bra Boys Review.Bra boys is an interesting one sided documentary about a group of surfers in Australia and a story into their lifestyle. Bra boys is based in Maroubra, Sydney, NSW, on the 2nd most popular beach in Australia.The documentary is made and directed by Bra Boys, Sunny Abberton and features many gang members and pro-surfers. It shows the early life of the four Abberton brothers: Sunny, Jai, Koby and youngest brother Dakota. We see their unsuitable upbringing and lives as children and why they turned all their attention to the ocean and surfing. The Bra Boys have very little trust and respect for police officials and try to protect their gang from outsiders. We can see that the documentary is from the Bra Boys point of view as it does not shows information from anyone else besides the Bra Boys and the Bra Boys friends. Bra Boys have one main woman in their documentary and it happens to be their grandmother Mavis. Mavis took care of the brothers and most of their friends when the Abberton brother's mother, Lynn was struggling with heroin addiction and had an abusive partner who once hit Koby. At Mavis' house is where the whole gang ideas started, the first gang was called ma's hell gang.The documentary is mostly about the brothers and what they have been through. One of the most biggest and interesting event is the murder of Anthony Hines who was shot by Jai Abberton. Jai claims he shot Hines for self defence reasons, it was said that Hines had been after Jai Abberton after he suspected him of sleeping with his girlfriend. Although we don't get very much information on this event it is still the biggest as both brothers Jai and Koby are looking at serving jail time. Jai got 20 months in prison but then was found not guilty; we still don't receive any more information on the incident with Jai saying "I have only had to tell the jury what happened that night". Another incident that happened was on 22nd of December 2002 when the Bra Boys had a party for pro-surfer Mark Mathews 21st.The party consisted of 200 drunken men who got into fights with off-duty police officers who were celebrating a Christmas party one floor below them. That night only Bra Boys were arrested and all the police who were involved got off, this actually shows that the Bra Boy's got treated differently for something they may not have started, its no wonder they distrust the police.Most of the time the Bra Boy's are just trying to have fun. They stick to the beaches and surf but sometimes like to set their friends on fire and jump into water from cliffs. Some critics have disapproved of this but I think it's their lives they can do what they want so therefore should be left alone. We do see some fights that occur during the documentary but only the surfers against other surfers. We can determine who belongs to the Bra Boy's gang as most of them have 'Bra Boy's tattooed on them but in Koby's case he has 'My brothers keeper'.Bra Boy's has a very Australian feel about it, this may be because the narrator is no other then Russell Crowe. The documentary also contains mostly Australian songs some by Parkway Drive which gives it a very Australian feel. We also receive some history on when the first fleet arrived in Australia and the controversy between them and the Aboriginals. I think it was a wise idea to include some history of the place where it was filmed because it could show why the Abbertons are the people they are today.Also in the documentary it features the Cronulla Riots, and it shows how the Bra Boy's were involved. Most people thought that the Bra Boy's were probably one of the main causes but in fact they were the ones who were trying to make peace. People may have thought this because the Bra Boy's, when they first heard people were heading their way grabbed baseball bats and other weapons and went straight to the beach. They were only trying to protect their beach from getting destroyed. Bra Boy's also said that it wasn't all the Lebanese who were fighting, most of the people protecting the beach were multi cultural, Koby said some couldn't even speak English but was standing and fighting for Australia.At the end of the film it shows people from Maroubra telling people what nationality they are, this is a way of showing that it doesn't matter if your not full Australian or born in Australia you are still apart of it. Bra Boy's must think this is important because they wouldn't have shown it otherwise.The documentary Bra Boys is a very interesting point of view. I would watch it again and recommend it to people who are interested in surfing and the Abberton brothers. I don't think the Abberton brothers made this documentary to promote themselves or to make themselves famous, they just want to tell their side of the story. It shows their point of view and not just the media's. it is a very good film.Internet movie database Nikila GYC

When the word documentary is mentioned the words boring and horrible pop into my head. I imagine wild life images with extremely boring narrators' voices that will put any normal person to sleep. The Bra Boys is anything but this sleep filled image. Filled with action and adventure it tells the story of notorious Abberton brothers, Jai, Koby and Sunny. The narration is by the manly Russell Crowe.In summary this movie is the Bra Boys response to everything in the media about the notorious beach gang in Maroubra. The world finally gets to hear the Bra Boys version about Crunalla riot, Mark Matthew's 21st, and the murder of Anthony Hines. Maybe even more importantly it show's how these events affected a gang of boys, who in the media is portrayed to have no feeling at all. Yes it's highly bias, but wasn't the media's side of the story as well? It is shot in a very amateur way and in parts goes on too much. A lot like the boys are bragging about the things the get up to. There's a lack of women, and in some cases a lack of clothes. If you can get past these minor factors it's a good watch.What is interesting and not deliberately put in is how well these boys have actually done to become at least half decent. Yes their idea of fun is jumping of a cliff a light, or bashing someone to a pulp, but at least they try to get the most out the life they have been given. They do the most they can to use surfing to get them out of the rut of their lives and then become good role models to the younger boys in the group, or at least compared to their home life. It's rather touching to watch considering what a lot of them cop at home. It's touching to see how much the Bra Boys support these boys and how much the gang is truly their family. It's very confronting because the viewer starts to realize they can't dismiss these kids as trouble makers, there's just so much more to their story.They add to the story by showing a lot of Australian culture and the history behind it. There's some humour included when talking about the laws put in place that included men wearing skirts and other such ridiculous things the Maroubra authorities put in place.This is why the film a worthwhile watch. It helps people see why these boys do such things. It shows a bigger picture of what the gang mentality is all about. It stirs empathy inside of the viewer.What does get old in the movie is the amount of fighting that is put into the film. For a 'defence film' it was a wrong choice because it makes them look horrible. It's like they can't make up their mind if they want to be strong and tough, or terribly misunderstood. I guess there giving us the whole of themselves not just the filtered through good bits, and then it's the viewer job to decide how exactly they should stereotype these guys.Nicole GYC

Bra Boys is a fascinating exploration of the Maroubra surf scene, or more correctly the boys of the Maroubra surf scene (there is no room for the female in this landscape) particularly focusing on the Abberton brothers.Coming from hardened backgrounds and neglectful parents, the brothers rose up to form a clan of fraternal solidarity with the Maroubra local boys as well as strong reputations as world class surfers of big waves.While the subject matter is fascinating and there's almost enough material here for 3 documentaries, the fact that the film is written, directed and produced by Sunny Abberton causes a problem. A documentary like this needs a certain objectivity which never happens. This becomes a real problem for the film when it explores the incidents surrounding the murder of Anthony Hines and the involvement of Jai and Koby Abberton. The film avoids some very important facts here that end up frustrating its audience and also lessening its impact. It's hard to engage with a story when you can feel that you're given a highly manipulated version of the events whether that be the melodramatic horror music that accompanies any photo of Hines or the glossing over of Kai's actions and Koby's statement to the police. While the boys make reference to a certain street code of silence, this doesn't fly so well in a documentary. An objective eye could have helped ask the questions and provide the information that the film really needed to at this moment. The real story of this documentary seems to be lurking at the edges, hidden under the forced attempts to prove their reckless invincibility and unbreakable commitment to their comrades.While it's true that the boys are often misrepresented by the media's one sided view, they're not doing themselves any favors by taking a one sided view themselves. After watching this documentary, you would almost walk away believing that the Abbertons should be praised for their actions involving Hines and single-handedly soothed the Cronulla riots.They're keen to play up their tough home life and upbringing. Not so willing to disclose that Koby now pulls in $250,000 a year sponsorships. Besides the Abberton grandmother who opens her home to the local boys, women are almost completely missing from this film. And despite the tattoo that claims he is his "brother's keeper", Koby is visibly absent from his brother's trial verdict where he will discover whether he faces a 30 year imprisonment.Although it isn't connected to the Abbertons, the drug ties to the Bra Boys probably deserved a bit more screen time rather than the disjointed opening 30 minutes of weird historical narration and bad animation. It also could have served to make more sense of the events surrounding Anthony Hines.The Abbertons have led an amazing life and the hope they offer the local boys through the Bra Boys and their surfing achievements IS commendable and worthy of praise. But they should trust their audiences enough to let them be the judge of that rather than trying to manipulate their opinions.