Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

In Romper Stomper when the white characters tell the Vietnamese to get out of the country, no one retorts that it is not their country in the first place. Aboriginals were there for thousands of years before the white man set foot in Australia.Then again Romper Stomper is not a film that will give you any kind of intellectual stimulation. It is inspired by the low budget film making of Mad Max with the tawdry violence of A Clockwork Orange but without that film's grisly dark humour.A group of neo-nazi skinheads in Melbourne led by Hando (Russell Crowe) and Davey (Daniel Pollock) are aghast with the rising Vietnamese population taking over the small businesses. They retaliate by first outnumbering their victims and then beating them senseless whether it is men or women. Eventually the skinheads are vastly outnumbered by the Vietnamese and attacked.The group is joined by Gabrielle (Jacqueline McKenzie) who is being sexually abused by her wealthy father. She suffers from epileptic fits and goes on the run with Hando and Davey. Gabrielle and Davey get close but Hando is not keen on her, after all the Nazi's were never keen on disabled people.The film has several prolonged violent scenes that sets out to shock its audience. You actually wonder how the victims managed to get out alive from it all. It also shows the emptiness in Hando's philosophy. Ultimately he is only a violent thug and not a bright one despite his knowledge of Mein Kampf.Russell Crowe gives a glimpse of his talent, the film has a rawness to it, but too many times it is hampered by its low budget even amateurish filmmaking. The film could had benefited with some dark humour but really came across as vacuous.

Romper Stomper is certainly not a movie for everyone. It certainly deserved its R18+ classification in Australia due to its unsettling violent content and sex scenes. It will offend, it will shock and upset some viewers. It's certainly not one for young children. Those that watch Romper Stomper and put aside the controversial content will find that it is a powerful movie. Romper Stomper was also notable for garnering recognition for Russell Crowe.Romper Stomper centers on a group of Neo Nazis led by the charismatic and volatile Hando (Russell Crowe). Hando's best friend and second in command who Hando relies upon is Davey (Daniel Pollock, who committed suicide before the film's release). The gang befriend Gabrielle (Jacqueline McKenzie) a lost cause who is a drug addict and is sexually abused by her affluent father. The gang frequently wreak havoc throughout Footscray in Melbourne, Victoria and target the local Vietnamese in the area. Hando and his gang bash up a group of Vietnamese teenagers at the start of the movie with Hando warning one of them, "This is not your country". After a violent confrontation with a large number of Vietnamese which sees a lot of the Neo Nazi's brutally bashed and their warehouse set on fire, Hando, Davey, Gabrielle and the remaining members struggle to fight for survival to stay alive and not get at each others throats as well as avoid the police and any further retribution.Though this is one of Russell Crowe's earliest roles, Romper Stomper is definitely one of his most memorable movies, right up there with L.A. Confidential (1997), The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and American Gangster (2007).Director Geoffrey Wright pulls no punches in bringing Romper Stomper to the screen, but he has certainly done a commendable job. Romper Stomper has netted a lot of controversy in Australia and worldwide due to its content but it still remains as one of the best Australian movies.Romper Stomper is a movie that may be unflinchingly unpleasant to watch but the rewarding factor is that it is a powerful movie with powerhouse performances all round, particularly from Russell Crowe.9/10.

ROMPER STOMPER is much more than an early vehicle for Russell Crowe. It's a movie about racial violence, prejudice, and lives without hope. It's also full of great stomping fight scenes, amazing punk rock, and steaming hot sex. It never sentimentalizes the racist gangs, unlike GANGS OF NEW YORK. Instead it's violent, completely honest, and unbelievably disturbing. It's so ironic that this film features Russell Crowe as an absolutely repulsive villain, yet even here you can see the incredible star power and charisma that was to make him a global superstar in just a few years' time. As Hando, the Nazi Skinhead leader, he's cruel and heartless, yet you see exactly the same kind of strength, the silent aura of authority, that made him such a natural for hero parts down the road. Even when his gang is outnumbered hundreds to one the only thing you see on his face is stern determination and cold resolve. Now I want to talk for a minute about the film's tragic ending. Since this film is more than twenty years old, I don't consider this a *spoiler* but stop here if you don't want to hear about the final scene. Hando the skinhead leader dies horribly at the end. (Again, can that be a spoiler? Did you think the picture would end with Nazi skinheads taking over Australia?) But what lifts this movie above the run of the mill "message" picture is the nature of Hando's downfall. Instead of being killed in a street fight with Asians, he gets stabbed from behind by his best friend. What makes this image so powerful is that it defies expectations. Russell Crowe plays Hando as a man who is not afraid of death. He doesn't just want to fight the Asian immigrants; he wants to die fighting them. Alone among the gang, I think, he really understands that the fight is hopeless. Again, look at his eyes when they're trapped in the garage halfway through the picture, with hundreds of enemies banging on the door. This is the end Hando wants, and in an ironic sense, it is the end he deserves. The death he gets, stabbed by a fellow white man over a woman, is the ultimate humiliation. And there is irony, authentically tragic irony, in the fact that Davey is the only person Hando really loves, and that he is destroyed, not by his racism, but by his best mate. As he sinks beneath the waves with blood spurting from the severed artery in his neck, Russell Crowe keeps his eyes locked on the horizon, stoic and uncomplaining even in death.Talk about a real master and commander!

This hit the headlines in Britain when upon its initial release in London the Anti-Nazi League picketed cinemas showing it because ... well it gives that lot something to do . The fact that there's something inversely fascist in this by screaming " Fascist " or " Nazi " at someone doing something rabidly oppressive such as paying money to watch a film is lost on some people . At least London allowed the film to be shown unlike a few councils in Britain such as Glasgow city council who outright banned the film from being shown in cinema chains in the city . I'm guessing the thinking behind this is down to it being used as a recruiting campaign for far right groups ? Remind me what scene in this film promotes fascism in any way ? Now that the ill founded controversy has died down ROMPER STOMPER is the film best known for a power house breakthrough performance by Russell Crowe who at the turn of the century was quite possibly the best known movie star in the world . It wasn't just his acting he was known for and would often make headlines being a little too free with his fists and seeing Crowe in this movie all those years ago led me to ask if Crowe wasn't using too much acting skill as a violent thug . As good as Crowe is it's the performance of Jacqueline McKenzie and the late Daniel Pollock that probably stand the test of time Despite the memorable performances ROMPER STOMPER is a rather empty and unconvincing movie . It tries to be a gritty realist film but its constant use of an Oi soundtrack negates this . The production team didn't want to pay royalties to Neo-Nazi bands such as Skewdriver so that's two fingers up to both the Nazis and the anti-Nazis so congratulations to the production team for that . But the storytelling is a bit confusing it's got elements of a doomed love triangle but is in no way a twisted love story . Indeed the characters are difficult to buy in to and give the impression they're mere plot devices there to build up a story and have their world collapse around them as things go wrong . Perhaps this is why I thought the film tries to make a point of family and belonging but everything ends up becoming so confused that it's difficult to see what the point the film is trying to make . It's a good film in parts and you'll remember certain scenes such as the " fourth Reich fighting men " chase but at the end of the day ROMPER STOMPER is a rather empty film