Seeing Russell Crowe's name in the cast, I thought it might have been a throw away role for him in a picture like this. However he's surprisingly good as an Australian neo-Nazi skinhead leading his band of thugs against any and all Vietnamese immigrants in violation of his protected territory. His whole gang snaps when the local Railway Hotel owner sells his business and saloon to the Asians, and the story results in an escalating series of retaliations of one ethnic group against the other. The story is not for the squeamish, as there's violence galore, though surprisingly little blood for the kind of brutality you get to see on screen. There's a twisted subtext going on with the presence of Aussie girl 'Gabe' (Jacqueline McKenzie),who's relationship with her father carries a subtle but sordid past, which helps explain how she's deviated from the right side of the tracks to join the skinhead bunch. The picture is punctuated by a riveting musical score right from the outset, and it's a tough picture to avert your eyes from once it gets going, violence notwithstanding. No happy endings here, as relationships are shattered and lives are casually dismissed as irrelevant in a culture that has little value for human life.

In Melbourne, neo-nazi skinheads led by Hando (Russell Crowe) and Davey (Daniel Pollock) attack the local Vietnamese population. Gabrielle (Jacqueline McKenzie) was sexually abused by her father Martin (Alex Scott). She catches the attention of Hando. When they find their local bar being bought out by Vietnamese, they beat them up drawing in a Vietnamese mob. The skinheads are sent running after a bloody battle. Gabrielle has an epileptic fit. Hando wants guns to take revenge. Gabrielle suggests robbing her father's place.

There is a sloppiness in Geoffrey Wright's direction but the story's edginess and violence make it a compelling watch. It's a star creating performance from Russell Crowe. He has terrific on screen charisma. McKenzie has a damaged beauty. The violence is the biggest star of this movie. The story does meander but it never loses the tension or interest. There is also a real life tragedy of Pollock's suicide after the filming.

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.