Romper Stomper


Dir: Geoffrey Wright
Star: Russell Crowe, Daniel Pollock, Jacqueline McKenzie, Tony Lee

[13] Anyone else think Reservoir Dogs was nothing but a rip-off, right from the opening credits of men in suits and dark glasses walking in slo-mo, as seen in a million HK movies? Wish someone had told it's director that "funny psychos" went out with Nightmare on Elm Street 4? Want ultraviolence? Try this Australian movie, an unmoralistic look at a gang of Melbourne skins and their 'relationship' with the local immigrants. Most memorable sequence is a fight/chase around the gang's base, but most of the opening 45 minutes is chilling stuff. Then, as if to demonstrate skinheads are human too, the director throws in a lurve triangle. Big mistake - while perhaps realistic, it's hard to accept and, hell, it was far more enjoyable to see them as monsters! So it finally ends up a maudlin love story/road movie, but (if you'll pardon the pun) a nice stab, nonetheless.

C


Shirts vs. skins
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