Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity?
It's merely another violent art house picture, slumming modishly in the world of psycho-personalities, and exhibiting only occasional flashes of originality.
– Desson Thomson,
Washington Post,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
Exploits the frustration, anger and violence of a despicable subculture while excusing the glorification of its hate aesthetic as necessary "reporting."
– Richard Harrington,
Washington Post,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
The cheap 'message' of the ending fails to salvage a film that at best is well-meant but misguided, at worst, flashy and garbled.
– Geoff Andrew,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
rotten:
Romper Stomper is A Clockwork Orange without the intellect.