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Romper Stomper, the 1992 movie led by Russell Crowe as Hando, the Neo Nazi skinhead who hates everyone who has a skin with a different colour to him, was an incredible work of art as a movie. So, while it’s good that there’s a spin-off from that, it makes you wonder why it’s taken so long, even though it’s only in the last few years when longform TV series have become such audience-grabbers.
He’s not here, for reasons you’ll understand if you’ve seen that – and if you haven’t, it’s still on iPlayer, so do check it out.
So far for this series, only episode 1 is available, although all six episodes were broadcast on Aussie outlet Stan on January 1st, so you’d think we’d get the lot in one go, but not so. Still, at least that gives me time to catch up with other stuff.
Following an early fight, between right-wing group Patriot Blue, and anarchists Antifasc, which takes place at a Muslim rally, new ‘fiendships’ are born as the Neo Nazi scumbags come together.
They really are the most hateful people, but it’s because of that, that all the feelings I had watching the original came flooding back as I watched the beginning of this, particularly with its memorable theme.
However, this feels more like a reboot rather than a follow-on or sequel, as it has a similar start, but then slows down to introduce the characters, although that’s obviously necessary to a new series, and it does a reasonable job of doing so. You get the impression that things will progress from there and that this is just the set-up, but it would’ve been good to at least have two episodes with which to kick things off (if you’ll pardon the expression, given the punch-ups in the drama), so you can get more of a feel for it.
Where it links in with the movie, is that of the main characters we see, a young lad called Kane (Toby Wallace) – who gets involved with Patriot Blue when he and his friend, Stix (Kaden Hartcher), save its leader, Blake Farron (Lachy Hulme), from a beating – is the son of Gabrielle, played by Jacqueline McKenzie in the original movie.
Romper Stomper is available to pre-order on DVD and Amazon Video, ahead of its release on June 18th. Episode 1 is available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days after transmission.
At the time of posting this, the Romper Stomper movie is online for the next two weeks.
Episode 1 Score: 6/10
Series Directors: James Napier Robertson, Daina Reid, Geoffrey Wright
Producers: Dan Edwards and John Edwards
Series Writers: Dan Edwards, John Edwards, Geoffrey Wright, James Napier Robertson, Malcolm Knox, Omar Musa
Music: Richard Pike
Cast:
Kane: Toby Wallace
Zoe: Sophie Lowe
Blake Farron: Lachy Hulme
Laila: Nicole Chamoun
Farid: Julian Maroun
Malik: Jamie Abdallah
Cindi: Markella Kavenagh
Marco: Jeremy Lindsay Taylor
Stix: Kaden Hartcher
Petra: Lily Sullivan
Danny: Tysan Towney
Thomas: Louis Corbett
Jago: David Wenham
Vic: Dan Wyllie
Gabe: Jacqueline McKenzie
McGoo: John Brumpton
Maeve: Syd Zygier
Anthony: Jordan Mooney
Noddy: Sam Parsonson
Lyno: Fletcher Humphrys
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.