Razor Eaters

I picked up "Razor Eaters" up on DVD about ten years ago,"The film that launched a police investigation" and 18 certificate on the cover both sparked my interest. Finally dug it out of my DVD cupboard, was it worth the wait? Not really. A gang of young thugs video themselves on an orgy of crime and violence in Melbourne, Australia, targeting mainly drug and arms dealers. Much of the plot is taken up by the cop leading the investigation. A lot of the running time consists of him watching the VHS tapes of their exploits, it is a variation on the found footage movie, only these were deliberately sent to the authorities as the Razor Eaters wanted fame and infamy. The movie is obviously low budget. The picture quality was poor, the acting wasn't great, it became too repetitive and I found the ending a bit disappointing. Does have a cool punk/rock soundtrack though. If you want to see a gang run riot in Melbourne then watch the excellent "Romper Stomper" instead.

Despite my suspicions that superheidi's comments (above) are company PR and more than a little over-the-top, RAZOR EATERS is superior film-making with a depth and focus rare for low budgeters.

Paul Moder (SENSITIVE NEW AGE KILLER) plays a cop on the trail of urban terrorists who are committing acts of random violence and vandalism. They have a point, of course, and we discover what that is as the movie progresses.

The performances are very solid, the writing is tight, and the direction is clear and subtly stylish.

Director Shannon Young uses all the cinematic tricks to milk the most from his action scenes and the violence is tense and convincing.

Editing is tight and star Moder turns in a nuanced, convincing performance.

A solid achievement.

The titular Razor Eaters are a gang of Australian hooligans who decide to terrorize civilization and film their exploits, loosely based on a similar gang that rampaged through Melbourne. Their crimes are cruel and brutal. They kill without mercy. They burn people alive. And they even have official t-shirts.

Perhaps half of the movie focuses on the Razor Eaters, and the other half follows the hardened cop, Detective Danny Berdan (Paul Moder), who is trying to track them down. As with Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, both the detective and the nation itself follows the activities of the gang through the video tapes they leave behind. While many are terrified of the gang, others support their activities, in part because many of their crimes are committed against other criminals, although they use a very broad definition of the term criminal to include people they just don't like. For example, they promise to target drug dealers, but end up killing people for driving like idiots and having loud car stereos. They've also got issues against the media and those who create it, but by the end of the movie it becomes apparent that they are very much enjoying being a part of that media.

It should be noted that, while the actual segments that were filmed by the gang have a documentary feel to them (with the camera moving around all over the place), most of the movie is not shot this way. Personally, I think this gives the movie a more "realistic", true-to-life feel without rendering the entire film unwatchable.

I bought this movie as part of a four-movie set out of the bargain bin at a local department store, along with two other independent movies of the 2000's (and, for some reason, Night of the Living Dead, a movie that gets tacked on to just about any "horror" collection as filler). This is probably the best of the set. Honestly, I think it's worth watching for virtually everyone, but those fans of extreme cinema living down under should definitely consider checking it out.

This film was better than I expected, but I wasn't expecting anything great. It really had nothing to say, but gave the aura of trying to deliver a message. Took itself way too seriously.

Making the 'Razor Eaters' irresponsible morons, doesn't make them rebellious heroes in my book. And claiming this was based on real life is laughable. Or would be if it was funny. Better than Young's first film, but that is saying nothing.

Some of the special effects were good, but too often I was suddenly out of the world of the film, waiting for the next bit. A good film shouldn't do that.

I try to support local films, but...

Being an Australian it was really good to see a very powerful movie from Australia yes there has been some good ones like Romper Stomper, Looking for Alabrandi Mad Max and so on but this one is the most powerful Australian movie i have even seen the actors were so good everything looked so real and not fake it was very VERY well done after it had finished i just felt like i had just watched the Boondock Saints for the first time and i was stunned with amazement 10 out of 10 for me.

So i don't Understand why people give this movie a hard time and funnily enough the people who do give it a hard time are not Australian lol why is that

America had The Manson Family Australia has the Razor Eaters (Except it was based on a gang called the Hedge Burners)