Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Marc Israel While the world is aware of City Of God, it's TV spin off finale on the big screen is less wordily, and as our characters are defined by the favelas and roles found there, their plot is caged in by the need for a TV summary. That being laid out does not take away from the bold finale, its' bing filmed in Rocina, the beautiful dichotomy of Rio's favelas atop the glorious beaches with the Dois Irmaos creating an intoxicating view which can never be lived up to into reality. Our actors do their best, but our king of the hill and his number two split over nothing and yet everyone knows a war is on? How is this possible? How are we viewers to then move forward with lost and found fathers who also have a life altering history? Ech characters story viewed separately makes for good TV episodes, but sewn together on the big screen is hard to digest. Loved the use of older footage where most movies create something that we have to try hard top believe, here, an inherited audience was held at bay by the handcuffs of aggressive plot lines. Thank god I'm still passionate enough about Brasil to look past this to enjoy a picturesque favela gangster movie with lesser expectations than those hooked on the show.

thisissubtitledmovies Three friendships, three betrayals, three tales to tell… Paulo Morelli delivers his take on the lives of the residents of Dead End Hill, where veiled truths are uncovered causing friends to become foes, lives to be lost and boys to become men. Amid a plot overflowing with passion and the prominence of personal growth, pardon and partnership; City Of Men conveys juxtapositions of the grim and the grand outcomes for treachery or disobedience of the unwritten rules of Rio de Janeiro.With the accent upon survival of the fittest, and the urge to "retrieve what is rightfully yours," salvage is a key motive for the characters and factor for the entire stratagem within City Of Men. In a rousing story screened with raw sensation using a fatherless, foolish and foreboding cast, we get to view a beautiful work of art, which is actually fast, fresh, fearless and forward thinking. VMF

johnslegers "Citade de Deus" ("City of God") was a Brazilian masterpiece telling the story about the gang wars in the Brazilian favelas (slums) during the '70s from the perspective of a boy who wants to become a journalist. Based on a true story, it gives you a quite realistic impression of what it was like to live back then in one of the most dangerous places on earth.After the success of "Citade de Deus", Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles, (the directors) created a series called "Cidade dos Homens" ("City of God") based on the same concept taking place in the present which in 2007 was turned into another feature length film with the same title.As I haven't seen the series I cannot judge it, but the film "Cidade dos Homens" was not nearly as good as the first. Telling the story of two friends growing up in the Rio favelas, the film starts out real slow and never manages to become nearly as compelling as "Citade de Deus" was. Certainly, the fighting between the two rivaling gangs is exciting to watch but this only but a small part of the film and the rest of it consists of little more than the two friends trying to survive and maintain their friendship. There is little depth in any of the other characters and this makes the film fairly pointless to watch for anyone who's already seen "Citade de Deus". While not a bad film by any standards, but it's by no means better than mediocre either. I expected more from the people who brought us "Citade de Deus". Was this a cheap attempt to get some easy money?!?

Roland E. Zwick "City of Men" is a feature film version of a blockbuster series that ran on Brazilian TV from 2002 to 2005. It is also a sequel of sorts to the earlier "City of God," an award-winning movie directed by Fernando Meirelles.Paul Morelli's "City of Men" focuses on Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) and Acerola (Douglas Silva), two honorable teens who are struggling to make a decent life for themselves in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. The former is searching for the father he's never known, while the latter is only beginning to learn what it means to be a father to his own son. Their personal story is set against the backdrop of a violent turf-war between two rival gangs that are battling it out for preeminence in the city."City of Men" reveals its origins as a TV series in the novelistic approach it takes to storytelling and character development. From the beginning, we feel as if we have been thrust into the midst of a story "already in progress." With little explanatory background, the screenplay (by Elena Soarez) introduces us all at once to a multiplicity of characters, whose relationships with one another we are forced to pick up almost on the fly as it were. This allows us to become both an observer of and an active participant in the drama that unfolds.Certainly, one of the most important characters in the movie is the city itself, since it is this very environment of poverty, hopelessness and violence that, in large measure, determines the kinds of lives these people will lead and the types of futures they will have.Morelli's directorial style is up-close-and-personal in the more intimate moments, and vivid and exciting in the pulse-pounding "action" sequences. The sense of immediacy that he and cinematographer Adriano Goldman bring to the work acts as an effective counterweight to some of the more melodramatic elements that creep into the screenplay towards the end.With excellent performances and a surprising amount of optimism given its generally depressing milieu and setting, "City of Men" is a tale of friendship and adult responsibility that will move the spirit and touch the heart.