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Summary: CITY OF TRUTH
Review: This film is the truth!! The experience of growing up in a violent ghetto has never been closer to the truth than this. I grew up in the heart of the crack epidemic in Washington Heights, NYC, the birthplace of crack cocaine, so take my word for it. Everything from it's beautiful cinematography to it's skillful quick tempo storytelling, taking you from one character to the next without missing a beat is perfect!! This film is on my Top 5 favorite list and should be on yours, so enjoy!!!!!!!
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Summary: storytelling and violence at its best
Review: forget about boyz n da hood or menace to society, gangs of new york was a joke. This is the real deal, and best of all its all based on a true story. Rocket is a boy who grows up in the slums of Rio De Janeiro a small city called " City of God" and sees the harsh brutal reality that is life in the hood. Youngs kids and teenagers run the city with guns and drug deals is an everyday occurrence. The actors are perfect, story is flawless full of surprises and twists, both shocking and humorous.This is truly a great movie and should not be missed!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: City of God, The Joe Martin review
Review: City of God is the film equivalent of being hit in the head with a sledghammer. From its opening sequence involving a fast paced chase scene between a chicken and and dozens of gun toting teenagers and children to its blood soaked ending this movie grabs you immediately and doesnt release its hold for even one moment.
You become immersed in the characters and the irony of the film in my opinion is that even the worste characters inspire pity rather than anger or dislike as is exemplified by the scene where Ze Pequeno kneels over the body of his murdered friend, crying and inefectually shoots his pistol into the air. It is his conditioned response to everything. But we, as he, realize you cant shoot someone back to life.
Products of their environment and desensitized to violence to such a level, that when one of the main characters brother's dies we see that he is less concerned with the death of his brother and more interested in the camera somone is using to take pictures of the dead body. These children have seen it all by a very young age.
The violence in this movie is chilling. Although disgusting we realize it is central to the theme and necessary to the plot. See this movie. It is quite simply unbelievable.
Rating: 
Summary: Probably the best movie of last year...
Review: The good thing about living in an urban area is you get more of the limited release titles like CITY OF GOD. I had heard good things about it and it was more than simply "good." It's hard after walking out to really pinpoint the message or the moral of the story, but it makes you realize what being a "good person" can really mean. This movie was funny, action-packed, violent, fascinating, and entirely entertaining. If you liked movies like PULP FICTION or MEMENTO or GOODFELLAS or other such films then I think you'll agree that this is one of the best movies in that class. Amazing considering it's entirely in Portuguese!!
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Summary: A metaphor for international relations in 2003?
Review: An incredibly powerful film. The violence almost led me to leave the theatre as it initially appeared to be gratuitious. Once I realized that it depicted a real struggle for domination over others that parallels, in many ways, the current struggle between nations for dominance over others through war, I was committed to seeing it through to the end. A stellar movie.
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Summary: you need to see this.......
Review: i saw this movie 3 times and i thought it was excellent. this was based on a true story that finalized in the 70's. it was well interpreted from the book. remember this was based on witness accounts. the feeling and the tone of the movie was always enticing. it is not a movie to be compared. the closest would be pulp fiction in realtion to from end to begining. the acting convinced me how true the story was being revealed. it is not an american movie with same soundtrack, same plot, same gangsta actors, and promtion. city of god is raw talent. it had humor, comedy, fun and tragedy. thats the brazillian lifestyle. the revealation of the movie to me is don't be surprised on how fate sometimes blesses your dream. this was a true story.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing you haven't seen before...
Review: This film came soaring in on a massive tide of hype but, ultimately, failed to deliver. A major hit at film festivals worldwide, the film is supposedly representative of the burgeoning new film industry in Brazil. But if you've seen American films like "Menace II Society" or countless other ghetto gangsta flicks, this certainly won't offer any new surprises. The story contains a vast cornucopia of characters but concentrates mainly on two, one a leading underworld crime figure, the other a photographer who chronicles Brazilian ghetto life. The story has no real plot, but is a more a vast character study that sprawls all over the place. Inevitably, the gangsters' lifestyles leads to their early demises and we're supposed to shake our heads at the tragic waste of life. The cinematography is rather good, however, and seeing the Rio slums up close like this is interesting, but the premise is rather tiring. There is a large school of opinion that sees films like this as a vast reflection of the oppression that minorities face in the Americas, be it North or South. However, the self-destructive behaviour of the film's protagonists really doesn't invoke any sympathy. In the end, I was left feeling indifferent. The only thing I really learned from the film is that white middle-class college-boy liberal guilt extends beyond Canada and the US...it's also something that exists in Brazil. I'm sure the filmmaker's thought that they were delving into some deep subject matter here and that they were doing their duty as good little Marxists to expose the oppressive nature of their capitalist society, but in the end the only thing I was left feeling was 'so what?'. The only saving grace to this movie is the fine performances by the amateur actors, otherwise it's just an exotic foray into a familiar story...if an American made this film in New York, it wouldn't garner even half the praise that it got. An overrated work catering to pretentious cineastes who want to appear ahead of the rest of the pack.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies I've seen in a while
Review: This film is a must see. Not only does it portray the harsh realities of a Brazilian favela (it's based on a true story), but its unique cinematography makes it hugely interesting and exciting. The acting is pretty good...especially considering many of the actors are not professionals.
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Summary: gangsta haven
Review: rio, 1960 imagine the scene the triads take over small business' and make them their own through shere brute force. the story is based around the character "rocket" and shows the story on how it affects him. his brother is shot by the triads and he collaberates with lil dice as an act of retribution. lil dice' corperation starts as him as a boy going to seize all the money in a brothel. his ingenious idea was pulled off by his friends but lil dice wasnt happy being the source of ideas and having to let them take all the action so he set the alarm bells ringing for his fellow robbers and went into the brothel by himself while he butured every person in their to satisfy his first for blood. this was the start of lil dice. he went on to be the kingpin of rio closely supported by his childhood friends. and owning a huge drug corperation which in some ways stopped the crime in the city as their was no opposition to the drugs as lil dice had killed them all. lil dices partener descided the gangster life wasnt for him and he wanted to live in serenity with his girlfriend. lil dice wasnt happy about this because it was throwing away all they had accomplished. at his partners leavers party lil dice and he were fighting and somehow by a mis-shot in the crowd that was meant for lil dice hit his partner and killed him. because of this everyone in rio turned on lil dice and it looked liek the outcome was grim until the two clans started recruiting "child soldiers" which made it more than a battle it was a revolution of society. if i carried on preching from here it would ruin the whole film so its my time to stop and let you watch the film. this is an extreemly clever film and is simmilar in style to memento or fight club. i really enjoyed this one and will definatly reserve my copy on dvd. i recommend it to all people because even my girlfriend liked it and thats saying something all in all a film masterpiece
Rating:
Summary: an electrifying view into the drug war in Rio de Janeiro
Review: Living in Rio de Janeiro I'm already used to the daily news on shoot outs in the favelas of Rio. But this elegantly told and brilliantly shot movie based on the book of a writer who actually lives in "Cidade de Deus" -one of the over 600 favelas of Rio de Janeiro - was a wake up call for the middle and upper class who live in the nicer areas of Rio. It opened the eyes for a social problem which a lot of people tried so hard to ignore over decades. This film is not only a great piece of work but also a very important film for Brazilian society and so it should for societies around the world because this is as good as it gets.
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