City of God

Pros: It's all an incredible achievement.
Cons: Cons? Are you crazy?

I struggle to put into words the immensity and magnificence of City of God - even a year after watching it for the first time. Never have I experienced a film as enrapturing and poignant as was the City of God, smashing any previous ...

Pros: Stylish filmmaking, ultra-reality from a mostly amateur cast, vivid intensity
Cons: Some may be turned off by the Scarface-esque levels of violence

In the slums of Rio de Janeiro, a knife is sharpened and a chicken is slaughtered, its neck cut with determined precision. Its feathers are removed as it is prepared for cooking. Looking on, as if the victim of some malicious torture, is another...

Pros: Meirelles Intense Direction, Script, Cinematography, Editing, Music, & Cast.
Cons: None though the Extreme Violence Might Be Too Much for Some.

When Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu emerged into the international film scene with “Amores Perros” in 2000, a new wave of Latin American cinema had officially arrived. While there were filmmakers like Mexico’s Alfonso Cuaron ...

Pros: Directors Meirelles and Lund get great performances from his cast of largely amateurs.
Cons: Film may snake too much for some. One must crank up compassion for inhumane characters.

In the beginning, we see the blade of the chicken butcher's slaughtering knife ceaselessly moving against its sharpening stone: Is the hand which moves this blade that of the World's expansively oblivious postmodern civilization? Commercial societies...

Pros: …
Cons: …

There are some movies that are light and fluffy and are a good distraction at the end of a hard workweek. City of God isn’t one of them. The story is narrated by Rocket, the central character, who explains a lot of what goes on as he grows up in ...

Pros: powerful.
Cons: disturbing.

City of God opens with a close-up of a chicken in peril as the butcher sharpens his knife. The chicken moves its head in quick motion looking for an escape path and finds it when it feels no one is looking. Soon a chase begins as the chicken ...

Pros: Brilliant script and directing, fine performances, gritty realism, and a subject deserving better exposure
Cons: Extreme violence extending down into pre-adolescents

City of God is an amazing film by any standard, but as the first film from co-directors Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles it certainly portends many future successes for the two, whether singly or as a duo. Meirelles’s only prior film ...

Pros: Everything.
Cons: Nothing. (some may want to beware of extreme violence)

Yeah, I can’t even come up with a title to do this movie justice. I just absolutely loved it. This is movie #6 of my film class, coming from the favelas (poverty-stricken areas, basically) of Brazil. I don’t even have any goofy quips to ...

Pros: Eloquent & Epic Technicolor Violence
Cons: Über Technicolor Violence

“City of God” is one of the greatest gangster films ever made, finding itself amongst the ranks of “Scarface” and “Good Fellas.” Based on the novel by Paul Lins, this epic film spans several decades and chronicles the rise and ...

Pros: A superb movie
Cons: .

A couple years ago I was supposed to read a book called "In Search of Respect : Selling Crack in El Barrio" by Philippe Bourgois. This text was for an anthropology course, and I never got around to reading it. I got the gist of the thing from all the ...

Pros: Directing, storyline, the fact that it's a true story.
Cons: Main character lacks compassion.

The true tragedy in this DVD doesn't really come from the characters. Actually, it doesn't come from the movie itself, but the documentary that goes with the DVD. In it, there is an interview with the chief of police who clearly states that the role of ...

Pros: Action, humor, story
Cons: none

One of the big surprises of this year’s Oscar race is the little seen Brazilian film ‘City of God.’ Nominated for 4 Oscars –- including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing -- ‘City of God’ is based on the true ...

Pros: Solid story, gritty camera wook, and good acting
Cons: None

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you nothing, you do what you can. For the inhabitants of Cidade de Deus (the City of God) one of the most notorious favelas (slums) outside of Rio de Janeiro that often means relying on crime...

Pros: An artful, exciting, honest film
Cons: story a little confusing; setting perhaps a little too violent

The City of God is a slum community on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.The film of the same name that tells the story of this community does so by telling the stories of several of it's residents, young men who have grown up there.In kinetic and ...

Pros: The storytelling, the acting, the setting, the soundtrack...
Cons: None.

Nominated as best picture of the year 2003 by ´EMPIRE´ magazine, nominated for an Oscar and winner of the BAFTA award and many more... This Brazilian ghetto film moved in silently but prooved to be a winner. I picked it up from the video store last week. ...