City of Men, not Fathers... (City Of Men (DVD))

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	City Of Men (DVD)
Date:	27/10/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Visual treat

Disadvantages: Predictable

So, City of Men, the film of version of the popular Brazilian TV series by the same name, which, of course, spun off the multi-award wining City of God movie, coming full circle here with the sequel. The characters that survived the gang wars of the TV series featuring prominently here, and all grown up from the 2003 film.

The gang wars are still raging in the vibrant bustling favelas, alive with love and bullets, but the life expectancy still pretty low for black Brazilians in the worlds most ethnically divided city, the real message from director Paulo Morelli in his work. Brazil actually has the worlds 8th biggest economy but 70% unemployment, and when those giant tectonic plates of have and have nots rub together the fireworks will fly.

The basic premise, as the title suggest, its a city of full of men but not fathers, the women left with the kids in the ghettos whilst the boys are out robbing tourists and running drugs, South American macho culture all that matters. The Favelas are divided up between gangs and woe betide if you go where you shouldn't be, the police even afraid to step foot in some areas. With the Olympics and the World Cup heading out there for 2016-18 there is some serious crime cleaning up to be done before then.

-Cast-

Douglas Silva ... Acerola
Darlan Cunha ... Laranjinha
Jonathan Haagensen ... Madrugadão
Rodrigo dos Santos ... Heraldo
Camila Monteiro ... Cris
Naima Silva ... Camila
Eduardo 'BR' Piranha ... Nefasto (as Eduardo BR)
Luciano Vidigal ... Fiel
Pedro Henrique ... Caju

-The Plot-

Best buddies Ace (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) are about to turn 18, and for a present, orphan Ace decides to find out where Larans dad is, long since out of his son's life.

They live in and around the Rio de Janeiro slum of Morro da Sinuca, Ace a father to little Clayton (Vinícius Oliveira), constantly dumping him on mother Cris (Camila Monteiro), she wanting more from life than being a baby sitter and soon to be ghetto widow.

Laranjinha's gangster cousin Madrugadão (Jonathan Haagensen) is the king of the Morro da Sinuca hill, but soon betrayed by his right-hand Nefasto (Eduardo BR), he expelled from the slum and Laranjinha and Ace having to leave the hill for their own safety.

While Ace discovers Larans dad was in jail for murder he manages to locate him, father and son soon hooking and slowly bonding.

Whilst Madrugadão plots a plan to invade and recover the hill with the support of the gang of the drug lord from Morro do Careca, Acerola and Laranjinha begin to unravel the past of their fathers, which may not be a good idea, leading to a split in loyalties and Ace falling into the arms of Madrugadãos gang for protection now that he's a marked man for his allegiance to the other hill...

-The Conclusion-

I enjoyed the film Elite Squad, the first Brazilian movie to really cash in on the City of Gods success and so had to give this a go for a little bit more of 'Brazilian culture', seemingly gang violence and the beach just that. Alas our visits to the fevalas are beginning to be samey and the rich mix of colourful characters somewhat cliché. Is there anything more to Brazil than street kids and drug gangs we must now ask? Yes it's well acted, the usual mix of experienced performers and local kids from the favelas bought into to play themselves to add gritty authenticity, but it offers nothing new, a film of the Brazilian version of The Wire all too predictable. The angle that this time its shot from the point of view of the residents living around the violence kind of works but there's still no real exhilarating narrative there to build a story. Its obvious who is going to die and who is going to live. But I felt obliged to watch it as City of God was so fresh, new and exciting, a pure starburst of colour on the screen from another part of the world we only know by postcards. But when you see the same fireworks again and again to Beethoven at your local council display it loses its edge and that's definitely the case here. I couldn't really engage with their characters or sympathize with them and after the expectant shoot outs and betrayals you end up saying I told you so. Is this really all there is to Brazilian cinema? What happened to the football, Samba and beautiful girls!

= = = = = = Special Features = = = = = =

-Building the City of Men-

Straightforward behind the scenes stuff with cast & crew.

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RuN-TiMe 106 minutes
Blockbusters 5 films for £5 weekly deal.
Imdb.com scores it 7.3 out of 10.0 (4,343 votes)
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