Brazillian director Mereilles' splashy feature debut, a dynamically exciting portrait of Rio's violent gangs, immediately established himsef as an international talent to watch, and the Oscar nods only reaffirmed that status.
CommentDec 31, 2009
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Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2002)
92
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:149
Fresh:137
Rotten:12
Average Rating:8.3/10
Consensus: A shocking and disturbing, but always compelling look at life in the slums of Rio de Janiero.
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 2 hr. 13 min.
Theatrical Release: Jan 17, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $7.3M
Synopsis: Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer. [More]
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REVIEWS FOR CIDADE DE DEUS (CITY OF GOD)
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Jun 17, 2009
Top CriticFernando Meirelles' Brazilian slum epic is a profound, stylistically expansive depiction of three decades of child gang warfare on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro with non-actors playing their poverty-ridden lives for the camera.
Jun 12, 2009
Often masterful in its distillation of exposition into pure sight and sound energy... but equally frustrating in its attention-grabbing lack of focus.
Nov 12, 2008
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Apr 4, 2008
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Nov 1, 2007
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Jul 14, 2007
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Jun 24, 2006
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Dec 6, 2005
City of God is not the easiest film to watch, but it is a masterpiece all the same, maybe the best crime drama since the Godfather films.
Jan 15, 2005
A staggering masterpiece.
Aug 13, 2004
A Brazilian "Scarface"
Jul 23, 2004
At a full-throttle pace and exciting from beginning to end, directors Lund and Meirrelles grab hold of your attention and don’t let go.
Jun 25, 2004
Directors Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles stir all the cinematic virtues into this finely-crafted narrative.
Jun 13, 2004
It's a grim epitaph for hypocrisy, and the film provides no comfortable answers for solving any of the problems it so well describes.
Jun 8, 2004
Difficult to watch but hard to look away from.
May 19, 2004
Top CriticWe've seen this story before, more or less -- the blood, the budding psychopaths, the all-too-young victims of urban decay -- but never quite like this.
May 10, 2004
As we see kids of no more than ten or twelve run through the streets with guns shooting those who don't give them what they want, we can't help but pity them.
Apr 18, 2004
“City of God” is a movie that, for the lack of a better term, incites us. It elicits a response. It pounds away at us until we break...
Mar 17, 2004
The living conditions it projects are as horrendous as I had feared, but the movie is surprisingly easy to take as a rollicking homicidal entertainment.
Mar 11, 2004
Top CriticLATEST NEWS FOR CIDADE DE DEUS (CITY OF GOD)
February 28, 2008:
Exclusive Photos: City of God Sequel City of Men
Two young men struggle to stay afloat amid the drugs, violence, and poverty of Brazil's slums in the big-screen spin-off of Fernando Meirelles' critically acclaimed 2002 film, City of God.
More...
July 11, 2005:
Fraser, Mos Def and Ms. Moreno to Star in Brazilian Thriller
Brendan Fraser ("The Mummy") will topline Millennium Films' "Journey to the End of the Night" for "Manito" writer/director Eric Eason, says Variety. A crime drama about a...
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