[It has] a real ring of authenticity in every scene.
Comment
03/10/08
City of Men (2008)
87
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:20
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Brutal and unflinching, City of Men is both a harrowing look at Brazil's favela life, and a touching tale of youths rushed into adulthood.
Theatrical Release:Feb 29, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $242,655
Synopsis: Director Fernando Meirelles scored an unexpected hit with his disquieting 2003 feature CITY OF GOD. Subsequent years saw plenty of similar fare emerging from Brazil, and Meirelles even lent a hand... [More]
Starring: Darlan Cunha, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen, Rodrigo Dos Santos
Director: Paulo Morelli
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Reviews for City of Men
Top CriticWhere City of God was ferocious, grandiose, and glamorous, this movie is modest and intimate, acoustic where the other was desperate to electrify.
02/29/08
Top CriticThe story might have been lifted from an old Warner Brothers melodrama, though it's smartly paced, sincerely delivered, and consistently absorbing.
02/29/08
Top CriticAlong comes a sequel of sorts, City of Men, but the difference is clear right from the first frame: Meirelles is gone and so is the intensity. What's left is a mix of credible sociology and tired melodrama, along with a palpable sense of déjà vu.
02/29/08
Top CriticThough the histrionics of City of Men are a bit obvious, and it lacks the bravado of City of God, it's ultimately a more rewarding film.
02/29/08
Top CriticOur investment in their plight is ultimately enough to withstand the contrivance of the plot thread that tightens and tests the young men's relationship.
02/29/08
Top CriticThe movie's power comes less from its contrived story than everything else: the stark setting, chaotic energy and authentic cast.
02/29/08
Top CriticPerformances are up to par, but the story unfolds conventionally -- it lacks the fragmented fury of its predecessor. You might call it City of God Lite.
02/29/08
Top CriticYet even with its reined-in aims, City of Men still gives you what few American urban crime movies do -- a sense of life as it's really lived in the slums, where there are few options and almost all of them are bad.
02/29/08
Top CriticA compelling and visually arresting drama from Brazil.
02/29/08
Top CriticWhile Men is not as energetic or bracing as God, it is a disturbing exploration of violent drug culture in Rio's shantytowns. It's also a poignant look at the legacies of fathers who abdicate their responsibilities.
02/29/08
Top CriticThis is an engrossing film, partly because the director pulls the camera back from time to time to mitigate the occasional effect of claustrophobia and to remind the audiencehow stunning the landscape is.
02/29/08
Top CriticCity of Men is a rootin’-tootin’ gangster movie shot in the notoriously lawless shantytowns overlooking the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
02/29/08
Top CriticA gripping companion piece to the Oscar-nominated 2002 gangster masterpiece City of God.
02/28/08
Top CriticShot in a gritty, kinetic style that captures the colorful squalor of a neighborhood dubbed Dead-End Hill, City of Men is in many ways a more satisfying piece of storytelling than City of God.
02/28/08
Top CriticDespite its contrivances and flashiness, City of Men somehow wins you over with its steady, underlying flow of intimacy and compassion.
02/28/08
Top CriticThe new picture, directed by Paulo Morelli, does not try to compete with the dizzying visual gyrations and propulsive, nearly maniacal energy of the previous one, which was directed by Fernando Meirelles.
02/28/08
Top CriticCity of Men has the electrically oversaturated style of reality that made City of God such a searing vision of teenage criminal life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.
02/28/08
Top CriticCity of Men tells a multilayered story coherently, with propulsive action and a naturalistic nod to the fact that so much of the world is a violent place.
02/28/08
Top CriticCity of Men is outstanding in its own right, a moving story of the bleak lives of those living in the favelas, or slums, slaves to the drug-gang violence there, so immune to the constant danger that it simply becomes part of their lives.
02/28/08
Top CriticLatest News for City of Men
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,... More...
February 28, 2008:
Critics Consensus: Semi-Pro is Semi-Good, Boleyn Girl Not Quite Movie Royalty
This week at the movies, we've got hapless hoopsters, snouted socialites, and scandalous siblings. What do the critics have to say? More...
November 23, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review 
More...
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