Konterr Brilliant and touching

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Johnny0581 I remember when I first saw this movie in 2008, I walked into it heavily comparing it with "City of God" and expecting to see the same fast-pace storytelling, same witty dialogue and same amount of violence C.O.G. had. About 30 minutes into this movie I started to realize that this movie was a completely different animal, although with many of the same actors and same director serving as one of the executive producers. Needless to say, I walked out of this movie heavily disappointed. Fast forward to six years later, the movie is now out of Netflix and by now I have had more than my fair share of Brazilian reality-based films such as "Elite Squad" and "Elite Squad 2" among other Brazilian films which take place in the infamous Rio favelas. After watching it a second time and taking it for what it is, I now appreciate the art of this movie much more. The movie touches not only on poverty but also on young unplanned parenthood, the responsibilities and obligations that come with it, on different types of loyalty and betrayal, forgiveness of oneself and others and it shows you the true meaning of friendship. Rather than focusing on the violent setting itself and on carnage and violence like C.O.G. did, those things take a backseat and the movie shows you the real people who inhabit the favelas. It's a story of friendship, survival, and the choices people make when they don't have a choice.I am not familiar with the TV series, as I never got a chance to watch a single episode, but I can tell that this movie faithfully and successfully translated the story to the silver screen while keeping the essence of the original characters. If you like true slice of life dramas, City of Men surely delivers the goods.Overall I give City of Men 8 out of 10.

ajs-10 This is the follow-up to one of my favourite films, City of God (2002). It continues the theme of life in the poorer parts of Rio and takes a closer look at how things are today. I really enjoyed it, although it doesn't have the depth of 'City of God', I still found the simple storytelling quite refreshing. I had better warn those scared of subtitles that it is in Portuguese with the dreaded words at the bottom of the screen. Here's a brief summary before I give you my thoughts.Two friends, Acerola and Laranjinha are turning eighteen. Acerola is already married and has a son, Clayton. Laranjinha is less than content because he doesn't know who his father is. They both live on 'Dead End Hill', an area that is run by a gang lead by a character known as Midnight. Whilst talking about their plight one day a plan is hatched to discover just who Laranjinha's father is. They ask around and eventually get a lead, but I think it would be giving too much away if I told you any more about this. Meanwhile, one of Midnight's lieutenants defects to another gang and they decide they want to move into 'Dead End Hill'. Who will survive? Will Laranjinha find his father? As you can probably guess, I'm not going to tell you here of the Spoiler Police will be finding my corpse in the quarry.Beautifully shot, I love the grainy look and feel to this film. It's almost like it was filmed on a home movie camera in places, but it still has a professional feel to it. Although it's quite hard to judge a performance in a foreign language, I must give praise to the young leads; Douglas Silva as Acerola and Darlan Cunha as Laranjinha. I thought they were both excellent.This film will always be compared to 'City of God', but it doesn't have the epic scope of that film. Instead it is more compact and because of that it's much easier to identify with the characters. There are little flashbacks to when the boys were younger that is a neat way of bringing the audience closer to the story. Over all, it's a nice simple drama that has some really nice touches. I know it's not had a great deal of exposure, but it's certainly one I can recommend, particularly if you enjoyed 'City of God'. You can probably tell I really enjoyed this one.My Score: 8.6/10.IMDb Score: 7.2/10 (based on 6,016 votes at the time of going to press).Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76/100 (based on 79 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

johnslegers "Citade de Deus" ("City of God") was a Brazilian masterpiece telling the story about the gang wars in the Brazilian favelas (slums) during the '70s from the perspective of a boy who wants to become a journalist. Based on a true story, it gives you a quite realistic impression of what it was like to live back then in one of the most dangerous places on earth.After the success of "Citade de Deus", Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles, (the directors) created a series called "Cidade dos Homens" ("City of God") based on the same concept taking place in the present which in 2007 was turned into another feature length film with the same title.As I haven't seen the series I cannot judge it, but the film "Cidade dos Homens" was not nearly as good as the first. Telling the story of two friends growing up in the Rio favelas, the film starts out real slow and never manages to become nearly as compelling as "Citade de Deus" was. Certainly, the fighting between the two rivaling gangs is exciting to watch but this only but a small part of the film and the rest of it consists of little more than the two friends trying to survive and maintain their friendship. There is little depth in any of the other characters and this makes the film fairly pointless to watch for anyone who's already seen "Citade de Deus". While not a bad film by any standards, but it's by no means better than mediocre either. I expected more from the people who brought us "Citade de Deus". Was this a cheap attempt to get some easy money?!?

JoeytheBrit I expected this to be a sequel to City of God, but evidently it is a conclusion of sorts to the Brazilian TV series that was created as a result of the first film. Certinly the style of film-making is different to City of God, but its subject matter, setting and gritty style are all pretty much the same.Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha play friends on the cusp of manhood who, as they approach their eighteenth birthdays, dwell upon the meaning and importance of fatherhood. Laranjinha (Cunha) misses the father he has never known who was imprisoned for murder before his son was born, while Ace (Silva) is struggling to come to terms with fatherhood. Ace decides to help Laranjinha track down his father (now released from prison) but it is a decision that will threaten to destroy their friendship.The main plot takes place amidst a feudal gang war which, in all honesty, is far more compelling than the domestic problems of the two young protagonists and the film's most compelling performance comes from Jonathan Haagensen as gang leader Midnight. Set amongst the narrow, maze-like alleyways of the Rio slums, it is this gangland storyline that feels both more authentic and appropriate than the problems of the boys, the resolution of which feels too rushed in the film's final reel.The quality of the film-making is beyond dispute, however. Given that this is the final act of a TV series that ran for many years it is to the writers' credit that the viewer isn't confused by the events described or by the references to an unfamiliar past.