Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5312 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-02-23
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Portuguese
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Action-packed and fueled by Brazilian funk, City of Men returns the makers of City of God to the scene of their first success. In this case, the search for family supersedes the search for identity--not that there isn't a correlation between the two. Though produced by Fernando Meirelles, Paulo Morelli's feature isn't a sequel, but a follow-up to the four-season series of the same name. While Meirelles's movie takes place in Rio de Janeiro's past, Morelli's transpires in the present (not counting flashbacks from the show). Days away from turning 18, boyhood friends Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha, a.k.a. Wallace (Darlan Cunha), grew up without fathers. Ace has a wife and child; Wallace has a steady girl. The duo gets along with the gang that rules their labyrinthine hillside neighborhood or favela, but hoodlum life holds little appeal. Ace struggles to raise his young son--his security guard father was murdered during a robbery--while Wallace tries to track down the dad he never knew. With Ace's assistance, Wallace solves the mystery of his genealogy, but at great cost to their friendship (and lives). Despite the South American pedigree, City of Men suggests the South Central of Boyz N the Hood more than City of God. It's not that Morelli's kinetic film looks like John Singleton's more classically composed enterprise, but that it deals with similar inner-city concerns. That said, Silva and Cunha are every bit as charismatic as Ice Cube and Cuba Gooding Jr.--if not more so. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Special Features

• Building A City of Men

Synopsis
In this long-awaited follow-up to his Academy Award®-nominated film City Of God (2003, Best Director, Fernando Meirelles), producer Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener ) returns to the Brazilian favelas to tell an inspiring tale of friendship and family on the gritty streets of Rio de Janeiro. Growing up in a culture dictated by violence and run by street gangs, teenagers Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) have become close as brothers. With their eighteenth birthdays fast approaching, Laranjinha sets out to find the father he never met, while Acerola struggles to raise his own young son. But when they suddenly fi nd themselves on opposite sides of a gang war, the lifelong friends are forced to confront a shocking secret from their shared past. Featuring stunning cinematography and a fascinating behind-the-scenes bonus feature, City Of Men is an even greater experience on DVD.

Customer Reviews

City of despair
Set in the favelas overlooking downtown Rio, this hardy tale of two friends going through a rite of passage is admirable in allowing us a glimpse of the harsh realities of life in the slums.

These failed communities, consisting of poverty, broken families and criminal gangs, are self perpetuating and our two lads (Ace and Wallace) have to make a choice between submitting to the favelan way of life or leaving.

Absent male role models is the main theme of this film and it delivers this strong message over in a thoroughly engaging way.

My only gripe was the difficulty in understanding who was who, which doesn't become apparent to at least half way through the film.

Other than that it shines.

Not quite City of God
This is a good film but you are always going to compare it to City of God and it ain't up to that standard. Yet if you watch the film in its own right then it is a good a movie. It isn't as slick and intelligent as City of God and it doesn't run that smoothly as at times as it jumps from one thing to another but it is still decent and worth a purchase.