This film is amazing. City of God tells the true story of a young Brazilian boy growing up in Rio debJaneiro and his attempts to avoid the local gangs. The best thing about this film is the direction. At the very start of the film we are thrown into the frenzy of Rocket and from then on the entire film moves at a non stop pace. It is breathtaking. Some of the scenes are very shocking which helps to portray a true image of this boys tough life. The flashback scenes also work very well, such as The Story of the Apartment.This film is also a technichal achievement. The cinematography and background sounds help to capture the shocking scenes in almost a horrifying manner. The actors all do a very good job too, considering their lack of experience. In general, this is an excellently paced film with a brilliant plot. Truly wonderful.

Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer. Cidade De Deus (City of God) has a very stylish look as a film but i also enjoyed the camera frame work at the beginning and how it was spinning so damn fast. Unfortunately despite the excellent camera work and very good cinematography the film was extremely slow pacing and that kinda took me out of the whole thing since the acting was pretty good and the way that it depicts some events were brutally honest and 100% violent but as i said the pacing was very off and just made me yawn in certain moments. (5.5/10)

Great Picture. I believe the true lure of this movie is that, it shows the dystopic underworld that can come to pass when seemingly normal people has no espace from poverty. The decisions that come after, consciously made by these normal people can be very obtuse and because it shows us ourselves in this kind of light and getting you lured into the picture, it does it's job of truly telling a epic story. Doesn't get enough credit.

This movie is a real gem. It is about as near perfection as any movie can be. The story and writing are superb, with fantastic direction, and the acting is amazing. Really the entire cast is impeccable. I can't recommend this one highly enough. The only warning I have is that it obviously is not good for family/children viewing because of the violence and subject matter involved. But what a great story and movie this is! Riveting.