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.

If you're a die-hard Tarantino fan. This is a must-see for you. If you're not, and even if you've never heard of Quentin Tarantino, you should still see this movie. While it's not a film that's 100 percent accurate in its historical accounts and it might contain a few anachronisms here and there for the super nerds out there trying to spot them out, the movie is still enjoyable from beginning to end.

Jamie Foxx, as the lead character, delivers a strong, solid performance as Django, a recently freed slave, with lots of heart and a quick learner, who is out for revenge after a gang of hillbilly criminals snatched his beloved wife, tortured her and sold her to a different slave owner. Christoph Waltz, gives an unforgettable performance as King Schultz, a German bounty hunter and former dentist who partners up with Django and later assists him on his quest for vengeance. Waltz steals the show in every scene he is in, with his witty, sharp dialogue and incomparable comic timing and delivery. Leonardo DiCaprio, as the main villain Calvin Candie, gives another mesmerizing performance to add to his long resume as a cruel and racist plantation magnate. Kerry Washington also delivers as the beautiful, bilingual wife of Django, Broomhilda Von Shaft, a constant victim of humiliation and cruelty by her owner, Calvin Candie. Samuel L. Jackson gives another memorable performance to add to his very own Tarantino resume as Stephen, an outspoken and powerful house slave who is very sharp and observant and who instantly despises Django upon meeting him.

There are also other names and familiar faces you will see on this film that also give good supporting performances such as Don Johnson, James Remar (playing two characters) Tom Wopat, M.C. Gainey, Jonah Hill, Michael Parks, among others. Even Tarantino himself makes a small cameo. The movie is filled with the classic Tarantino brand of superb dialogue, bloody scenes, hilarious random conversations, etc. It's everything you go to the movies for. If you want an accurate historical account of the slavery era, you will not get it from "Django" what you will get is what you pay for, A Tarantino masterpiece full of what he does best, make great, intelligent and wildly entertaining films! Highly recommend it!

How do I start? I decided to give this movie a chance expecting to see a movie depicting the positive and negative aspects of the South Bronx, but all I saw was the negatives all the way. Almost every single character in this film is a lowlife, with the exception of Tommy, Allen and Rose. Tommy was supposed to be everyone's role model in the film, yet, most of the time he stood around and did nothing when his posse of low lives he so called "friends" did stupid and highly embarrassing things to other people. The heavy set guy taking off his clothes through half of the movie was supposed to be the comic relief, but I just found him obnoxious and not at all funny. Another major flaw of this film is its lack of story line. There is none, whatsoever. All we see for an hour and 35 minutes is the director showing almost every Puerto Rican and black in the film act like savages with absolutely no class or manners.

If this film was trying to be anything like past classics such as Boyz 'n the Hood, Do The Right Thing or Menace 2 Society, it failed miserably. At least those other films showed many other positive aspects of African-Americans and those films actually had a storyline and plot.

In the end, when this movie was over, I felt sick to my stomach of watching every single negative stereotype of Puerto Ricans in a single film. I don't even think the title is fitting. What is this bond that Boricuas share according to Val Lik anyway? A lifetime of violent behavior, promiscuous sex, irresponsibility, drugs? is that the bond? Where is the positive message? Please, do yourself a favor, especially if you're Puerto Rican. Stay away from this film, you will thank me later.