Operações Especiais

I must share that this is a good movie. Brazil action movie quality has improved much in the last few years and this movie is currently rated top 5 on "AdoroCinema" Brazilian action movies, a website focused on Brazilian movies.

There is some decent action scenes, but that is not the main message. The message is around handling bias and corruption, two topics which are very popular today in the media. There is no extremist visions or commentary around it. It's straight to the point, has good character development and has a decent ending, which is something most movies lack these days.

The best action movie ever from Brazil was Elite Squad, if you have not seen it yet. Elite Squad storyline was made by geniuses. This is a very good movie, but not Elite Squad quality.

There is no doubt Brazilian cinema is not only good, but also gets bigger every year. Also, it is very clear that this country film industry has invested in higher budget productions and many of famous TV actors and actress have participated in successful movies, what is great for this growth of our cinema.

"Operações Especiais" - I wonder how it was called internationally - deals with organised crime and corruption in a small town near Rio de Janeiro. Although it is a very common problem in Brazil, it is also a typical subject in American police films.

And it is in this link with the USA that "Operações Especiais" is built. The dialogues, with jokes and some ironic comments, remind us of typical American films lines. Also, cameras position and special effects are clearly influenced but those made in Hollywood

But in no way am I saying this Americanization is a bad thing for the country productions. Provided the movie makers don't forget to come up with the traditional films dealing with Brazilian culture from time to time, the USA like films are welcome for they attract investors to the studios and also bigger and bigger audiences to movie theatres.

I really liked the movie to begin with. The acting and pace is good, but you really never get an answer to why the things happen in the movie.

The cops seem to run around trying to solve a big cover-up. What this cover-up really is we are never told, and we are introduced to a lot of characters, but we never get to know why the act as they do.

Instead of a great thriller we see the cops running around solving mini-missions in order to get to the bad guy, but we never get a follow-up to why all these missions lead them to him. It tries to be an exciting action thriller but it never gets exciting because the audience is just sitting there confused.

Great potential, but very poor sinopsis.

I have to admit, the ending was rather abrupt, it almost seemed it was a set up for a sequel. Nitpick aside, I thought that was good movie. The main character's someone you can easily get behind. She's strong, isn't perfect but does get better as the movie progresses, and is pretty professional. She becomes pretty damn good at her job.

It's amazing what her co-Worker's put her through. No shortage is sexism in the office. Thankfully, they do come around, and one guy who was rooting for her the whole time, proves to be an invaluable friend.

The action scenes are pretty cool. It really feels like you're in the middle of the chaos. There're a lot of first-person views during the shootouts. They really capture the gritty feel of the hood.

As for the rest of the characters, they're pretty good too. Some are funny, a few are one note, but for the most part, the important ones are pretty well defined.

If you like movies in Portuguese and police dramas/action, then, this's for you.

I was really expecting a movie like Tropa de Elite 1 and 2 with a lot of violence and you following some strong character that kick the ass of everyone. Well the movie it's not that.

I don't want to give spoil but the movie work well, you can predict somethings how ever the end is still very entertaining.

I will give it a 9/10, because some actor aren't that good so at some points this can drop the tension and you feel like watching a B Movie of some sort.

If you have nothing to watch, give it a try, the story works well, it's realistic specially if you are from Brazil, and it uses real events that happened in Brazil as a part of the movie and this makes it even better to watch if you are Brazilian.