Awesome movie, deserves to be top 5!

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2009)

This movie is amazing! The plot is strong and very thick without ever becoming pretentious or slow. The action scenes are very gritty and real and not full of Hollywood overindulgence and the violence is framed more for poignancy than shock value. It is obviously very influenced by scorscese but has a modern twist. It seems like a blend of Scorscese's camera work and storytelling with the backdrop of urban ghetto dramas like New Jack City or Boyz N the Hood. Even though the movie is subtitled you never feel like you have to watch the bottom of the screen to stay in the movie. You could almost watch the movie on mute and still soak up ninety percent of the film.
I hope that everyone that thinks of themselves as a movie buff sees this movie. As far as I'm concerned it rivals anything in IMDb's top ten.
As a sidenote: I heard about this film when I worked with some Brazilians for a short time. Seu Jorge (knockout ned) is a huge star in South America. He is an actor and musician, and Brazilians worship the guy like a god. I ripped some of his songs from one of the guy's Ipods and have been a huge fan ever since. Seu also has a role in The Life Aquatic, he is the black guy who plays all the music throughout the movie. All the songs are David Bowie songs sang in Portuguese. If anyone wants to try out his music, download "Mangueira", it's my personal favorite.