Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2004)

"City of God" is an old story. So old, in fact, it begins in the 60's as it tells of gangsters in a Rio de Janeiro slum who do what gangsters do and have done everywhere for all the same reasons. Poverty breeds ignorance which breeds hopelessness which breeds desperation which breeds crime...etc. This film shows us nothing new, save the location and its paper thin characters, as it takes the audience into a slew of favela-dwelling punks with guns (so many it's hard to keep track of who's who and who killed who for what reason) as it attempts to impart a sense of warring in the Rio ghetto. You'll see such a convoluted mess of gang bangers there's no time for the film to provide character depth or a sense of the gangster ethos or the mechanics of the drug trade or a reason to care who lives or dies, etc. Just a whole lot of killing with numbing excess and only a hint of a human story. For reasons I am unable to deduce, "City of God" received raves from all corners and countless awards and noms. Go freakin' figure! Personally, I found the documentary piggy-backed into the DVD more interesting than the film and the one scene from the film I remember most (it was shown twice) was that of a chicken which was run over by a truck but escaped unscathed. If you like your street punk killing flicks with subtitles, go for it. (C+)