City of Men (Cidade dos Homens) (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	102:10
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:50)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Paulo Morelli
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Douglas Silva Darlan Cunha Jonathan Haagensen Rodrigo dos Santos Camila Monteiro Naima Silva Eduardo 'BR' Piranha Luciano Vidigal Pedro Henrique
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Antonio Pinto

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    City of God was a break-out hit in 2003 and is widely regarded as a modern classic (we reviewed it very favourably here at MichaelDVD). A Brazillian movie that wound up nominated for four Oscars and deserved to win several more. The film was an intertwining tale of gang wars and survival in the slums of Rio De Janiero. It spawned a TV sequel of sorts, which focused on a new set of kids surviving on the same sort of streets rather than continue the story of City of God. After four successful seasons, this film was produced to cap off the series. Unfortunately for fans of the series, the mission of the film was also to appeal to fans of the original film who hadn't seen any of the series. Worse still, the film is in the hands of far less competent filmmakers than the original.

    The film introduces us (or reintroduces, as the case may be) to Ace and Wallace (names Americanized from those in the original show), two essentially good kids who are at the point of becoming an adult (legally, anyway) and struggling to survive on the streets. Ace's girlfriend is looking to head overseas to work, leaving him to look after their young son. Wallace is desperate to find his real father so that he can have someone listed on his adult ID as a father.

    The pair are initially inseperable, but their friendship is tested as the two are torn apart by a gang war on the local streets. Wallace finds romance with the sister of a gangster who is at war with his cousin, and Ace accidentally becomes a target in the gang war.

    The setup sounds promising. There are plenty of strong story elements being worked with, but the story-telling this time around is overly contrived and the resolutions watered down to a linear tale of guns and love. The characters are clumsy and wooden, which is surprising given the depth they had in the series the film stems from.

    City of Men is a disappointment on all fronts. It lacks the depth and tension of the original film and the fails to re-capture the characters of the series. The one saving grace is that it does capture the feel of the streets quite well, but that's hardly going to be enough for fans of the original movie or the series.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video is characterised by the same grainy, over-exposed and heavily washed out, look that featured in City of God. It is a look that suits the film well.

    The image is reasonably sharp and looks no more grainy than would reasonably be expected. Blacks tend to be a little too crushed, however, and the detail in many of the dark scenes is hard to distinguish.

    The colour is deliberately washed out, evenly so throughout the movie, which looks quite good and captures the feel of the film well.

    A handful of small flecks of dust are visible throughout the film, but are never really distracting. There is no sign of compression related artefacts or faults in the image that do not look intentional.

    White English subtitles are present for the feature, which appear to be accurately translated and well-timed.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 71:50 but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    A single Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384 Kbps) audio track is present for the film.

    The dialogue is generally quite clear and appears to be well synchronised. The mix is a little muddy, but not terrible.

    The film features sparse music by Antonio Pinto, which is based around classical guitar.

    The film makes clunky use of the surrounds, but does so at the right moments. The subwoofer gets a reasonable workout when the bullets fly.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Making Of Featurette (15:11)

    A bland, press-kit production featurette.

    The Region 1 and Region 4 editions are identical, save for a few trailers and NTSC/PAL differences. For all intents this is a draw

    A disappointing follow up to a modern classic. City of Men captures the feel of the slums of Rio, but tells a bland and overly contrived tale.

    The video and auidio are quite good. The only extra is entirely forgettable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall