City of God
User Score
8.8 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 206 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 189 out of 206
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 206
  3. Negative: 11 out of 206

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  1. JerryM
    Jul 5, 2011
    0
    The documentary featured on the DVD was far more rewarding than the actual movie. I'm in total agreement with BillR's near perfect review of this so-called film. This emperor really has no clothes.
  2. DaveH.
    Nov 19, 2006
    4
    Such a waste of great performances. No characters are fleshed out to the extent that they become interesting in any way. Rocket, despite being the protagonist, takes a passive, peripheral backseat to the action. The young Lil' Dice is played brilliantly and is a very convincing psychopath, but we get to know little about either him or other characters. My interest in the film wandered constantly with so much of the narrative being devoted to exposition. Inconsequential informaion about characters' history and the logistics of the favella drug circuits is divulged by the truckload while the actual story plods throughout. Dramatically hollow and inertly paced, and this is meant to be a thriller? I have no desire to see this film again.… Expand
  3. henrys
    Apr 28, 2005
    2
    Reely waste of time.
  4. GaborA.
    Jul 24, 2004
    4
    Utter dissapointment. This movies downfall is repetitiveness. Every single dramatic element in this movie involves gun shots. Like using too many exclamation points in a paper doing this makes the drama lose its meaning. Other issues besides direct violence have to be introduced into a movie to make it meaningfull. The movie let me understand the problem of immense violence, but the repetition trumped the ultimate goal which was to evoke sympathy.… Expand
  5. BillR.
    Mar 13, 2004
    3
    I don't care if it is based on a true story; City of God is a repugnant waste of time, one of the most callous, utterly despicable movies I've ever seen. As a foreign-language darling, it just might beat the likes of Amelie and Talk to Her as the most grossly disappointing and overrated of the century for all its skin-deep technical competence. To even call CoG derivative of countless other films (*especially* GoodFellas), is to give it way too much credit. Devoid of even a modicum of compassion, humanity, genuine entertainment or interest in character interplay, for two hours and ten minutes we're treated to souped-up visuals of people blowing each other's fvcking heads off. Again and again and again and again and then some more. City of God offers you nothing about Brazilian culture despite an obligatory, 'Hey, look there are horrific slums in which human life ain't worth dirt and people kill!' While that's terrible, folks, a movie needs more to run on. What is the purpose of this film? In a film so purportedly steeped in reality, where are the real human beings? Believe it or not, even vicious killers have lives outside their gruesome murders, despite City of God's vehement denial of such a fact. Women are treated as blank commodities and only one person escapes the unceasing horror: the contrived narrator who can hardly even be considered a "character" because he's such a passive, non-descript bore. Everyone else gets killed. Then some people take their place. Then those people get killed. Then some other people take their place. I'd love someone to go through the film with a stopwatch and find the longest portion of celluloid in which someone is not killed. I'm betting no more than four minutes. City of God makes practically no attempt to understand why Brazilian slums are war zones. It just gleefully endorses the fact. It's an endorsement by proxy; if you film over two hours of violence in an MTV-style, sleek, playful, "exciting" fashion, you're doing nothing to either compute, challenge or condemn the action. You're passing it off as pure 'entertainment' which is sickening, really.… Expand
  6. DawitS.
    Mar 10, 2004
    2
    I don't understand the hype about this movie. Not even half way through the movie, I started yawning. It's that boring. Except for few of the main ones, most of the characters come and disappear pretty quickly. The short sequence of the stories within stories are very distracting and disconcerting. In short, it didn't totally draw me in. Moreover, I found the glorification of violence in this movie totally inappropriate, not to mention on how it characterizes the black minority in Brazil. Very exploitive movie. I felt ashamed to watch it. 2/10 … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    67
    It takes a strong stomach to sit through its two-plus hours of non-stop brutality (much of it involving very small children).
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  2. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    100
    The film is seductive, disturbing, enthralling -- a trip to hell that gives the passengers a great ride.
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  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    Full of action, but no soul.
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