I agree. Elite Squad is a knock-off; kinda like City of God: The Next Generation, only focusing on corrupt cops and marine-like super-cops. It's exciting a good deal of time and has some good performances, but it's hard to set it apart from Meirelles's film when 1) it has constant 1st person narration, 2) constant hand-held camerawork (although without the same exhiliration and invention as COG had), and 3) it details the slums of Rio in excrutiating, violent and dark storytelling. It's also, in my opinion, nastier than COG and without at least just that shred of hope for the main character, or the iconic villain Lil' Ze. It works for sure as a desperate cry of help for Rio, maybe more-so than City of God, but it doesn't make it a better movie, not by a longshot. I give it 7/10, where as City of God is in my top 10 favorite films of the decade.
The day I follow Aubrey Hale Clayton on a wet deck - that day, I cut my throat.
reply
share