MovieChat Forums > Tropa de Elite (2007) Discussion > Overrated so-so film

Overrated so-so film

posted 17 years ago by ZiggyFloydZeppelin
3 replies | jump to latest

Definitely not worth the hype. Mediocre cinematography, mediocre direction and very mediocre script. It's obvious that the filmmakers tried to make something special as City of God by using cheap methods such as shaking the camera obnoxiously often or slightly cutting edge editing. The acting was probably one of the better things of the film but nonetheless you had no sympathy or passion for any of the characters, they could all have died for all I care, no actual character study. During the film I often considered how I would have been deeply motivated to abuse people and the law if I was a real life cop and how many cops who have watched this film have justified police brutality for themselves after watching it. I can't really see the message this film was trying to send out and it left me completely unmoved of any emotion. This film is like American Gangster=a cheap wannabe knock-off of every single successful gangster/crime/action film. No love in this filmmaking and no step up, neither for films nor mankind, I'm sad to say.

What are your thoughts?

[–] MisterWhiplash 16 years ago

Don't forget constant first-person narration, only this time it's Dirty Harry with a Full Metal Jacket chip on his shoulder (and he ain't no Clint) instead of the pure but very aware lead in City of God. I wish I didn't have to compare the two films, but it was just so obvious to me that had City of God not existed we wouldn't get this film, or at least in the manner it was made (though, in some possible defense, it was co-written by a City of God co-writer, so maybe it's slightly like "Next Generation" COG)

The day I follow Aubrey Hale Clayton on a wet deck - that day, I cut my throat.

[–] bouhanamarc 16 years ago

i agree 100% with you

[–] SeisCinemaSeis 16 years ago

Overrated my ass! The OP surely is another gringo who didn't get the point of the movie.
Besides his absurd comparison with American Gangster is laughable at best. in AG the main character (Denzel Washington) is a drug-lord whose life and his world of drugs is embellished until the point that it doesn't looks different than any other legal and shiny business.
In the other hand in Tropa de Elite the main character is a policeman who is not an untouchable hero nor a corrupt cop, he is a more complex person, a dude who does his job just because there is no other people who can do it. He ain't a saint nor a fancy character as the ones depicted in AG (the good cop or the drug dealer). He is just a human being, traumatized and dehumanized by his daily reality.

You folks should avoid commenting on movies that are deeper than your typical goodie vs baddie hollywood flick.