Wow! City of God, Full Metal Jacket, and Heat in a blender. Awesome.

I though these comments by Padilha himself are quite interesting and goes to show that Elite Squad (2007) was not a misstep, instead, it was a very calculated move.

wrote:Director José Padilha claimed that this movie ends his trilogy about urban violence in major Brazilian cities. The first one, Ônibus 174 (2002), was a documentary meant to explain how the state's indifference towards poor people can lead to the formation of violent criminals. The second, Tropa de Elite (2007), meant to explain how the state's indifference towards law enforcement agencies will often result in police brutality and corrupt officers. And finally, the last movie deals with the reasons behind the state's choice to ignore the poor and the police.

As I Brazilian, I must say, he is spot on.

I was pleasantly surprised after not expecting much! The action was really cool and I liked the gritty and shaky camera styles. Anyways it was sometimes hard to follow and a lot of the dialogues were dumb... Still really cool though!