StunnaKrypto
Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
Inclubabu
Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Mehdi Hoffman
There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
DJ K
After a self-indulgent, boring, 3 minute opening title sequence, I was given a boring, self-indulgent feature. I couldn't believe any of the character's motivations. Why was the main character inspired to get a gun and kill that gang banger? Why was there no retribution from his friends? Why did anyone write this piece of...? I have no idea why this movie has received any acclaim, or any comparisons to City of God. It felt more like something I'd see on Mystery Science Theater 3000.It's a not enjoyable, uninteresting, unbelievable tale of some guy who is driven to kill because he has weird looking blonde hair. The premise is lame, but the people around him are lamer. Maybe I'd have believed this more if the set-up was there, but there was none. Did not enjoy. At all.
mario_c
Welcome to Rio de Janeiro! One of the most beautiful cities in the world and a place where social dissimilarities are completely absurd and out of control, at the same time!
In this city, you can easily find every kind of people, from the most wealthy to the worst scum! This film is just about that! It's a thriller/drama which reveals these social differences and the power of the higher classes' over the lower, through money and corruption
It does a very good social critic to Brazilian society (in spite of some almost funny and ridiculous ideas, like that "killers company" they created in the film! As far as I know it works in gangs! A business company created out of a gang can only be a joke! Except if we talk about mafia, of course
) and has some credible and well made characters. I also enjoyed the fact of the director describe one other curious reality in Brazil: it's a country which has a huge and almost uncontrollable criminality, but, at the same time, it's profoundly religious! Especially in big cities like São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro you can easy find, crossing the same street, an aberrant criminal (a killer, like the main character of this movie, which kills people for money) and a devoted guy which is going to church to pray to Jesus to salve his soul!
animosity-1
The Brazilian film 'The Man of the year'has a simple premise - an easy going young man (M, or a Brazilian name like Michael that I can't spell) accidentally kills a local gangster. As a result, he is hailed as a hero by his community. Comrades of the gangster begin looking for him to exact revenge, while requests for his help become stranger with each passing day. Deciding to embrace the average, M marries and takes a job in a pet shop. M likes animals; he has a pet pig called Bill. Shortly after, with the gangsters closing in, his new wife throws a small dinner party for friends. Herein begins my dislike of this film. I could not continue watching after M's wife (the psychotic freak) killed, baked and served Bill, M's pet piggy, as a meal for her dinner party. It's just so wrong. Killing any animal is wrong, IMHO, and Bill was a pet, not a meal. The scene disturbed me, and I'll never watch the rest of this film. I'm only glad I watched it on free-to-air TV, and didn't buy a ticket / DVD. 1/10.
David Eastman
After City of God, any Brazilian film will get a good reception. This movie has now been released as "Man of the Year" in UK cinemas.The low key start, where we see an angry kid shooting a man we later find out is detested in the community, gives way to escalating situations which owe quite a bit to Scarface. Like many similar films, a lot of time is spent looking at the consequences of immoral behaviour - not attempting explanation. The film walks the now familiar fine line between entertainment and moral relataivism quite successfully, mainly because the characters stay undiminished throughout.The performances between the principles is really good. But it is the way the film starts rooted in a halting reality that makes it so watchable. Watching our protagonist brooding in his small flat with the girlfriend of his first victim, and a small piglet - neither of which he has control over - is what films are all about.