Elite Squad : The Enemy Within [DVD]

Okay, if you haven't seen the original  The Elite Squad [DVD ], then consider this a four star review, edging towards a five. The acting's good (damn good in some places - the talk show host for example), the action is good, it doesn't feel amateur and the protagonist's laconic voice-over keeps you in the loop. It's a semi-serious movie - so no Bruce Willis type antics - about a very serious subject that is fascincating in its own right.Great to watch. Interesting to observe.Right, that's my first opinion out of the way. ***Beware, possible spoilers ahead.***So, why a second opinion? Well, having watched and enjoyed the first movie, this otherwise good film gets dragged down to a three, losing a star to disappointment.First there's the characters. Nascimento gets a little more fleshed out here, but seemingly at the expense of Matthias, who suddenly becomes more skeletal. If you've seen the first movie, then the decisions Matthias makes in his brief appearances here just seem way out of character and incomprehensible. If you've not seen the first movie, he probably just comes across as a dick.The whole business with Fraga was a bit of a mess, especially with migrating Nascimento's ex-wife over to his side to create some family tension. Nice idea but there simply isn't room in the movie to explore it. The tense relationship between Nascimento and Fraga is told rather than shown. In the house scenes you don't really learn much else. You could have cut them out all together and concentrated more time on the relationship between Nascimento and his son, and then Fraga at the office.Fraga also got off a little too lightly in my opinion. It's as if the director wanted to rehabilitate the liberal intellectuals after their treatment in the first movie, so he removed all the shades of grey and made them all white. Fraga always considers he's right, and at the end he turns out to be right. And Nascimento eats humble pie and calls for the disbanding of his beloved BOPE. Sorry, that's too trite. A proper to-and-fro between the two different philosophies would have given us a proper exploration of the issues involved. Of course, this is more of a fast moving action movie, so perhaps something had to be sacrificed. But it falls well short of what we got in the first movie.Then there's the militias. Apparently the gangs extort the communities and run a protection racket. And when the militias take over, so do they. Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss.Except that, under the new boss, it's safe to walk the streets again and everyone looks happier and the place less scummy. I mean, the new boss takes 90% of everything, but still the place thrives! I'm not familiar with Brazil or the militias (and I don't think their existence is actually fictional) so maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps the director is merely speculating on what would happen if the militias did take over a district, but if so it suffers from the same black and white problem given above. A little more show and a little less tell would have been helpful, with less air-time given to following the fat guy around all the time. It might have looked as informative as the first movie and less of a bogus setup then.Okay, if you've followed me this far down in the review, and if you haven't actually seen this movie yet, don't let my whinging put you off. Buy this movie. It's better than a lot of junk you might have seen in the cinema this year.Enjoy it.But seriously, when you're done with that, watch the first movie. It blew my mind more than this one did. Which probably explains my disappointment with this one. I simply expected more.

Well this full throttle action fest from Brazil should tick all the boxes and as a sequel had more money spent on it than the first. It stars Wagner Moura as Lt. Col Nasciemento who leads BOPE the elite force of non corrupt cops who have been fighting the drug cartels and government under funding.In this follow up we see Nasciemento and his team going to the aid of a prison riot, where the cartels are doling out medieval justice on each other. It goes very wrong and he gets the blame or takes the rap as we should say in a crime flick . In order to take him out of harms way he is promoted to the Security Ministry to oversee things. This is when he realises that it is corrupt cops that are now the problem and the corrupt politicians that allow these extortions to go on, all the time feeding off the weak and poor in the favellas of Rio.This is fictional and says at the beginning that it may seem like the recent past but it really is not. Well if it isn't then it is as close as you can get to a critique or polemic about South American politics without actually being either. We also have the story of Nasciemento's ex wife and son who are now living with a `right on' left wing lecturer come politician who is diametrically opposed to everything he stands for and is driving a wedge between him and his son.This is not a full on actioner, but when it comes it is done really well and the whole thing has a believability that should be incredible, but I think we are so jaded by corruption that it becomes all too easy to believe. We also have some great lines like `if you don't wanna die, you shouldn't have been born' -eat your heart out Shakespeare!Jose Padhila wrote and directed this and I expect to see more from him. Despite this being a follow up he considers it to be the last in his crime trilogy, `Bus 174' was a documentary on how poverty breeds crime and that he considers to be part one. In Portuguese with good sub titles this is world cinema with an edge and a bang, and as a piece of cinema I found it both entertaining and a great journey.

After a prison riot calls for BOPE assistance, Col. Nascimento gets into trouble, when their heavy handed tactics are exposed by a supporter of human rights. But instead of sacking Nascimento, he is promoted by the politicians wanting to further their political power by taking a hard line against crime. From there Nascimento puts BOPE into over drive and smashes the drug dealers in the slums, but far from remedying the situation it just creates a gaping hole, ready to be exploited by the dirty cops who now run the streets. Not only this but corruption is rooted firmly within the system, meaning that before long, Nascimento is forced to fight some very personal battles for justice...A good follow up to the first film, with plenty of violence and brutality peppering the political storyline. This time out we get to see that Nascimento isn't quite the fascist we all thought he was in Elite Squad, which if I'm honest is a bit of a shame but probably necessary for film popularity and character development! If you were being picky, you could say that some of the time~lines don't quite add up (his 16yr old son etc) but as far as I was concerned, similar with the original outings social comment, it didn't bother me and I just went with it.When the dust settles, I have to say that I probably didn't like this quite as much as its predecessor but don't take that as a warning, because this is still highly entertaining, especially if you liked Elite Squad or for that matter enjoy world crime cinema.The blu ray is ridiculously cheap at the moment (£2.50ish) meaning that even with its lack of bountiful extras (just a trailer and making of) its still a steal..Went onto the BBFC website after watching this, with an inkling that a murder may have been cut but they said not, unless it was cut before submission which I doubt.4/5 stars.