Review of Elite Squad (2007) by Phil H — 30 Jan 2009

Alittle disappointed with this one, I thought it would be much more violent and have tons of action as that's what the trailer and look of the DVD cover kinda impresses on you. I also watched it cos its made by the same man who made 'City of God' which is a fearsome flick.

Its very harsh and gritty looking, the slums of Brazil look menacing and tense, a lethal concrete jungle of crackheads and trigger happy cops where life is more than cheap. The cast are all excellent and the action scenes are all top notch and sweat inducing, problem is there just isn't quite enough of that. You tend to get abit bored and start to yearn for some brutal gangland gun battles (maybe with gangs of gun totting scroats hehe). I know that sounds bad but its just what you expect after 'City of God'. The scenes that do involve the 'elite squad' almost look like sequences from the Rainbow 6 Xbox games :) they are all in black and move in their tactical patterns taking out one perp after another, very cool but not enough of it.

Anyway it looks great, you can almost smell the alley odours and taste the drugs being abused, just not as good as COG.