Sin Nombre

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: March 20, 2009

DVD Release Date: September 1, 2009

Plot 411: One family works together to find a better life; another turns on one of their own and is out for blood.

Review: In this gritty drama, two families are put to the test on a long train ride from South America bound for the U.S. The first family, a father who has come back to help his daughter (Paulina Gaitan), is seeking a better life that can only be attained in America. They risk it all for a chance of a future. The other family, bound by gang hierarchy and mentality, hunts a wayward brother (Edgar Flores) who has killed one of their own. These two groups intersect on the northbound train, where anything can happen. This movie feels very real and captures the immigrant experience and gang life in vivid detail. Everything is so raw and exposed that you feel as though you're on this journey with the characters. It's almost a road movie, except we travel mostly by train. It's a coming-of-age story in which the characters are faced with life-altering choices. The movie has a similar feel to City Of God/Cicade de Deus because its honest portrayal of gangs, poverty and violence. The movie is a powerful example of how life can be harsh when there are no options left. Innocent bystanders are killed while criminals roam free. Some people, who are looking for acceptance, embrace the violence to fulfill their loneliness. Others are punished for deciding that there is more to life than killing.

Watch It: And successfully be transported to another life, where life and death are interchangeable.

Skip It: And risk missing a great film by Asian American writer/director Cary Fukunaga.

Coach Carter

Rating: PG-13

Movie Release Date: January 13, 2005

DVD Release Date: June 21, 2005

Plot 411: When a new basketball coach comes to town, he emphasizes both academics and athletics and changes the way his players view their future.

Review: Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to his high school alma mater and takes over the position of basketball coach. When he arrives, his players are undisciplined and barely attend classes. Some players have drama going on in their lives, such as teen pregnancy, that may jeopardize their future despite their abilities. He quickly establishes new rules that the boys must follow in order to remain on the team. Some boys like Timo Cruz (Rick Gonzalez) decide to leave the team and fall deeper into violence, gangs and drug dealing. When Carter discovers some of the boys aren't holding up their end of the deal, he cancels practices and forfeits games so that his players can study. This riles up the community, which believes that sports are the only way their kids will ever get out of poverty. Tension builds between Carter, the school, parents and the community as his atypical approach makes media headlines. This movie was produced by MTV Films and succeeds in its efforts to market toward a younger demographic in the same way it did with Save The Last Dance. It showcased a lot of young, new talent like Rob Brown, Robert Ri'chard, Channing Tatum and Ashanti. Of the bunch, Tatum has really seen his career skyrocket. The movie comes across as gritty, but somehow I don't find it very believable. It's very polished and seems like it's trying too hard to be ghetto. The cinematography is a lot different than movies such as City Of God, which I think captures the poverty and desperation of the people a lot more realistically.

Watch It: For the Hawaii connections - Denise Dowse plays the school principal and Rob Fukuzaki makes a cameo as a reporter.

Skip It: If you're looking for a realistic portrayal of the human experience. This depiction is dusted with Hollywood and MTV's glamor.

City Of God / Cidade de Deus

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: August 30, 2002 (Brazil) / January 17, 2003 (USA)

DVD Release Date: June 8, 2004

Plot 411: In the streets of Rio, street gangs battle for turf as drugs, violence and death grows.

Review: This was an awesome crime drama based on a true story that is set in Rio de Janeiro's City of God, a slum that houses corruption of all kind. The movie starts off with a gang called the Tender Trio, who rob and steal but also give back to the poor citizens in the City. The group is made of Shaggy (Jonathan Haagensen), Clipper (Jefechander Suplino) and Goose (Renato de Souza). When a motel robbery goes bad and people are killed, they hide out among residents. Little do they know, their lookout Li'l Ze (Douglas Silva) is an ambitious kid who wants to take over the slums, and he sets off the alarm in order to get into the action. As he grows up, Li'l Ze (Leandro Firmino da Hora) takes control of the drug trafficking by killing other suppliers. His best friend Benny (Phellipe Haagensen) convinces him to leave one supplier, Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele), alone because he is a friend. However, when Benny is murdered all bets are off and Li'l Ze starts a war. Carrot bands together with Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge), who also has a bone to pick with Li'l Ze. The cinematography is so gritty and vibrant that the violence seems as real as if it were a documentary. You leave the movie wondering how much worse could it be in real life? It's disconcerting to find that you side with both the gangs and the law enforcement. Some kids are just trying to survive and have to turn to gangs to do it. Not all law enforcement is legit; many of them are shown to be corrupt. Even with the gangs, there seems to be an unwritten law in the slums that people adhere to - almost as if the City of God is a separate entity from Rio de Janeiro. The crime is high because of social conditions that exist, which the state does not seem to be addressing. Because of this, the cycle of drugs and gangs continues and the game of cat and mouse between cops and robbers goes on as well.

Watch It: For the film that spurred on the City of Men movie and tv series. It's a gritty, realistic look at the evolution of gangs from the '60s to the '80s.

Skip It: If you're comfortable in your home surrounded by a white picket fence. There are not fences in the City of God. Social status is found and acheived through other means.

City Of Men / Cidade dos Homens

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: August 31, 2007 (Brazil) / February 29, 2008 (USA)

DVD Release Date: July 1, 2008

Plot 411: Two boys must become men in the midst of a gang war in their hometown, which forces them to choose sides and causes a rift in their friendship.

Review: Two best friends, Ace (Douglas Silva) and Wallace (Darlan Cunha), come of age in this very raw look at life on the streets of one of Brazil's ghettos. The boys confront life, death, guns, gangs, sex and fatherhood as they struggle to discover who they are. Ace is an orphan who has long stopped thinking about his father, but Wallace can't think of anything else. As Wallace's 18th birthday approaches, Ace helps him track down his dad. This uncovers a sordid past that threatens to break the boys' long-standing friendship. The setting and set design of all the houses on a hill is really remarkable. You feel the dirt and grime of a place that is packed so tightly together. You see how poor the people are and how they seem to struggle to realize their dreams. You also see how this hill has shaped people's lives and what they sacrifice when they live there. The gangs are filled with young men and women who seek status and power through violence. It is through these gangs that they earn respect. Sadly, this is a theme that affects many urban areas where kids run the streets and civilians are afraid to leave their homes. The only bad part of the movie for me was the English-dubbed voices. Unfortunately I watched this online at Netflix and wasn't given the choice of using subtitles. If you do get a chance to watch this, definitely opt for subtitles and hear the lines in its original form. The English translations sounded awkward and the voices didn't match the actors.

Watch It: For a realistic snapshot of gang violence and poverty as it affects people just trying to survive.

Skip It: If you want to watch City of Gods first as I've read this is a spin off and takes place in the same area and has some of the same actors.

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