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Elite Squad
The Weinstein Company

Elite Squad reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 33 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.5 out of 10
based on 7 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 46 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, and André Ramiro

Inspired by true events. Two childhood friends decide to enlist in Rio de Janeiro's Military Police Department. After juggling their police jobs and college, both make up their minds to try out for a Special Operations Squad whose mission is to take down the drug-lords that plague the city. Both men struggle to survive, facing the daily challenges of dealing with pressure at home and fighting an unnamed war on the streets. (The Weinstein Company)


GENRE(S): Action  |  Crime  |  Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Jose Padilha
Braulio Mantovani
 
DIRECTED BY: Jose Padilha  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: October 28, 2008 
Theatrical: September 19, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Brazil 
LANGUAGE(S): Portuguese 

Alternative Title: Tropa de Elite

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

70
New York Magazine David Edelstein
The captain narrates in a punchy, journalistic style that gives Elite Squad an air of sociological realism--it bears a resemblance to viscerally exciting seventies urban thrillers like "The French Connection."
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70
Village Voice Jim Ridley
This latest pounding slice-of-thug-life thriller from Brazil packs the same cinematic firepower as "City of God," only on the other side of the law.
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40
Variety Jay Weissberg
A one-note celebration of violence-for-good that plays like a recruitment film for fascist thugs.
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30
The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
Poorly structured and at times incoherent.
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25
New York Post V.A. Musetto
It boggles the mind to think that Elite Squad won the top prize at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February.
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25
Christian Science Monitor Robert Koehler
Pokes and prods the viewer to watch the brutal, indiscriminate methods of Rio's SWAT-like cops and then demands only one conclusion: That cops in Rio's drug-infested slums must do what they do and if that means rampant point-blank executions, so be it.
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0
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
A relentlessly ugly, unpleasant, often incoherent assault on the senses from Brazil.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 46 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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