It keeps me interested with its sample of slum violence and police brutality, but it is affected by a lack of character development and a regular narrative that seems to repeat itself like a crime wave in the favelas. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 12, 2021

A satisfactory enough cop movie, but not one that people will still be name checking years hence

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 13, 2009

Given that Brazil, as a Latin American moviemaking powerhouse, steadily produces vibrant, vital films of real impact and humanity, it's a crime itself that Elite Squad may be the only Brazilian film that American audiences see this year.

| Original Score: D | Sep 25, 2008

A depressing film that celebrates brute strength as the only means to stem the tide of violence and crime in Rio de Janeiro.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 20, 2008

For nearly two hours, Padilha bombards viewers with senseless, sickening violence for its own sake.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 19, 2008

With no star names and a tough subject, it will be hard sell despite being a runaway hit on its home turf.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 19, 2008

Elite Squad is a relentlessly ugly, unpleasant, often incoherent assault on the senses from Brazil.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/5 | Sep 19, 2008

A poor man's City of God that suggests the only answer to the problems of Brazil's slums are blazing guns wielded by a neo-fascist police force.

| Sep 19, 2008

Trying to address important and serious social issues in this violent world rather than just creating something sensationalistic or exploitative gives Elite Squad an edge over normal police thrillers.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 18, 2008

Elite Squad can't decide whether it wants to pull the lid back on what urban decay has wrought or simply open up a can of whup ass.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/6 | Sep 17, 2008

Elite Squad succeeds at putting the worst of the violent spectacles on screen, primarily through a series of nicely staged shootouts and torture sequences.

Full Review | Sep 17, 2008

[Jos Padilha] recariously pitches the squad's brute force as less a necessary evil than the outgrowth of an existing evil -- a no-win situation that mocks liberal ideals and warps conservative pragmatism into domestic terrorism.

| Sep 17, 2008

It bears a resemblance to viscerally exciting seventies urban thrillers like The French Connection, in which only the fascists could do what needed to be done.

| Sep 15, 2008

The film's message is that all of society is corrupt, so it doesn't matter who gets killed. It's a propaganda movie that shows no empathy for its characters or for its audience.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 3, 2008

Padilha succumbs to monotonous, hollow flamboyance with his City of God clone.

| Original Score: C | Sep 2, 2008

The moral dilemmas are gripping, but the film takes itself far too seriously to ever connect with us.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 8, 2008

A film that simply doesn't have enough cinematic flair to make it a better than average cops and robbers thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 8, 2008

Padilha gets as close to the daily violence as City of God, though this feels more like a documentary than an epic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 8, 2008

Padilha's style, honed in his hijack documentary Bus 174, is verismo with a vengeance. For two hours the viewer feels as hand-held as the camera, hauled about by the neck.

| Aug 8, 2008

As for the plot, flashy editing and an over-reliance on jittery handheld cameras mean you'll struggle to tell what's going on - if you haven't already given up by then.

| Aug 8, 2008