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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Tense social thriller where everything goes wrong and ´wrong´comes knocking at your door, 20 February 2002 Author: cinemascopio from Recife, Brazil
Extremely tense thriller set in the urban chaos of São Paulo, the biggest and ugliest third world nightmare in Brazilian urbania. For the sake of making it easy for anyone who is curious about this intriguing and truly well made film, it has the grit of Mexican feature "Amores Perros" with a character not too far off Max Cady, from both Cape Fears, although this is not, by any means, a film about a psychopath. Two partners (Alexandre Borges and Marco Ricca) in a construction company pay hitman Anisio (Miklos) to off their third partner (and majority share holder) in said construction outfit. The murder is blamed on the city, but things begin to look very grim indeed when witty and charismatic walking nightmare Anisio decides he wants to be around the ever so nervous partners in crime, not only trespassing but, more importantly, deconstructing the strict social codes that make up Brazilian society. Anisio turns poverty into an attitude and he wants in. The look is almost entirely handheld, grainy, the performances outstanding throughout, especially so as first time actor (and member of classic Brazilian pop band 'Titãs'), Paulo Miklos, dazzles and baffles the viewer with his pretty funny social terror.I saw the film at the Brasília film Fest in November 2001. It has since done very well in Sundance and Berlin. Kleber Mendonça Filho
4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- Miklos Rocks!! No pun intended..., 21 October 2002 Author: morras from Brazil
My short comment for this flick is go pick it up. Chances are you are going to be positively surprised by a diversity of elements superbly explored in this criminal thriller. There is no way the character of Miklos, claiming and pushing for room in every way possible, wont push your nerves to the edge...2 thumbs up!
5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Rough little drama but still enjoyable, 27 February 2004 Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK
When their business partner's ethics prevent their company for working on jobs that may be slightly corrupt, Giba and Ivan decide to have him killed. They are recommended to approach a lowlife hitman, Anisio, who takes the job, killing the partner and his wife. However after the job is done Anisio begins to integrate himself in to the company and the lives of Ivan and Giba. This only accelerates Ivan's descent into panic and guilt.With comparisons to the wonderful City Of God, I decided to give this film a shot and found it to be a very different beast to the aforementioned film, smaller, not as good but still an enjoyable film coming from Brazil. The plot is not perfect; I found it slightly difficult to accept Anisio sudden interest in this company in particular when he likely came into contact with many rich clients before. I imagine that there is a certain comment about the status of Brazil, where the few good people with money are gradually corrupted or invested by those willing to bend rules and take advantage. If this was the aim, it wasn't totally successful as it damaged the central narrative a little bit. Aside from this, the film still works, not so much as a thriller but as a drama as Ivan falls into guilt over his actions - again the attempts to make social comment is worthy but it moves the film away from dramatics by a few degrees.The cast are pretty good. I felt that Miklos gave a good performance as the hired killer. He seemed quite natural and at ease - even if I hated it when the soundtrack used his band's awful thrash metal music. He was coached by rapper Sabotage, who also has a small role but was killed shortly after the film was released. Ricca descends well in his role and makes it convincing, Borges is suitably seedy and represents the worst of the wealthy class in Brazil I guess. Ximenes role in both the film and the subtext was less clear; her main purpose seemed to be titillation, which, in fairness, she delivered well!Overall this film works well because it tries to be more than just a drama and more than just a social comment; however it would be too forgiving of me if I didn't note that it did rather fall between these two stools. Despite missing it's mark, it is still a good shot at the target. The direction and writing are both good and they bring about a film that, although flawed, is still interesting and involving even if these aspects are ahead of it's ability to be dramatic or thrilling.
3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Great Performances, Disturbing Story, 8 August 2002 Author: Jose Guilherme from Brazil
The three main characters are very well portrayed, especially Anisio by rock musician turned into first time actor Paulo Miklos. He is extremely convincing as the lower class trespasser/invader. The film shows very well the snowball effect of getting involved in ever more shady business, the contrast and similarities between the lower and higher classes. How everyone gets carried away by greed and ambition. 9-9,5 out of 10.
1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- Cruel but truthful film about a sad reality, 19 March 2008 Author: mario_c from Porto, Portugal
IVAN (Marco Ricca) and GILBERTO (Alexandre Borges) are partners in a company together with ESTEVÃO (George Freire), but the first ones contract a professional killer, ANISIO, to murder ESTEVÃO (the plot, at least at the beginning, doesn't explain very well why). The guy does it and after receiving his money he starts blackmailing the two partners, appearing in their company and saying he wants a job there (as supervisor or something…). At the same time he meets MARINA (Mariana Ximenes), daughter of ESTEVÃO, and starts dating with her! In a story like this, where crime, corruption, betrayal and blackmail go hand in hand, no one is innocent or can be victimized, exception made to MARINA, which is the only person who doesn't know what's going on and didn't betray anyone… This film portrays with sarcasm the sad and cruel reality which exists in big metropolis like São Paulo, where crime is every day's presence. We can feel irony but also veracity in characters like ANISIO (brilliantly played by Paulo Miklos), which does blackmail to the guys who paid him without any scruples, and even flirts with the daughter of the guy he killed! He really must be a monster to do something like that, but of course I know there're people like him out there, in Brazil or any other place… It's a very good movie, cruel but truthful, about a sad reality… The acting is great and the soundtrack too.
2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Great, 11 October 2002 Author: David (clickstop) from Amsterdam, Netherlands
This plot had me guessing all the way to the end, and what an ending ! I was especially struck by the apt depiction of a corrupt and dangerous underworld, Anisio's very convincing performance as a threatening unscrupulous monster from the ghetto, and how alien his attitude was to the mannerly and typically ordered behaviour of the businessmen who's lives he becomes entangled with. I enjoyed being made uncomfortable by the idea that this order (the boring business world) can be turned upside down by a character like Anisio who doesn't realise or care about any rules or etiquette, and like a vampire once invited over the threshold, has the power to do what he wants. An obvious theme is the retribution summed up by the cliche 'those who live by the sword die by the sword', or in other words if you dabble in crime a criminal end awaits you.
4 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :- This movie is dreadful and pointless, 23 September 2006 Author: rickyr83 from Maryland
I picked up this movie because I love Brazilian cinema and I am always on the lookout for good, new Brazilian movies. I read the reviews on this movie, with people raving about striking the film was and comparing it to "Cidade de Deus". In addition to that, looking at the film festival awards it won, I thought I'd made a good choice. Boy, did I turn out to be wrong.This film is an unorganized, dysfunctional, fruitless mess. The story had potential. The idea of two men hiring a hit-man to take out their partner and then that hit-man turning around and forcing himself into their business, could've been interesting. It could've been played in a comedic way, or it could've been played in a threatening and frightening way.Instead, the movie tries a little of both and succeeds at neither. At times the movie presents Miklos' character as someone who we should fear, other times he's seen as a joke, heckling the construction company's workers and bringing rappers into the office.The only bright spot is that some of these actors give good performances. Marco Ricca as Ivan gives a great portrait of a man consumed by fear and guilt and we watch him spiral out of control. Although again, the movie flubs up his character, introducing us to his wife in the beginning, only to never show her again or really explain their marriage or why their relationship is so distant.
0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- Nice thriller..., 4 May 2007 Author: Henry Fields (kikecam@teleline.es) from Spain
Sao Paulo is such a subhuman city where the life of a man is quite cheap. This movie deals with the fight between two businessmen to control their company. They'll get into a spiral of murder and contacts with the local mafia of Sao Paulo's lower depths."El Invasor" moves between thriller and drama, and has some sequences that are really intense. Although the narrative style is quite debatable the history will get you, because everything in the screen is so frenzy and reckless.It won't change the history of modern cinema, but it's better than most of the thrillers made in Hollywood these days.*My rate: 6.5/10
1 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- O invasor, 22 December 2003 Author: Edgar Soberón Torchia (estorchia@gmail.com) from Panama
One can say almost the same things about this Brazilian movie, which won a top prize in the Sundance festival, that have been said about "City of God": both have received a sort of Hollywood treatment. But this one, though, has a sense of humor almost absent in "City of God", and to my knowledge it's one of the few Latin American movies that depict the attraction of some girls of the middle and high classes to the hip hop culture, and the young men of lower classes. In Panama, for example, fed up with the lack of authenticity and the false values of their milieus, the young women are attracted to the exciting and often violent events they experience alongside their urban anti-heroes. In spite of its formulaic structure and ending, it's an ironic, funny movie not to be missed.
0 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- A Rare Good Brazilian Film, 1 December 2002 Author: HAL1994 from São Paulo, Brasil
Here in Brazil is very rare to see a good Brazilian film, and Brant´s new film is exactly one of these jewel. There are some flaws in the film, of course, but they are very minimal. The directing and acting in this film are very good!Can´t wait to see another Brant´s new film!
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