Watch The Man of the Year For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent but underrated film

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Maiquel (Murilo Benício) is a simple man living in Rio de Janeiro and after he loses a football bet he has to dye his hair blond. When he looks in the mirror he sees a different him and he likes what he sees.Then on entering his local bar, a local crim and trouble maker, Suel (a very young Wagner Moura), insults him. Maiquel broods on it and then decides to do something about it. This leads to his life changing beyond recognition as his actions catapult him from the scared ordinary man he was to something he had never dreamt of.Now to say anymore would spoil the plot and, more importantly, the fun, as this is a crime story, a comedy, a love story and a great watch all combined. Everyone plays their parts beautifully and the pacing is perfect. This is one of those films where if you blink you are going to miss something. The humour isn't forced either as it seems to play perfectly with the actual situations. There is some violence too so this is not a parody or anything and when it need to get serious it does not really pull its punches either. This is a film I completely loved and it is in Portuguese with some good sub titles, but not the best, and is one of those films where if you were not a fan of World cinema before you watched it, then you most certainly will be by the end.

I don't remember ever seeing a Portugese movie.That is the reason I picked this movie.I would recommend Ram Gopal Varma to watch this movie.He can take a few pieces from this one to mix into his collection and build his next masala bollywood movie. It is a fair movie but not that great. Takes you through a world of crime through a simpleton protagonist - a softie who goes from foolish to drastic to gory to scheming.It has been a week since I watched it.I still have some of the scenes running through my mind. The movie does do it's presentation pretty well but you have seen other movies like this one earlier and hence don't feel that good after watching this one.

Murilo Benecio is a young Brazilian actor who just keeps turning out fine, solid and very different character roles. As the leading character is this well made film by director Jose Henrique Fonseca from a script written by his father Rubem Fonseca in turn based on the novel 'O Matador' by Patricia Melo, Benecio molds a memorable portrait of a man of low self esteem who is strangely and inadvertently raised to the level of hero in the most bizarre of circumstances.The setting is Rio de Janiero and Maiquel is a loner looking for an identity. On a bet he decides to have his dark hair bleached by the beautiful beautician Cledir (Claudia Abreu) and finds that as he steps back into his world he is the object of notice. After a cruel teasing by thug Suel (Wagner Moura) he buys a gun and almost unwittingly kills Suel who dies in the arms of his girlfriend Erica (Natalia Lage). Despite Maiquel's fears of his arrest he finds that the neighborhood rewards him for ridding them of a criminal and Maiquel becomes a hero. Not only is he rewarded with gifts (including a pet pig he names Bill after watching Bill Clinton's visit to Brazil on TV!), he is also given free dental work by Dr. Carvalho (Jorge Doria) in exchange for agreeing to kill an enemy of the dentist. More and more people ask Maiquel to whack bad people making Maiguel's new blond persona a hit man and man of the year. How he ultimately begins to spiral downward when his life is complicated by a marriage and family and holding a regular job forces him to initiate his own choices of violence and return to his original hair color to alter his destiny! If the story sounds odd, it is really a depiction of life in the city of Rio where the police are impotent to control the violence that prevails. Maiquel becomes the Robin Hood/Batman type who brings a degree of safety to his community. Wisely Benecio holds our attention and our compassion as he performs his many murders, creating a man in whom we can believe and applaud despite the grim things he does.The cast is uniformly fine and the cinematography by Breno Silveira and the musical score by Dado Villa-Lobos (an important guitar player, relation to composer Heitor Villa-Lobos unknown!) is classy. This is yet another fine film from Brazil, in Portuguese, and one that deserves wide attention - especially for Murilo Benecio's superb performance. Recommended. Grady Harp

What can I say about The Man of the Year other than SEE THIS NOW. I'd like to start by saying that I don't really understand all the comparisons to City of God. I am a HUGE fan of City of God, and I even have Palace II on DVD which seems to be a rarity. I went into The Man of the Year with high hopes, and although they were met, I just don't see the resemblance to COG. I understand it's Brazilian and there are guns / gangs involved but that's about it in my eyes. I'm sure many will disagree with me, but I guess that's why there are multiple user comments.The best way I can describe this film is El Mariachi meets Tarentino. It seems to be more of a play on El Mariachi in my opinion, however it still manages to be unique enough to make it a story of it's own. There are some comedic moments in which I found myself laughing, while at other moments I felt myself getting excited and filled with tension as I wondered what was going to happen next. When it was all said and done however, this movie was fantastic. I don't want to give much away and other users have basically outlined the plot, so I'll leave it at that. A great film, and a film I hope many people have a chance to see.I got my copy from Film Movement, and I have to say this little company is really delivery some quality film. People should pay more attention to them.