The film on misdemeanour lottery jogo do bicho has a very nice opening title vignette and a great gangster scene in the beginning, with boss Cacareco (Milton Gonçalves), aspirants Tucão and Nico Sabonete (Nuno Leal Maia and Nelson Xavier), corrupt commissioner of the Rio de Janeiro Police Paixão (Tonico Pereira) and other thugs. The tension between Cacareco and Tucão works well, as Gonçalves's performance, exaggerated in the precise amount of a stylish mafia film, is the best thing in the whole movie. While I like the spiritual and Saint George mystical elements introduced in the story, I consider that the film lost its strength and worsened (although never becoming bad) after the shooting in the jungle between the two rival bands. The Romeo and Juliet story never calls attention (although Andréa Beltrão is an excellent actress and seeing football columnist Artur muhlemberg as her boyfriend was at least an intriguing curiousity). Tony Tornado is nice but had a minor role. Later appearance of Milton Gonçalves, kind of goblinish, is ok, but far from the level he presented in the fist part. The increasing feud between former friends Tucão and Nico is not bad, and Nelson Xavier has a correct performance, but their characters are far from the charisma of Cacareco. Anyway, I liked how the movie related jogo do bicho and carnival, and that misdemeanour and narcotics traffic. I liked even more how the relationship between the police, the press and crime was represented, and Tonico Pereira has a nice role. I also liked how the character Marilia (Amparo Grisales) interacted with Tucão, Paixão, and Nico. The last but not least, it was interesting to see all the gangsters and prostitutes in the side who supported military coup in 1964.
