Elite Squad 2 continues where part 1 left off. The movie starts in the present with Nascimento walking out of a hospital and driving into a trap. He then tells us how he got to that point. At the end we return to that point and find out what happens during the shootout and its aftermath.
We learn of a raid to a prison that houses all the major drug dealers who continue their dealings inside jail. There is an orchestrated mutiny and most drug dealers are killed. A human rights advocate and professor rushes to the jail to mediate. But there's little he can do. The massacre causes a political uproar. And politicians seek to distance themselves from the violent elite squad BOPE. That is until they realize how popular a tough stance against crime is with the people. So Nascimento gets a political promotion, he's now placed in charge of intelligence. A smart move by the politicians. They promote him while getting him out of the picture.
With the main drug dealers out of the way, someone has to fill the power vacuum in the slums and keep order. Corrupt policemen realize how much money there is to be made in that position. Basically, they get their share of every deal that is done on the streets, whether it's a drug deal or a pirate cable TV installation. Then they assault a precinct to steal all the weapons. The corrupt governor who is running for re-election, an associate, and a TV commentator plan then to organize a massive attack on the slums, to recover the weapons, which according their media campaign were stolen by regular criminals and hidden in the slums.
Nascimento's intelligence knows very well that the drug dealers don't have any weapons. He tries to argue against the operation, but the politicians won't hear any of it. The operation fails to find weapons. This should sound familiar. Nascimento quips that it should have been called "Operation Iraq." When his friend Matias becomes a victim of the machine, Nascimento decides to confront the corruption head on. He gets the unwilling help of a reporter working with the human rights activist who is now a senator. He's also married to Nascimento ex-wife. Nascimento's son lives with them.
With all that we return to the shootout in the present day.
The success of this movie is the smart mixture of political intrigue and corruption with high octane action. For some reason, I was hoping for more action, as this director really excels at shooting those scenes. The portrayal of the political mafia as a bunch of vain fools is accurate and funny. The middle portion of this movie is somewhat flat, I didn't connect with it, but that could have been because of the subtitles that race across the screen and don't allow you to focus on the movie itself.
The bigger problem are all the forced coincidences that are so convenient for the writers to include. The ex-wife happens to marry the human rights senator. He son happens to hear when the reporter tells the senator that she thinks the police stole the weapons, and so on.
Despite some minor flaws this series is still outstanding and almost epic.
We learn of a raid to a prison that houses all the major drug dealers who continue their dealings inside jail. There is an orchestrated mutiny and most drug dealers are killed. A human rights advocate and professor rushes to the jail to mediate. But there's little he can do. The massacre causes a political uproar. And politicians seek to distance themselves from the violent elite squad BOPE. That is until they realize how popular a tough stance against crime is with the people. So Nascimento gets a political promotion, he's now placed in charge of intelligence. A smart move by the politicians. They promote him while getting him out of the picture.
With the main drug dealers out of the way, someone has to fill the power vacuum in the slums and keep order. Corrupt policemen realize how much money there is to be made in that position. Basically, they get their share of every deal that is done on the streets, whether it's a drug deal or a pirate cable TV installation. Then they assault a precinct to steal all the weapons. The corrupt governor who is running for re-election, an associate, and a TV commentator plan then to organize a massive attack on the slums, to recover the weapons, which according their media campaign were stolen by regular criminals and hidden in the slums.
Nascimento's intelligence knows very well that the drug dealers don't have any weapons. He tries to argue against the operation, but the politicians won't hear any of it. The operation fails to find weapons. This should sound familiar. Nascimento quips that it should have been called "Operation Iraq." When his friend Matias becomes a victim of the machine, Nascimento decides to confront the corruption head on. He gets the unwilling help of a reporter working with the human rights activist who is now a senator. He's also married to Nascimento ex-wife. Nascimento's son lives with them.
With all that we return to the shootout in the present day.
The success of this movie is the smart mixture of political intrigue and corruption with high octane action. For some reason, I was hoping for more action, as this director really excels at shooting those scenes. The portrayal of the political mafia as a bunch of vain fools is accurate and funny. The middle portion of this movie is somewhat flat, I didn't connect with it, but that could have been because of the subtitles that race across the screen and don't allow you to focus on the movie itself.
The bigger problem are all the forced coincidences that are so convenient for the writers to include. The ex-wife happens to marry the human rights senator. He son happens to hear when the reporter tells the senator that she thinks the police stole the weapons, and so on.
Despite some minor flaws this series is still outstanding and almost epic.