Highly Overrated But Still Good

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

First, I totally agree with the other comment. This story is pretty effective, sharp, very well described and edited. The characters are not so predictable. And there is not the very good vs the very bad scheme. Every one in this story is "grey", no white nor black. The boss' bodyguard, the black man, is very interesting, especially with his amusing riddles. It reminds me of course some US thrillers - I don't remember the titles; anyway I have already seen that a couple of times and I love. I like this character, even if he is not the lead.Speaking of the lead, he is not the hero type. Far from that. The perfect jerk. We can say that he deserves all he is confronted with. But, after all, he is touching. We are here far from the Tarantino like crime films, with lots of humour, which destroys all the darkness of the story.This movie is very fast paced and I think we deal here with the best crime features the Italian industry has ever made. Better than the sixties ones, ultra violent, sadistic in the gratuitous manner, where the characters were not so deeply described. About the new wave, see for instance ROMANZO CRIMINALE and ARRIVEDECCI AMORE...Not speaking of GOMORRA. And I guess that there are many others we have not seen yet. We must follow, keep a close eye on this kind of cinema. Not only focusing on US, French or UK crime movies.I'll finish on pointing out that this tale is very strangely bitter, downbeat. A real tragedy. All begins with something insignificant: a petty hoodlum who breaks driving mirrors with his feet. And ONLY because of that, (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER), all finishes in a blood bath...

Cemento Armato starts in violence and ends in brutality. This is a very violent film which deals with strong human feelings: the love one has for one's father and one's mother, the love for the loved ones and the rage and hatred which violence triggers when those are the victims. A young Roman teenager a pure brainless idiot on a stolen scooter crosses the path of a ruthless sadistic Mafia boss with principles. Complacency meets discipline, crass stupidity meets malice and vice, weakness meets force. Guess who wins. The ending of the film is phenomenal and worth the ticket. Nicolas Vaporidis the rising star of Italian cinema is perfect as the teenager you love to want to slap, Giorgio Faletti is solid, the baddies could have been badder. Rape and Revenge with a drop of Romanzo Criminale.