It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Blistering performances.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

A South African Scarface but with a far more likable lead who does whine constantly when he doesn't get his way like Tony Montana did, and overall less of an a-hole lol.Anyway it's a definitely above average gangster-epos amazingly enough done with just 2 million dollars, it doesn't look cheap by any means.Compare that with for instance 'PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009)' which cost 50 times more at 100 million dollars, sure that was filmed in the US and had a all star Hollywood cast but this movie is still a bit better on most levels and if it is that cheap to make movies in South Africa then more people should do it.Good performances all around, yeah nothing to really complain about.The movie mixes English with Afrikaans, about 50/50 each or a stronger lenience towards English.It didn't blow me away in the same way 'TSOTSI (2005)' did when it came out but considering that that is one of my favorite movies it would be surprising if it did, still more than well worth a watch though.

I saw this in the Pan-African Images Sidebar at the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival.It's an interesting mix of local South African dialect and English, with Rapulana Seiphemo extending his lead role from "Tsotsi" which is appropriate, since the story line is derivative of that film. This is about the adult Tsotsi could readily become: an ambitious gangster, a Sowetan Robin Hood whose crimes often mirror what the legal ethic endorses, but for the character Kunene it's more about his community.A couple of historical quotes figure large in this. Although Marx is attributed as the author of the "all property is theft" line in the movie, Marx considered this statement by Proudhon as "self-refuting". But it does seem an apt theme to the story of a culture in flux after its colonial disenfranchisement. Al Capone's "the bigger the crime the bigger the payoff" summarizes the operational ethic quite well.A somewhat raw film (which is why I gave it a 5… I grade "bell-curve") this is still an interesting movie from a developing South African market. See it if you get the chance!

This film was such a disappointment. It sensationalizes crime, celebrates materialism, denigrates Black Africans in general, debases Black women in particular, and glorifies Whites in the same subliminal ways that are so prevalent in Hollywood. As "entertainment" it merely serves to perpetuate all that is bad about South Africa today. I am totally bewildered by those who claim it is better than Tsotsie. No, it is a cheap, trashy, commercial, gangster movie with no morally redeeming value at all. That said, the acting was good, as were some of the technical aspects of the very violent scenes. But the violence was way too gratuitous, as was the excessive footage of half-naked Black women hanging out in the Nigerian drug dealers' den. Sadly, the fact that so many young South Africans seem drawn to the film says more about the present state of social and political consciousness of young South Africans than about the quality of the film.

If this movie were shot in America, I'd give it a 7/10 because too many things are simply formulaic and not done very well. The main guy turns to the criminal life a little too easily. What happens to sidekicks #1 and #2 could come from a McBain (Simpsons) movie. The woman's explanation for why her brother is there is embarrassingly simple - wouldn't it have been better for the brother to say, "hey, this sh*t is real" to convey the same idiot attraction? Most importantly, where did the lead's main criminal idea come from? I believe something like that really happened, but there's so little hint of it earlier in the movie that it's just confusing when it happens. How could anyone come up with such a complex scheme that relies on the actions and inactions of various government agencies simply by reading very general self-help books? I'll have it both ways - I did like this movie. The points above are nits, some bigger than others. I love the depiction of Johannesberg as this crime-ridden, divided city, like "the Wire" squared. I'll stick with the 7/10, though that's unfair given IMDb's general grade inflation.