The movie Brother, aka. Hermano is very amazing. It has a very slow start, but as soon as the movie reaches the halfway it instantly speeds up. The ending of the movie was the most surprising part, but I will build up to that. The two brothers are named Julio and Daniel. Daniel is adopted and brought into the family by the mom as Julio spots him in a pile of garbage one day. It was very heartwarming to see that, but also tragic that a mom would just leave their baby in the middle of nowhere in the trash. The older brother Julio is in a gang, oh and the gang is practically in control of the small city they are in. Yes, he is in a gang with his very close friend, which is also the goalie of the soccer team that they all play on together, which is also led by the gang. One day Daniel has his cleats stolen by punk kids in the neighborhood, and the goalie tries to get the cleats back by threatening the kids to go get them down from the telephone wire they are being hung from. The kids don't and he shoots them, in the crossfire, Julio and Daniel's mom is shot, to which Daniel witnesses the whole thing. He never tells Julio, which I wouldn't either, because it would just cause Julio to get into even more trouble with the gang. After this part of the movie it was very interesting how Daniel develops as they approach the final championship game, and he is somewhat standing up to the goalie telling him to stay away from Julio. The brothers are together with no gang influence and they go to a CFC tryout for the soccer professional soccer team. Julio leaves the tryout, but Daniel stays and later receives an offer to play for the club, but quickly says he won't without his brother. I completely agreed with this, as he wants to protect his brother from the gang and any other violence that he could get into. The final game comes and this is the most shocking part, the score is tied up 3-3 and Julio walks off the field saying congratulations, you got what you wanted, and then left the field. Which was his reaction to finding out Daniel has known who killed their mother. I didn't like how Julio reacted, he just needed time to realize that Daniel was looking out for him. The next play Daniel scores and they win the game. SPOILER!!!!! I, in no way saw this coming at all, but Daniel ran as fast as he could and kicked the goalie as hard as he could and killed him. All while Julio was watching. This was a very intense and surprising scene in the movie, and is very unlike any American film I have every seen. That is another aspect to show the difference between the two types of films. Due to the gang's influence in the soccer match, everyone on the field is practically shot, and Daniel is one of them. NOW HERE COMES THE BOOM!!!! There is a panning of the camera to the right, and it is in a professional soccer stadium. The face of Julio comes up after a large build in suspense. This ending was crazy, I had no idea that would happen. I expected Daniel to become the professional soccer player, and never thought he would kill someone else. This movie is a very interesting one. I would recommend it!

Hermano is an intense yet heartfelt film about the bonds of brotherhood and family. I really liked the characters in this film because they were real and imperfect. I feel like American films sometimes leave out the rawness and imperfections of their characters. What I really didn't like about this film was the intense violence. I have seen many violent Latin American movies in the past few weeks; however, the violence in this movie felt more personal because I could relate to the two teenage boys, and it seemed more graphic. I think it was very honorable that Daniel (and Julio) were using their soccer skills to improve their lives and get out of the cycle of poverty. After their mom was killed, Julio became very angry and seemed to resort to the gang lifestyle, but Daniel used his influence to get himself and Julio a possible contract with FC Caracas, the national professional soccer club. The two boys helped balance each other out personality wise, and I found their love and loyalty, especially that of Daniel, to be inspirational and endearing. Overall, Hermano was a good movie, but I would only give it 3.5/5 stars because of the graphic violence.

This is great depiction of brotherhood specially brothers not from same mother. Great acting and I think this shows the back ground of this country as how youth spoil their lives and how people struggle to come up. Worth watching.