InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

SnoopyStyle It's June 12, 2000, Rio de Janeiro. Street kid Sandro do Nascimento takes a bus full of passengers hostage. The SWAT team arrives followed closely by the media. It becomes a day-long ordeal as it gets broadcast live on TV. Sandro is high on drugs and eventually takes one of his hostage with him. The police attempts to kill him but it ends with both Sandro and hostage dead. Sandro had witnessed his mother's gruesome murder at the age of 6 and became a street kid. The doc also shows the problems he and other kids faced from the police and the invisibility of their existence. This is a tough documentary. It's unflinching in the street life and even the final deaths in the hostage drama. The production is not necessarily that slick. The drama is in the story.

tomgillespie2002 On June 12th, 2000, a young man named Sandro Rosa do Nascimento hijacked a bus in Rio de Janeiro with the intention of robbing the passengers inside. When one of the passengers notified a police car, the bus was intercepted and Sandro took all the passengers hostage, armed with a .38 caliber revolver. Soon enough, the bus - Omnibus 174 - was a media frenzy, with everything being broadcast live to the watching public. What ensued was not only a sign of the ineptitude of the Rio police force, but an insight into one of the most serious societal problems in Brazil - the invisible homeless.Sandro's story began years before the events of Jose Padilha and Felipe Lacerda's documentary Bus 1974. Through friends and witnesses, we learn about Sandro's childhood as he witnessed several horrific acts, such as the murder of his mother in front of his very eyes, and the events of the Candelaria massacre which saw the murder of eight homeless children by men thought to be police officers. But we also learn how the homeless in Rio de Janeiro are simply ignored by citizens. This abandonment by your own society can cause serious psychological defects, that lead the homeless to feel they have no place in the world.We get a real insight into how Rio de Janeiro treats their lowest of citizens (the prisoners) in a stand-out scene which I never wish to see again. Turning the image into negative to somehow try and shield us from the true horror, the camera pans alongside a tiny prison cell that holds between 40-50 prisoners. They each have their own unique story, which they rant to camera. They are forced to take turns to stand up and lie down, to p**s and s**t where they eat, causing disease to spread like wildfire, and all in 100 degree heat. This is not a place interested in rehabilitation.This is documentary film-making at it's most thrilling and disheartening. The hostage situation plays out like a check-list of police malpractice and ill-preparation. At one point, Sandro shoots at the ground, feigning the execution of a hostage, and then hangs his head out of the window to tell the police what he has done. Many times this happens, still the police do not take him out. The same year saw the release of City of God, a super-stylised account of Brazil's ghettos, so it appears that Brazil was turning an big eye on itself and its societal problems. At 150 minutes, this is a long and detailed documentary that tends to repeat itself every so often or draw out an event in the hostage crisis, but Bus 174 will no doubt leave you moved and, more importantly, angry.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Mike B This is a riveting and intelligent documentary. It would have been interesting if it had just been about the tragic bus hijacking itself with the inept police response and the media carnival atmosphere that existed. But it goes far beyond that. It explains the background as to why this happened. We are given the details of who the hijacker was and his upbringing in the favelas of Brazil. He was orphaned at a young age and lived in the streets with other homeless children. Crime became a way of life, as well as frequent violent episodes with the police.Watch this - it gives an excellent background examination into why bad things happen and then innocent people suffer fatal consequences. It does not portray this as a 10 minute sensationalistic news episode. We can a full 360 degree view of root causes.

Chris Hughes ....shouts Sandro, the central character, to the voyeuristic TV cameras, as his real-life predicament spirals towards its tragic and brutal denouement.And he's right - this film is far more compelling and dramatic than any Hollywood product - also far more poignant and touching.Director Padhila shows extraordinary skill in building the story to an unforgettable climax. When I watched this movie at a Manchester cinema, there were only 30 or so people in the theatre - but the silence at the close of the film was astonishing. The entire audience walked out in stunned speechlessness.If you were impressed by "City of God", check out this slice of real life from Rio de Janiero - a world-class piece of documentary-making, and a stinging indictment of the divisions that scar Brazilian society.