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When it was released in 2002, Fernando Meirelles' remarkable debut, "City of God," felt like a revelation - an exhilarating work of stylized, energetic filmmaking that adopted the same reckless attitude and swagger of its protagonists, two childhood friends from the "favelas" (or slums) of Rio de Janeiro whose lives took different paths as they edged into adulthood.
As far as genre movies go, romantic comedies probably adhere to formula more rigidly than any others. Many contain the same elements laid out in such predictable ways that they could have been authored by the same machines that crank out pornographic stories for the proletariat in "1984."
Some scary movies can stand your hair on end. A few can make your skin crawl.