Who knew that Copenhagen was so damn seedy. We’re back in the underworld of petty crime, drugs, prostitution and excessive violence as the sequel to the excellent verite sleaze of the Pusher continues, focussing this time on one of one of the perimeter characters from the original. Tonny, the heavily tattooed hood from the cover of this and the first Pusher, who was brutally bashed by Frank the antihero of the first with a baseball bat comes out of jail a little punch drunk to all kinds of problems. Suffice to say after having Frank tee off on is noggin hasn’ made Tonny the sharpest tool in the shed and he is frighteningly ill equipped to deal with all the pressures of life on the outside. Pusher films seem to be about spirals out of control, propelled by a vicious mixture of bad decisions and dumb luck, and Pusher 2 isn’ any different. A world away from your Tarantino’ or Guy Ritchie’, these are gangster films without the wisecrack, without the cool. This world is populated by petty thugs, by brutality that’s brutal, that feels real. These people are hard as nails and not necessarily all that bright. It’s shocking, we see kids watching stripteases, mothers holding babies whilst snorting lines and smoking joints, even naked prostitutes getting beaten around for refusing oral pleasure on a vertically challenged young man because his lack of arousal wont support a condom. It’s grim yet oddly compelling, Tonny is less self-assured than Frank, yet his vulnerability makes him infinitely more likeable. Yet this counts for nought. This trilogy is amazing. Hopefully number three is just around the corner as by the time you finish this you’ll be hanging out for your next fix.
EXTRA FEATURES:
Trailer for the third film.
Bob Baker Fish.
