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Pusher II: With Blood On My Hands
R0 - Australia - Accent Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Shane Roberts (30th July 2007). |
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The Film
 Released from prison with a mounting debt to a gangster he met inside, small time thug and dealer Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) must prove himself worthy of a job in his distrusting father's, 'The Duke' (Lief Sylvester), car theft ring so he can regain his respect and pay what he owes. Once back with his old circle of friends he finds it hard to keep out of trouble and discovers a girl he slept with once has had a baby and claims it's his. Catching up with Tonny a few years after the first film it's not revealed whether this stint in prison is for the events of that story or for another bad move he's made since. We're told that the beating he received near the end of "Pusher" (1996) has left him with mental scars as well as the physical ones that decorate his shaved head. Evidently his memory and perception are now unreliable but we'd never know without being told because he always makes the dumbest decision in any given situation and spends most of his time high or getting high anyway. Even though he's one of life's born losers and quite frustrating to watch, a great performance by Mikkelsen makes Tonny surprisingly sympathetic. His father's near total contempt for him, which seems to have been life-long, is more likely to have caused his self destructive behavior than the other way around. Unfortunately Mikkelsen's performance is one of the few saving graces. Where the first film rocketed along at a fast pace and was frighteningly intense as you were genuinely scared for the main character Frank's (Kim Bodnia) fate, this one is far too flat and predictable. Apart from a few scenes there is hardly any real action as writer and director Nicolas Winding Refn concentrates more on the mundane lives of the low pushers and losers that are Tonny and his friends. With the first films main characters Frank and Milo (In excellent performances by Kim Bodnia and Zlatko Buric) relegated to being discussed but not seen and a cameo respectively, they're not replaced with enough interesting or even likeable characters. Even the girlfriends, who aren't involved in the crimes are all pretty pathetic, especially Charlotte (Anne Sørensen) who insists that Tonny is her son's father and that he should be helping with support but any money would surely just go towards her drug habit. The dead-end lifestyle is probably very realistic but it's just not very original or enjoyable to watch. Evidently, this was made back-to-back with "Pusher 3" (2005) mainly for the money as Winding Refn was almost bankrupt after the costly flop of his first American feature "Fear X" in 2003. This probably at least partly explains the lesser result. Really well shot in the same handheld style as the previous chapter in the trilogy and with good use of music and colour, there is still a lot to enjoy if you liked the first one but be prepared to for slight disappointment.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic image lookls very similar to the first film's transfer. It's not the best in terms of sharpness, in fact the entire image is grainy and blacks are very noisy to an almost distracting degree. The overall image is rather soft, especially wide shots that should display a lot of detail fail to do so because of the heavy grain. Night scenes and low lit scenes also suffer as a result, with daytime exteriors looking better. Colours are occasionally drab, but I believe this is aesthetic more than anything else, with skin tones appearing spot on most of the time. Some colours do bleed; take for example the red lighting scheme in the pool hall scene. It could have been better but considering the film's rough tone the image matches well, but on the whole can be very distracting at times.
Audio
A single Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is included in the film's original language of Danish, this surround track isn't as active as one would expect with a lot of the action remaining front heavy. Some activity is present in the rear channels mainly for the film's score or minor ambient sounds that add depth to the overall mix. Dialogue is clear and distortion free which is the main thing. Optional subtitles are included in English and I could not spot any spelling of grammatical errors.
Extras
Accent have only included the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 1 minute 22 seconds as well as a collection of bonus trailers that include: - "Pusher " which runs for 1 minute 40 seconds. - "Pusher 3" which runs for 1 minute 29 seconds.
Overall
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