solefab-53302 Being from Denmark I was introduced to Pusher in a early stage. I have lived in pretty much all of the settings of the trilogy (Vesterbro, Nørrebro, Nordvest, Amager) I feel blessed by this movie by Winding Refn. He just captures some of most raw and realistic environments.The sequel is not as fast moving as the first but nonetheless still a top tier to me. The story of Tonny is so well portrayed, both by using a great cast of non professional actors and by the cinematography it self greatly inspired by the wave of Danish Dogma 95 - yet still very different. Tonny is one of my favorite movie characters. A life full of harshness, being constantly pushed down and on the lowest rank in his surroundings. I am one of the greatest domestic fans of Winding Refn and Mads Mikkelsen - happy to see they are doing so well at the international film scene. Would also recommend "Bleeder", also a great Winding Refn film with all three Pusher- stars of Mads Mikkelsen, Kim Bodnia and Zlatko Buric.

dragokin After watching Pusher, there aren't many things left to be said. Or are there?Pusher II follows Tony (Mads Mikkelsen) after his release from prison. He tries to get a grip on reality, however, the old ways have their appeal and he slips back into his old lifestyle. It is left open whether Tony is simply confused or whether he has some permanent brain damage after being beaten by Frank (Kim Bodnia) in the first part. In any case, he proceeds with his ridiculous "Respect" tattoo on the back of his head.Tony discovers he has a child. The gangster lifestyle is depicted again with out any glamor leaving Tony to think about more than his own future.

slake09 Our protagonist, Tonny, is an ex-con and general screwup who just about everyone dislikes, for good reasons. His father, girlfriend, co-workers and most of his associates consider him to be the biggest goober head around, and from his actions you won't think they are far wrong.There is a lot of drug use in the film, but not much dealing, so the title is a bit misleading. However, the movie is good because of the excellent acting and the general zaniness of the plot; you never know what kind of mistake Tonny is going to make next. What's sure is that he will make one, and probably in the next couple of minutes. He's the kind of guy you can like on the screen but would be horrified to find living next door.Mads Mikkelsen as Tonny is awesome; he's about as far from the part of Le Chiffre in Casino Royale as a character could get. At first I had a hard time believing it was the same actor.Watch this when you're in the mood for a Danish gangster film featuring some madcap fun and general foolishness.

Ulrik Sander-Pedersen Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher 1-3 is my favorite trilogy of danish film history. Pusher II (2004) is the best part of it. I have been a follower of Refn's work ever-since I saw his directional debut Pusher (1996) the first time. It had a great dynamic, it was brutally honest and it had a documentary-style (hand-held camera, great method-acting etc.) that gave it an authentic feeling.The story-line: Small-time gangster Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) is released from prison, but quickly returns to the criminal underworld and gets hired by his father "Smeden" (Leif Sylvester): a big-time gangster highly respected in the underworld. But Tonny has a hard time earning his father's respect, and on top of that, he discovers that Charlotte (Anne Sørensen): a girl he once had sex with, has given birth to his child. Tonny has a hard time making the right decisions, and one day he agrees to help his friend Kusse-Kurt (Kurt Nielsen) purchase heroin worth of 80.000 danish kroner from big-time pusher Milo (Zlatko Buric), but since they are high off cocaine and paranoid they accidentally throw the heroin in the toilet, as they think a police-man enters the room. Now they have a big problem. They have to get 80.000 kroner very quickly...In 2004 Nicolas Winding Refn almost went bankrupt, because his previous film Fear X (2002) which was shot on a big-budget in Canada, did horribly in the theaters and at box-office. Refn knew that a sequel for Pusher would do very well (Pusher 1 was the most engrossing debut film ever of Denmark) and the universe of the film had lots of artistic possibilities - therefore he decided on making it a trilogy. And Refn very much proofed that it is possible to make artistically interesting films out of rather commercial interests.It could be argued that Pusher 1 glamorized the gangster/drug underworld at times. This is NOT the case in Pusher II. Although Pusher 1 did show the decay of a cold man in a cold milieu, we never really got into his feelings. In Pusher II we get to feel the pain and coldness (even when Tonny himself doesn't). Pusher II is a docu-drama based on realism (like Pusher 1), and only three characters are real actors. The rest of the cast consists of people off the street, and this very much adds to its authenticity. They do a great job! The second half of the film has a few very beautiful artistic scenes (almost dream-like) that almost pauses the film and gives its audience time for reflecting. In the scenes we see very dominant red colors and the music is almost ambient-like. A great idea that works very well - even in such a realistic film.Mads Mikkelsen, Leif Sylvester and Zlatko Buric do terrific jobs. They are (as usual) very professional and passionate actors. But the real surprise is the untrained street-actors. They add SO much to the realism and rawness of the film. Pusher II is shot on DV-camera with a hand-held style, but it's far from Dogme. Many scenes look terrific, and the playing with distinctive colors red and green works well. I also have to give credit to Peterpeter's great rock/80's synthesizer soundtrack. It really under-builds the scenes in a scary way.I highly recommend Pusher II (and the rest of the trilogy) to everyone! A perfect example of an artistic film that actually works for all audiences! 9/10