Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II/Pusher II (2004) - Refn's magnetic snapshot of Copenhagen's criminal underground

7/24/2019

With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II/Pusher II (2004) - Refn's magnetic snapshot of Copenhagen's criminal underground

♥♥♥♥♥

+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Crime Movie of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Sequel of the Year

Its stars are on parade on this gloomy and criminality-teasing poster for Nicolas Winding Refn's With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II

Tonny is let out of prison in Copenhagen with a debt. He is not welcomed with open arms by his powerful mechanic father, the Duke. In the meantime Tonny has become a father, and his mother has passed away.

With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II is the 4th feature written and directed by Danish master filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive (2011)) and the second in his Pusher trilogy, which also consists of his great debut Pusher (1996) and Pusher III (2005).
There are so many well-made scenes in Refn's hard-boiled crime drama, which was his best film up to that point in his impressive career. Pusher II is also a triumph for Mads Mikkelsen (Bleeder (1999)) as Tonny, whom he gives inspired life, and Leif Sylvester (Otto Is a Rhino/Otto Er et Næsehorn (1983)) is outstanding as his cruel father. Refn gets the very best out of all of his very authentic supporting characters, and Peter Peter's (Antboy 3 (2016)) thundering percussion and electro-reliant score elevates the film considerably. Pusher II is a hard-hitting modern classic in Danish cinema.

Related posts:

Nicolas Winding Refn: Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Neon Demon (2016) or, Jesse Goes to Hollywood
Top 10: Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Only God Forgives (2013) - Violent beauty in Bangkok
Top 10: Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Drive (2011) - Refn's muscle-flexing audience favorite
Bronson (2008) or, Violent Man

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Bleeder (1999) - Refn's mysterious second film

Listen to Sad Disco, a song from the film's score here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 1.9 mil. $
= Uncertain
[With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II was released 25 December (Denmark) and runs 100 minutes. Refn had no intentions of making a Pusher trilogy until his film company went bankrupt due to the flop of his artistic drama thriller set in Canada, Fear X (2003). In response, he devised Pusher II and III, which saved his finances. He reportedly wrote the script over the course of a weekend. Shooting took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, mostly chronologically and mostly using a handheld camera. The film sold 161,988 tickets in its production country Denmark, making it a minor hit locally. The only foreign gross listed is 34k $ in Norway. The budget for the first film was a very low 6 mil. DKK. The budget for Pusher II is unknown, (it was supported by the Danish Film Institute), but if made on another small - but substantially larger, likely 10-12 mil. DKK (1.5-1.8 mil. $), the film's gross would land it as a big flop. It was nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize, won 1/12 Robert award nominations (Denmark's Oscar) and 1/3 Bodil awards (Danish film critics' awards.) Refn returned with Pusher III (2005). Mikkelsen returned in Adam's Apples/Adams Æbler (2005). With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II is fresh at 100 % with a 7.55/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II?

No comments:

Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

7/24/2019

With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II/Pusher II (2004) - Refn's magnetic snapshot of Copenhagen's criminal underground

No comments:

Post a Comment

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

My Blog List