Pusher II (2004)

At a glance:
A standalone sequel but best watched with the '96 original, Pusher II and Pusher III are nevertheless projects that were done because director Nicolas Winding Refn reportedly needed to bail his foreclosin production company back out into the black after runnin into debt. Thank goodness the man went back on his word not to touch the cult classic because the product is definitely top notch, expandin on the characters shown in the first film. Pusher II focuses on Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen, left) the seasonal loser so desperately eager to impress his disappointed dad (Leif Sylvester) and overturn his catalogue of lifelong fuckups that he ends up spirallin further down the abyss of self-destruction instead. It's not as intense as the first film but by golly it is a magnificently depressin one with wonderfully built themes of family dysfunction, drugs, responsibility and friendship.
Bad news on the doorstep: 
 I'm a big fan. I can't think of bad things to say about this very studied trilogy, except maybe I think not every female in this movie needed to be a prostitute.
Watch out for:
A particularly heart-warmin and suitably underhit scene in which Tonny discovers how his mother is doin.
Most memorable line:
"Dude, I just got this new girl in the house, right? A really nice, little cunt. Then last night, I was doing her doggy-style in the bathtub, right? Then suddenly, she slipped in the foam and smacked her teeth on the edge - four teeth out her mouth. Must have hurt like shit, dude. But don't worry, it's only her baby teeth."
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Mads Mikkelsen is a very good actor and you can go swimmin in the depth of his actin. Just like the first film, you know it's a great movie when you start carin for people as irredeemable as these.★★★★

Pusher (1996)

At a glance:
If you ever knew a drug dealer, then Pusher is an exercise in déjà vu of great nihilistic pleasure. All grit and grain with no glamour, embattled filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (writer and director of films like Valhalla Rising and Bronson) made this outstandingly powerful film about a week in life of a drug dealer that went on to spawn two sequels. It's a pressure cooker of a movie that delivers some remarkable resonance, as we follow Copenhagen crime through the eyes of Kim Bodnia's character Frank (foreground), a disenchanted pusher who has to deal with his best mate Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen, background) and prostitute girlfriend Vic (Laura Drasbæk), not to mention the Serb kingpin Milo played by Zlatko Buric and his burly henchman Radovan (Slavko Labovic). It's the smilin gangsters that get you shivering; and that's where Pusher hits all the right notes, despite bein hand-held and unintentionally underlit presumably due to budget constraints.
Bad news on the doorstep:
Somehow didn't go down the annals of cult cinema like how La Haine (1995) did. Sure launched some Danish careers though.
Perennial wonderment:
Can Mads Mikkelsen fight as good as he looks?
Watch out for:
Scary scenes involving Serbian sociopaths and Danish dealers who seriously don't like being a few kroner short.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Four stars. It's moment after moment of dog-eat-dog and how a form of friendship actually does exist in the most perverse of situations. If you were ever in financial desperation, watch this movie as your glimmer of hope.