Pusher (2012 film)

Last updated

Pusher
Pusher (2012 film).jpg
Directed by Luis Prieto
Screenplay byMatthew Read
Based on Pusher
by Nicolas Winding Refn
Jens Dahl
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySimon Dennis
Edited byKim Gaster
Music by Orbital
Production
companies
Distributed by Gaumont
Release dates
  • 21 June 2012 (2012-06-21)(Edinburgh)
  • 26 October 2012 (2012-10-26)(United Kingdom)
Running time
89 minutes [1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish
Serbo-Croatian
Budget
  • £2.3 million
  • ($2.7 million)
Box office$197,857 [2]

Pusher is a 2012 British crime thriller film directed by Luis Prieto. It is an English-language remake of Nicolas Winding Refn's 1996 film of the same name, the second remake following a 2010 Hindi remake. The film stars Richard Coyle, Agyness Deyn, Bronson Webb, and Paul Kaye. [3] [4]

Contents

Plot

Frank is a low-level cocaine dealer in London, conducting business with his partner Tony and would-be-girlfriend Flo. When a former cellmate contacts him for a large drug deal, Frank borrows £45,000 of cocaine from Milo, a dangerous Serbian drug lord. He promises to return to Milo with the money the next day, plus £3,000 that he previously owed, but police raid the deal and Frank is forced to dump the cocaine in a duck lake. In custody, Frank is told by police that Tony has confessed to the deal, but they release him the next day. Frank quickly finds Tony and beats him savagely with a baseball bat.

Frank returns to Milo without the cash or the cocaine and requests more time to pay Milo off. Milo demands £55,000 to be paid soon. Frank scrambles to call in old debts and tries to get back in touch with Danaka, a drug mule who is scheduled to return with a half kilo of cocaine. Frank is unsuccessful and becomes increasingly on edge. Milo's henchman Hakan arrives to help Frank strongarm his debtees, but they have no success. Frank finally gets in touch with Danaka, but discovers that the cocaine pack she brought back is worthless. Frank becomes desperate and robs a high-class drug party, but is still far short of the required sum.

Milo's patience runs out and Frank is brought back to him. With only a few thousand pounds to his name Frank begs for more time, but Milo begins to torture him instead. Frank manages to escape and returns to Flo, asking her if she wants to run away with him to Spain using the funds he has gathered up. As Frank makes a few final arrangements, Milo calls and says that their feud has become too costly and will therefore accept a token payment to resolve it. However, Milo and his henchmen are actually planning to kill Frank when he arrives.

Frank brusquely tells Flo that their plans are called off and laughs at the thought of them running away together. Heartbroken, Flo steals all of Frank's remaining cash and escapes in a taxi. Frank catches up to the taxi and the two stare tearfully at each other through the closed car window as the film ends.

Cast

Soundtrack

The film's score is provided by British electronic band Orbital.

Reception

Pusher received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 47% score, based on 49 critics, with an average rating of 5.4/10. [5] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 52% based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Blow</i> (film) Biographical film about smuggler George Jung (2001)

Blow is a 2001 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ted Demme, about an American cocaine kingpin and his international network. David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All for the screenplay. It is based on the real-life stories of U.S. drug trafficker George Jung and his connections including narcotics kings Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder Rivas, and the Medellín Cartel.

<i>True Romance</i> 1993 film by Tony Scott

True Romance is a 1993 American romantic crime film directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It features an ensemble cast led by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, with Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Walken in supporting roles. Slater and Arquette portray newlyweds on the run from the Mafia after stealing a shipment of drugs.

<i>Blue Streak</i> (film) 1999 film by Les Mayfield

Blue Streak is a 1999 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Les Mayfield. Inspired by the 1965 film The Big Job, the film stars Martin Lawrence, Luke Wilson, Dave Chappelle, Peter Greene, Nicole Ari Parker and William Forsythe. Lawrence plays Miles, a jewel thief who tries to retrieve a diamond he left at a police station, whereupon he disguises himself as a detective and gets paired with a real policeman to investigate burglaries. The film was shot on location in California. The prime shooting spot was Sony Pictures Studios, which is located in Culver City, California.

<i>The Football Factory</i> (film) 2004 British sports drama film by Nick Love

The Football Factory is a 2004 British sports drama film written by AJ Lovell and directed by Nick Love and starring Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan, Frank Harper, Roland Manookian, Neil Maskell and Dudley Sutton. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name by John King and the first foray into filmmaking by video game producers Rockstar Games, credited as executive producers. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 14 May 2004.

<i>Pusher</i> (1996 film) 1996 Danish film

Pusher is a 1996 Danish crime thriller film co-written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, in his film debut. A commercial success considered to be influential in Danish film history, it marked Mads Mikkelsen's film debut.

<i>Pusher II</i> 2004 Danish film

Pusher II is a 2004 Danish crime film written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. It is the second film in the Pusher trilogy, portraying the lives of criminals in Copenhagen.

<i>Pusher 3</i> 2005 Danish film

Pusher 3 is a 2005 Danish crime film written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. It is the third film of the Pusher trilogy. A Hindi remake of the first film was then released in 2010, with an English-language remake following in 2012, with Zlatko Burić reprising his role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agyness Deyn</span> English model and actress (born 1983)

Agyness Deyn is an English model and actress. She is best known for her successful modelling career in the 2000s, and has been called one of the decade's top models. Since her retirement from modelling in the 2010s, she has pursued acting and design, among other ventures.

The Pusher film trilogy by the Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn illustrates and explores the violent criminal underworld of Copenhagen in gritty realism. The films hold respective scores of 83%, 100% and 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Death Wish franchise is an American vigilante action-thriller film series based on the 1972 novel by Brian Garfield. The films follow the character Paul Kersey, portrayed by Charles Bronson in the original series, and Bruce Willis in the 2018 remake. While the first film received mixed reviews, the subsequent sequels, as well as the remake, were panned by critics. The series made $87 million against a combined production budget of $61 million. Charles Bronson was the only actor to have appeared in all five films.

<i>Undefeated</i> (2011 film) 2011 American film

Undefeated is a 2011 American documentary film directed by Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin. The film documents the struggles of a high school football team, the Manassas Tigers of Memphis, as they attempt a winning season after years of losses. The team is turned around by coach Bill Courtney, who helps form a group of young men into an academic and athletic team.

<i>Why Stop Now</i> (film) 2012 American film

Why Stop Now is a 2012 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Phil Dorling and Ron Nyswaner and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, and Tracy Morgan. It is a feature-length adaptation of their 2008 short film, Predisposed.

<i>The Counselor</i> 2013 film by Ridley Scott

The Counselor is a 2013 crime thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy. It stars Michael Fassbender as the eponymous Counselor as well as Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, and Brad Pitt. The film deals with themes such as greed, mortality, love, and trust in the context of the Mexican drug trade. The extremely violent and bloodthirsty activities of drug cartels are depicted as the Counselor, a high-level lawyer, gets involved in a drug deal around the troubled Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/Texas border area.

<i>Sleepless Night</i> (2011 film) 2011 French film

Sleepless Night is a 2011 French-language action thriller film directed by Frédéric Jardin, who co-wrote the story with Nicolas Saada. The film stars Tomer Sisley, Adel Bencherif, Julien Boisselier, Serge Riaboukine and Pom Klementieff.

<i>In Order of Disappearance</i> 2014 film

In Order of Disappearance is a 2014 Norwegian action thriller film directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Stellan Skarsgård. The film had its premiere in the competition section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Cold Pursuit, an English-language remake, also directed by Moland, was released in 2019.

<i>Electricity</i> (film) 2014 British film

Electricity is a 2014 British film directed by Bryn Higgins, starring Agyness Deyn, Lenora Crichlow and Christian Cooke. the film is about the journey seen through the eyes of a young woman with epilepsy. Electricity is an adaptation of the 2006 novel by Ray Robinson. It was produced in Saltburn-by-the-Sea in June 2013; some filming was carried out in London and in North East England. The film was released on 12 December 2014.

Bronson John Webb is a British actor.

<i>Hard Sun</i> 2018 British crime drama TV series

Hard Sun is a pre-apocalyptic British crime drama television series, created and written by Neil Cross, starring Agyness Deyn and Jim Sturgess as the principal characters, DI Elaine Renko and DCI Charlie Hicks. The series is a BBC co-production with the American streaming service Hulu.

<i>The Brawler</i> 2019 American film

The Brawler is a 2019 American biographical film directed by Ken Kushner and starring Zach McGowan as Chuck Wepner. The film also stars Amy Smart and Taryn Manning.

<i>Her Smell</i> 2018 film directed by Alex Ross Perry

Her Smell is a 2018 American drama film written, co-produced and directed by Alex Ross Perry. It stars Elisabeth Moss, Cara Delevingne, Dan Stevens, Agyness Deyn, Gayle Rankin, Ashley Benson, Dylan Gelula, Eka Darville and Lindsay Burdge and follows Moss as fictional rock star Becky Something, whose band experiences brief fame but is broken up by her self-destructive behavior.

References

  1. "PUSHER (18)". British Board of Film Classification . 19 July 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  2. "Pusher".
  3. Debruge, Peter (22 June 2012). "Review: 'Pusher'". Variety . Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  4. DARGIS, MANOHLA (25 October 2012). "Cocaine Peddler Pays a Bloody Price". The New York Times .
  5. "Pusher (2012)". Rotten Tomatoes . Flixster . Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  6. Pusher at Metacritic OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg