In London, a drug pusher's life spins out of control over the course of one week.
Fans of the original will recognise this as a respectful cover version rather than an ambitious re-imagining, but it’s got style and energy.
Banking on exec-producer Refn’s name, this glossy dealer-in-debt remake gets plenty right but lacks the hard-hitting vibe of the cult original, or a fresh take on gangster-pic London.
The UK Pusher isn’t bad at all, and Coyle is so different to Kim Bodnia (a fit, stolid Danish Tom Sizemore lookalike) that he has the best shot of anyone at making the role his own, which he does.
Repetitive, silly and puerile, Prieto’s film is also wholly lacking any visual flair or originality; the reliance on cynical, time-worn genre clichés compounding the crippling ennui.
Whether you’ve sampled the original or not, it’s dodgy gear.
It’s hard to care about him, and the milieu is very over-familiar, but the story grips towards the end.
This one has a fair amount of flashy momentum, and decent work from Richard Coyle in the lead, but plausibility is a disaster area.
A tragic myth of our times, worth retelling and thrillingly retold.
The Pusher remake may not have the full flavour of the original, but it makes brutally clear how the economics of drugs make paranoia and violence a fact of life.
Nail-biting and genuinely heartbreaking moments mean it’s emotionally involving, even if it isn’t the cheeriest drug dealer saga in town.
Prieto's remake has a certain brutal energy and pace, but it adds nothing in the way of depth to the Danish original.
Coyle's penchant for Hoovering cocaine and smacking his friends with baseball bats makes him hard to root for.
It's well enough made, but the plot is overly familiar.
Pusher returns--again
General release. Check local listings for show times.