Kritiken

It’s the rare crime film that balances the vicarious thrill of rampant illegality with the real-world desperation of broken souls who are nearly always one wrong move away from a wretched end.

Pusher II works best when it's dwelling on the disconnect between Mikkelsen's lurid imagination and his disappointing reality, though it starts to fade when it becomes about the strained relationships of fathers and sons.

Where “Pusher” worked fresh texture and authenticity into a classic noir template, “Pusher II” reaches toward the mode of hyperrealist allegory perfected by the Dardenne brothers.

Nicolas Winding Refn's picture, like his earlier ones, carries a horrid conviction and it's no surprise at the end to discover it's dedicated to Hubert Selby Jr.

A quite unexpectedly human dimension creeps out from this film's tough-guy facade and, despite the violence and the murk, it becomes a very intelligent piece of film-making.

Mikkelsen puts in a skilfully taciturn performance, while Refn’s direction is no less controlled; with ‘Pusher III’ imminent and a second English-language film (after 2002’s ‘Fear X’) apparently in the pipeline, he’s gradually cementing a reputation as a prolific and intriguing talent.

Winding Refn's skilful direction and his ability to capture the gentle humour and tough breaks of underclass life call to mind the realist drama of the late, great Alan Clarke.

Along with the continual build-up of tension and threatened (more than shown) violence, [this] pic[ture] is notable for its brutal depiction of the sex industry... To its credit, [this] pic[ture] uses quasi-hardcore vulgarity not as a titillating end in itself but to illustrate its devastating effect on the characters’ relationships with each other.

Darker in tone, yet visually less abrasive than either its predecessor or Bleeder, Pusher II shows greater depth, both in its investigation of the discontents of machismo and in its reworking of the post-Mean Streets low-life crime genre.