Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Nicolas Winding Refn's directorial debut is an engaging, zero-budget story of crime and revenge, a thriller which sees a small-time drug dealer's life spiralling out of control when his latest deal goes bad. Shot on the streets of Denmark in a verite style by a director who already appears accomplished, PUSHER is a fine debut feature.There are certain influences in the film; with the recent release of Tarantino's PULP FICTION there had to be, but the style of PUSHER is all its own. Despite being relatively unknown at the time, the acting of the cast is very good; THE BRIDGE's Kim Bodnia and VALHALLA RISING's Mads Mikkelsen in particular play each other off very well. There's also a surprising level of originality in the script that keeps the viewer on his toes at all times; you've never quite sure of what exactly is going to happen next.PUSHER isn't a perfect film, and there are a few flaws that stopped me enjoying it totally. It lacks a single sympathetic character in the entire cast, and much of the dialogue is moronic and off-putting. It's also fairly dark and depressing, although I understand such style is all the rage these days. However, PUSHER overcomes such deficits by being one of the most realistic thrillers out there.

Pusher is the first part of Nicolas Winding Refn's trilogy of the same name. We get to know Frank (Kim Bodnia), who is a full-time drug dealer in Copenhagen's seedy underground. He runs drug deals and drives through the streets of Copenhagen with his good buddy Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen). From time to time Frank drops some of his drug load at his girlfriend Vic's ( Laura Drasbæk) place. The two partners seem to be moderately successful until a heroin deal goes wrong and Tonny rats out his friend Frank, who now owes a great deal of money to the people he initially got the heroin from. From there on things progressively get worse: Frank is in desperate need of money, as the guy who owes it to (brilliant: Zlatko Buric) can change his mood from friendly to psychopathic in a second. So Frank goes on his journey to scrape chunks of money from either past business associates or even his mother. He reaches his first low when he kills Tonny in a violent rush. It's the first time something disgusting happens on screen. And from there on it's one big downward spiral into the madness of the brutal underground.Nicolas Winding Refns trademarks haven't changed in the sixteen years that have passed since he made Pusher. The things people loved about Drive are already present here. The portrayal of a cold ruthless underground world. The long follow shots over the shoulders of someone walking fearlessly with their hands in their pockets. The love for detail and the spot-on depiction of the way these people talk, act, the way they elegantly exchange drugs on the streets, trained by years of experience. As in Drive the very graphic violence serves the purpose of confronting you with the brutality and ruthlessness of that world, after initially deluding you into thinking it's inhabitants are in some way cool, at the same time making you feel bad for thinking so.As things get more sinister for Frank, you are glued to the screen and hungry to know what the other two films in the Pusher trilogy have to offer.

So in essence, this is a film with true grit. Possibly the grittiest I've seen, literally. Come to think of it, it reminds me of Harlan County, USA documentary, it's dirty, grungy, and perfect for a film with a subject matter this film possesses. Truly, it's as if Nicolas Wending Refn assembled a small crew and started following a real pusher, who gave you an inside look into a week of his life, took you to the seedy, dirty, nasty, harsh (and whatever other synonyms you can throw its way) underworld of the street life so everyone could get an idea of what's it all about and why you probably shouldn't ever get involved. Certainly not a new concept an average man now understands, but it's the way it's all presented that really made me love this film. As I mentioned earlier, the documentary feel of this makes me think Refn had it in his mind when he set out to make this film. The vibe and mood of the film is top notch for the film of this caliber, but really it's the character of Frankie who was fleshed out the most and in the end made me really dig the guy despite essentially who he was, and his profession - though he makes a point later in the film which gives food for thought. What makes it memorable for me is that it isn't devoid of depth, and you get a quick look - which was enough - into each character's life by ways of genuine conversations they're having between each other, which felt like they were ad-libbed, but that's what made it genuine for me.

Awful! A drug dealer has to dump his drugs when the cops get him, and so he owes his supplier big. He can't pay, and grows desperate trying to scrape together the huge sum he owes, otherwise he's toast. My question: who cares? The dealer is a total dick. I pretty much wanted to see him die from the film's first frame, and every second the thugs who are after him aren't torturing and killing him is a wasted one, in my opinion. To boot, the film is absolutely ugly visually. How the Hell did Refn ever produce a film as great as Drive? The only thing I really liked in the film was Laura Drasbæk, the prostitute whom the drug dealer is kind of dating. He treats her like such crap, though, it's hard to watch.