365 Movies Day #143 "Pusher 3: I'm the Angel of Death"

Refn closes out his "Pusher" trilogy with this final chapter. Here's hoping that there will be additional films because these are cinematic gold and none of them really tie off the characters they focus on, to include this film. In every one of these films, the protagonist ends the film in the middle of a tough situation. Maybe it's just my spoiled American viewpoint, but some closure would be cool. I'm usually not a big fan of movies that leave you hanging, but for the "Pusher" films, I'll make a huge exception.

To recap Refn briefly, he was responsible for "VALHALLA RISING", "BRONSON" and, of course, the first "PUSHER" and it's sequel, "PUSHER 2: WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS". He's probably one of the greatest living directors right now and should be on everyone's watch list. Very excited to see what he does with "Drive" starring Ryan Gosling and "Breaking Bad"'s Bryan Cranston. It will be the first film he's directed that he didn't also write, so that could impact the quality, but it looks amazing.

Just as "Pusher 2" drops Frank as a character, the third chapter doesn't have anything to do with Tonny. It focuses, instead, on the only character to be in all three films, Milo. Milo is played by played by Zlatko Buric. You may also recognize him from Roland Emmereich's "2012" and previously mentioned "DIRTY PRETTY THINGS". We do see a few familiar faces, including Kurt the Cunt and Radovan and a few others.

The film opens with Milo, the dealer who was after Frank in the first film and helped screw up Tonny's life with a bad dope deal in the sequel, in NA meetings trying to kick his habit while still dealing. He's stressed as he prepares for his daughter's 25th birthday party and there's a mix-up when he receives a shipment of ecstasy instead of heroin. I hate days like that. Anyway, Milo quickly finds himself in the middle of a situation similar to the ones Tonny and Frank faced down in the previous films...poetic justice. With his crew disabled (in a rather comic way) Milo is forced to track down his old friend Radovan for help (one of my favorite characters in the series).

This film is much more tame than the second flick up until it's 3rd act. Then stuff goes to hell and you're wondering if Takashi Miike may have stepped in to co-direct. Some of it is incredibly disturbing, but such a great story.

Anyway, I'm curious to see if the upcoming "Pusher" remake starring Zlatko Buric as Milo will hold any water. Without Refn I'm not hopeful. Also, the film was already remade once in 2010! Also the neither remake had relatively big names or huge budgets to even justify a remake. Just seems like lazy filmmaking to me.

PUSHER 3: I'M THE ANGEL OF DEATH ON IMDB