eddie_baggins Feel as though your recent bout of cop flicks haven't been hitting the mark when it comes to the gritty, grimy and downright dark factors? Then Gerard Johnson's Hyena is just the film your looking for! As degenerate and devoid of lightness as your likely to want to get, Hyena is very much so a British crime film painted in the same brush as those dimly lit genre specialties like the U.K's very own The Long Good Friday and in some ways grungy classics like The French Connection and while Johnson's film sadly never eventuates into a film of special power Hyena is a never the less engaging watch, even though its often far too dark for its own good.Centring around drug squad cop Michael who operates under a special set of ethics alongside his team of crack snorting and extortion loving partners of the badge, Hyena starts off in the shadows and while briefly flirts in tiny moments with entering the smallest areas of light retreats as the runtime wears on into the underworlds of London and its criminal underbelly and with its unflinching depiction of violence and a particularly vulgar assault that is likely to offend many that lay witness to it, Hyena is a film not made for everybody and makes no apologies in being so.After only one previous film in the form of the equally small scale Tony, director Johnson should be commended for sticking to his guns and draws out great performances from his leading man Peter Ferdinando as the somehow likable Michael and also the brilliant yet underused Stephan Graham as task force boss David Knight, with Graham once more showcasing just why his one of the industry's most reliable actors with his rare ability to go between charming and dangerous at the drop of a hat. Despite Johnson's and his main casts efforts however Hyena never fully gets going in a narrative sense and with a culmination that seems far too weak for what's come before, Hyena is likely to leave many a viewer cold in both an attachment and engagement sense.Commendable with its depiction of a seedy London cityscape and with a noteworthy score from Johnson's brother Matt and some nice central performances from Ferdinando and Graham, Hyena is good quality material that could've been something special had it struck the right narrative balance in amongst all its limb chopping's, swear words and dirty back alleys of a city that hides a dark yet violently alive world.3 angry Albanians out of 5

jadavix "Hyena" is a punishingly bleak, violent trudge through a London underworld of sex traffickers, drug dealers, rapists, gangsters, and police who are indiscernible from them. It's the kind of thing that makes you feel dirty. It reminded me a little of that Aussie flick, "Snowtown", except that had a reason for existing, other than just the dubious pleasure of wallowing in the mire.Its protagonist is a crooked cop who cooperates, a little too helpfully, with gangsters involved in the traffic of sex slaves from the Balkans. At some point he may decide to redeem himself - or does he? It could be that that's just a cliché for movies like this, so we expect it, a la "Bad Lieutenant". He does try to help one of the sex slaves escape, but for the rest of the movie he is really just acting in his own interest.The movie doesn't bring you close enough to the character to make him interesting like in that movie, though, or other gritty character studies like "Pusher", or of course, the daddy of them all, "Taxi Driver". He's just another scum bag. If there is goodness in him, that makes him worse than the others. They don't know any better.The movie is continually violent and shocking, with dismemberments, decapitated heads, graphic rapes. It doesn't feel realistic or necessary. This movie is like a deliberately sick carnival ride going from one grotesque exhibition to the next. When it's over, the challenge is answered and you can get on with your day. It might shock you while it's happening but you won't be thinking about it for long afterwards.

epiceffectss Yeah this was great , a superb film. Some of my fave actors were in it , that short scouse guy out of this is England , love him and that other dumpling who's in all sorts. A bent copper is helping the foreign underworld scum keep their drug trade going in London by accepting bribes for tip offs. Things are going well for the dirty copper , he's making a few shillings , he's got some pennies to spare. He likes being top dog. Then he gets involved with two nasty lowlifes from Albania. And they are just too nasty , cutting up people into pieces , beating women , running prostitution and selling cocaine. Like a modern day Scarface. Now our bent copper thinks he can handle the Albanians but they can barely understand him , things get messy and a killing spree begins. I loved the soundtrack , it was v modern and provoking. It was all v sleek , great atmosphere and shows what those nasty Albanian gangsters are doing to our beloved capital city , we must hunt them down and get them out of the UK , and prevent their women trafficking which is now so prevalent in the UK. Right only thing that would have made this even better is if Danny dyer kicked sum butt ... But hey I'm the dyermeister.

Raven-1969 In the seamy underworld of London cops, everyone plays by their own rules. There is no one to trust. Police units are in league with criminals and competing with each other for increasing shares of the profits. Laws are not enforced so much as used for advantage over others. As vice cop Michael Logan, with a coke habit and indolent nature, attempts to carve out a larger share of the illicit income for himself, he gets trapped between a ruthless pair of Albanian brothers and his fellow officers who are trying to trap him. Those who should be protected by the law are instead neglected and placed in greater danger. The director and writer based the character of Logan on someone he knew personally. Despite shaky acting of some in the supporting cast, this is a compelling portrait of police officers who are indistinguishable from criminals. The betrayals and back stabbings are underscored by a dark soundtrack by Matt Johnson and The The. Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.