I'm going to say this upfront, you are
either going to love or hate this film. Nicolas Winding Refn returns
with his latest film “Only God Forgives”. Refn made his first
film back in 1996, the excellent “Pusher”. But the film that put
him on a lot of peoples maps was 2011's “Drive”. Drive quickly
has become a cult hit and Ryan Gosling's stoic character of “Driver”
surely has become one of the more memorable anti-heros of the last
decade. Drive could have been your typical mainstream crime &
fast cars flick (Fast and Furious I'm looking at you.) But thanks to
to Refn's excellent direction the film became it's own beast. With
Only God Forgives Refn tackles a genre that's been done to death, the
revenge film and once again has put his own unique spin on it.
Like I said earlier, you're either
going to love or hate this film. I also can't express enough, don't
go in expecting Drive 2. The only connection is Refn & Gosling,
the similarities end there. To me if anything I felt almost like I
was watching a spiritual sequel to the Refn film “Fear X”. Fear X
was made back in 2003 & was written by none other then the great Hubert Selby Jr. It was sadly dumped DTV in the US. It pretty much
bombed world wide and nearly made Refn's production company go
bankrupt. To save himself Refn made Pusher 2 & 3 for the sole purpose to pull his production company out of debt. Fear X featured an
oscar worthy performance from John Tuturro.