Detective Sargeant Michael Logan is a corrupt cop and finds himself getting involved in a turf war between Albanians and Turks on the seedy streets of London's underworld
And that's really it as far as plot goes but regardless of this I was dying to see HYENA since I'm a massive fan of Johnson . Not Gerard Johnson the director but Matt Johnson the composer here once known and revered as The The who made some of the greatest , innovative and diverse music of the 1980s . This innovation meant he wasn't the most popular or best selling artist in an era dominated by manufactured plastic pop by the hit factory of Stock , Aitken and Waterman and by the early 1990s The The were releasing fewer stuff that was increasingly under promoted and Matt and his collective haven't released any material via mainstream means since Naked Self in 2000 . In other words if you want to hear any new material you'll have to go out of your way . The good old days of popping in to Woolworths to buy a new release are long gone . You can download stuff via ITunes and Amazon but the material would have to be available in the first place
!!!!! SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS !!!!!
On the surface HYENA isn't all that different from another recent watch FILTH which has the same premise of corrupt cup finding redemption of sorts but that film suffered badly by being sourced from Irvine Welsh and when you've seen one Welsh film adaptation you've probably seen them all . HYENA is different and a rather difficult watch in some parts with rather disturbing parts such as a rape scene which doesn't leave much to the viewer's imagination . Gritty doesn't really do it justice . Gerard Johnson obviously doesn't have a big budget to play with but he does show imagination such as a police raid at the start of the film being directed in an extremely trippy manner . Since it's a character driven story revolving around a corrupt cop it's important that you cast correctly and Peter Ferdinando is very good as Logan and deserves to be better known . He is ably supported by the "usual suspects" of actors you'd expect to see in an independent low budget British movie but that said I've watched a lot of low budget indies where the cast are uniformly dreadful and one wonders why Johnson gets it right here when so many others have been getting it patently wrong ? Nice , moody soundtrack from Matt Johnson too that compliments the visuals and gives some of us hope that his career hasn't come to an abrupt jarring end like the ending of HYENA which is rather frustrating
And that's really it as far as plot goes but regardless of this I was dying to see HYENA since I'm a massive fan of Johnson . Not Gerard Johnson the director but Matt Johnson the composer here once known and revered as The The who made some of the greatest , innovative and diverse music of the 1980s . This innovation meant he wasn't the most popular or best selling artist in an era dominated by manufactured plastic pop by the hit factory of Stock , Aitken and Waterman and by the early 1990s The The were releasing fewer stuff that was increasingly under promoted and Matt and his collective haven't released any material via mainstream means since Naked Self in 2000 . In other words if you want to hear any new material you'll have to go out of your way . The good old days of popping in to Woolworths to buy a new release are long gone . You can download stuff via ITunes and Amazon but the material would have to be available in the first place
!!!!! SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS !!!!!
On the surface HYENA isn't all that different from another recent watch FILTH which has the same premise of corrupt cup finding redemption of sorts but that film suffered badly by being sourced from Irvine Welsh and when you've seen one Welsh film adaptation you've probably seen them all . HYENA is different and a rather difficult watch in some parts with rather disturbing parts such as a rape scene which doesn't leave much to the viewer's imagination . Gritty doesn't really do it justice . Gerard Johnson obviously doesn't have a big budget to play with but he does show imagination such as a police raid at the start of the film being directed in an extremely trippy manner . Since it's a character driven story revolving around a corrupt cop it's important that you cast correctly and Peter Ferdinando is very good as Logan and deserves to be better known . He is ably supported by the "usual suspects" of actors you'd expect to see in an independent low budget British movie but that said I've watched a lot of low budget indies where the cast are uniformly dreadful and one wonders why Johnson gets it right here when so many others have been getting it patently wrong ? Nice , moody soundtrack from Matt Johnson too that compliments the visuals and gives some of us hope that his career hasn't come to an abrupt jarring end like the ending of HYENA which is rather frustrating